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"Speaking of Vitiligo..."

I am a physician-scientist who focuses my clinical and research efforts on vitiligo, and therefore I think about this disease a lot – all the time, in fact. Therefore I thought it would be helpful to share my thoughts with others who are interested in vitiligo as well, particularly the patients who suffer from it and their loved ones. I want to make clear that while I am affiliated with many vitiligo organizations, my comments in this blog are my own, and do not reflect the opinions of those organizations. In addition, my research is largely focused on finding new treatments, and ultimately a cure, for vitiligo. This work is supported by a number of sources, including pharmaceutical companies, which by definition creates potential conflicts of interest. In full disclosure, here is a list of our vitiligo research supporters. Please know that, to the best of my ability, all of my comments are unbiased reflections of my understanding of vitiligo as both a physician and scientist. I do not permit advertisements on my website, and do not endorse companies or products that may advertise on other sites that may be referenced here.

Chemicals can cause vitiligo and also make it worse

Posted On: Tuesday, November 11, 2014

While genes clearly influence the risk of vitiligo, they’re not the entire answer. If genes aren’t the whole story, what else is there? This has been asked for other autoimmune diseases as well, and typically the response is “environmental factors”. But what are these factors? One very interesting environmental factor was identified in a large proportion of factory workers who developed vitiligo back in 1939. These factory workers made leather, and wore rubber gloves to protect their hands from the chemicals used in the process. But it turned out that it was the gloves themselves that contained a chemical that induced their vitiligo. The chemical is called monobenzyl ether of hydroquinone, or monobenzone. In fact, it worked so well that we use it now to remove the remaining pigment from the skin of those with widespread vitiligo, in order to make it even. It is prescribed by dermatologists as Benoquin cream.

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