White Patches on the Skin

A number of skin diseases can cause vitiligo but that mainly depends on nature and visual appearance of the white patches that were produced by the disease. If these spots appear to be small white dots without a flaky scaling appearance then it might be a deficiency of vitamin B12 and if there are larger swathes, then you probably have symptoms of vitiligo.

It is believed that vitiligo is caused by deficiency of vitamin B12 and in most of the cases supplements that contain vitamin B12 are used for treating vitiligo because vitamin is crucial catalyst for the cell division process and its deficiency causes deficient cellular growth. The reason why the white patches appear on skin is because of the melanin (skin pigment) is created by cells in the body called melanocytes. Due to the deficiency of vitamin B12 in the body, the melanocytes (pigment producing cells) cannot perform the function of creating melanin. In some cases melanocytes get destroyed and do not get replenished. If you have a deficiency of vitamin B12 and experiencing these symptoms then these white patches will go away as soon as you tank up on the vitamin. But unluckily it is one of the worst absorbed vitamins in humans and humans cannot acquire this vitamin from plant sources and even if animal sources are used. Its absorptive rate is too low so the only way out is to take oral supplements or pills for boosting the reserves of vitamin B12 in the body. You can buy supplements that contain vitamin B12 from your local pharmacy and swallow one pill daily and within the next few weeks you will start to notice a difference.

Another cause of vitiligo is that our body starts producing which starts acting against our body and the melanocytes are killed off by the body’s own immune system erroneously making it an autoimmune disorder. If you have got this disease because of the following reason than you might increase your intake of a substance called psoralen (an important herb in ayurveda). It is group of substance that helps in getting our skin sensitive to sunlight and increase the rate of tanning. In other words it acts like a photosensitizing agent. Due to photosensitization our body improves the rate of absorption of UV radiation which causes the body to create more melanocytes in response to the exposure to sun. Some people say that by increasing the intake of black pepper rate of re-pigmentation increases. But in both the treatments described above sun exposure is necessary but do not expose your skin for more than twenty minutes. An alternative to sun exposure is narrow band UVB light (also found in shape of portable lamps) which is thought to be less harmful than sun light.