Vitiligo
Daelyn Yasgar
Period 5
1/5/15
Vitiligo
Vitiligo is a pigmentation disorder. This skin disease is where the melanocytes (the cells that make pigment) in the skin are destroyed. The skin starts to develop white patches on the skin where the body is affected. Patches will also start to appear on both the mucous membranes and the retina. If there is hair growing on the affected areas that hair will turn white.
Vitiligo does not affect certain people; people of all ages, races, gender, etc. can get it. “About 0.5 to 1 percent of the world’s population have Vitiligo”(NIAMS, 4). On average a person would obtain Vitiligo by the age of their mid-twenties, but it can still appear at any age. The disorder affects both genders equally, neither favoring men nor woman. The same goes for race; there has been no race that is proven to be more acceptable to this disease. However it is more noticeable in people with darker skin. Scientists have made a connection between Vitiligo and with certain autoimmune diseases, including adrenocortical insufficiency (when the adrenal gland doesn’t produce enough of a hormone called corticosteroid), hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid gland), pernicious anemia(a low level of red blood) and alopecia areata(patches of baldness). Vitiligo also sometimes runs in families. If a child’s parent has the disorder they are more likely to develop Vitiligo, but more times than not the child will not acquire it.
The first symptoms of Vitiligo that people notice are usually white patches (depigmentation) on their skin. These patches are more commonly found on hands, feet, arms, face, and lips; any part of the body that is more sun-exposed areas. Other common areas that the white patches can occur are on the armpits, groin area, around the mouth, eyes, nostrils, navel, genitals, and rectum. The different patterns that the disorder will form are focal patters, segmental pattern and generalized pattern. The focal pattern is when the depigmentation is
Period 5
1/5/15
Vitiligo
Vitiligo is a pigmentation disorder. This skin disease is where the melanocytes (the cells that make pigment) in the skin are destroyed. The skin starts to develop white patches on the skin where the body is affected. Patches will also start to appear on both the mucous membranes and the retina. If there is hair growing on the affected areas that hair will turn white.
Vitiligo does not affect certain people; people of all ages, races, gender, etc. can get it. “About 0.5 to 1 percent of the world’s population have Vitiligo”(NIAMS, 4). On average a person would obtain Vitiligo by the age of their mid-twenties, but it can still appear at any age. The disorder affects both genders equally, neither favoring men nor woman. The same goes for race; there has been no race that is proven to be more acceptable to this disease. However it is more noticeable in people with darker skin. Scientists have made a connection between Vitiligo and with certain autoimmune diseases, including adrenocortical insufficiency (when the adrenal gland doesn’t produce enough of a hormone called corticosteroid), hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid gland), pernicious anemia(a low level of red blood) and alopecia areata(patches of baldness). Vitiligo also sometimes runs in families. If a child’s parent has the disorder they are more likely to develop Vitiligo, but more times than not the child will not acquire it.
The first symptoms of Vitiligo that people notice are usually white patches (depigmentation) on their skin. These patches are more commonly found on hands, feet, arms, face, and lips; any part of the body that is more sun-exposed areas. Other common areas that the white patches can occur are on the armpits, groin area, around the mouth, eyes, nostrils, navel, genitals, and rectum. The different patterns that the disorder will form are focal patters, segmental pattern and generalized pattern. The focal pattern is when the depigmentation is