Our skin contains cells with a pigment called melanin. If they are, then the skin has a color. If there are no cells, then the skin will be just white. So vitiligo is areas of the skin in which there are no cells with melanin. These are spots with sharply defined edges. They are especially noticeable in people with dark skin. It looks bad. People are usually upset.
In most cases, vitiligo begins before age 30.
So until now, they have not figured out exactly why it happens.
Affected people say that there was some event that triggered all this disgrace. Someone was nervous, someone was burnt in the sun.
Genetics
They say that about 25 to 50% of people with vitiligo have relatives with the same spots, so there is some kind of connection.
Immunity
Vitiligo is more common in people with autoimmune diseases like thyroiditis, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, or psoriasis. The immune system can mistake pigment cells for enemies and start cleaning them out. This leaves white spots on the skin.
Phenol
It is believed that the pigment cells themselves are to blame. They make the dark pigment melanin for a reason. They, as in a chemical production, use phenolic compounds with might and main. That is, paint production is not harmless. Even if this production takes place inside our skin.
Scientists suspected that the chemical production inside our skin was not very safe when they noticed a loss of pigmentation in people who worked with household chemicals or industrial chemicals. They bleached their skin in much the same way as with vitiligo.
Now it is believed that all this phenolic chemical cuisine inside our skin not only burns out pigment cells by chemical reactions, but also greatly irritates the immune system. Everyones stand out there cytokines, which act on our immunity as a command: "Fas!". A false alarm is raised.
Well, like, as a false denunciation, the immune system leaves for the place and begins to smash, as it seems to him, underground laboratories. But in fact there was the usual peaceful production of black paint for our skin.
Hydrogen peroxide
There really is hydrogen peroxide accumulating in these places. It will form inside us. It is a popular chemical in our body. Our leukocytes have been using it for millions of years. as a chemical weapon against any contagion.
It is clear that when we have stocks of chemical weapons inside, then special antidotes are also in store. This is catalase.
Remember how the blood bubbled from hydrogen peroxide? This is due to catalase in our blood. If there were no catalase, then the blood would not bubble, but simply burned out from the active oxygen from the peroxide. But the enzyme catalase instantly separates this peroxide into water and oxygen. Our blood is friends with water and oxygen. These are good chemicals.
And in the skin cells that make the pigment melanin, there is also peroxide and catalase. But if the balance is disturbed, then there will be more peroxide, and it will burn cells. This does not mean that our pigment will fade like a T-shirt in bleach. No. The pigment cells will simply die from the peroxide and will not be able to make pigment.
Nerves
There is also an opinion that our nervous system itself is able to give the command to the pigment cells to die. Remember how shingles crawling out of the nerves and spoils the skin? It may very well be that the nerve endings in our skin can start to play pranks, and in their own clever way discolor the skin.
Sometimes pigment cells are unhooked
For some unknown reason, they fall off from their rightful place and flow away somewhere. Well, that is, while they were sitting in even rows, they could, like those painted extras in the stands of the stadium, draw different colored figures. And if you disperse these extras and mix with the crowd, then no color will work.
And these are just the causes of vitiligo.
Read my other articles on the links in the text. There are many interesting things.
