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.
Did Michael Jackson have vitiligo? First, we know that he stated that he had vitiligo, although this was not until many years after rumors were flying about his “turning white” and his many surgeries. He said that his skin started to change sometime after Thriller, which was released in 1982, so he was about 24 years old when it started. After his death in 2009, his autopsy report provided evidence that he had vitiligo. Michael Jackson was undoubtedly an incredibly talented performer, maybe one of the best in history. The self-proclaimed perfectionist who was never happy with his music or his appearance must have been very self-conscious about the white spots appearing on his skin, visible evidence of a disease called vitiligo that refuses to be ignored. Overall the discussion is complicated, as was his life, but I think there are a few things that I can clear up in this post.
One of the most frequent questions asked by my patients and their families is about the role of diet and supplements in the treatment of their vitiligo. A quick search on the internet will return many claims about how special diets, vitamins, and other supplements treat or even cure vitiligo, and others to avoid, as they supposedly make vitiligo worse. Patients often feel that this is one thing they can control in their treatment strategy, and they want to try whatever they can.
I previously blogged about a trial conducted in the US to test the ability of afamelanotide (Scenesse) to improve the response of vitiligo patients to narrow band UVB (nbUVB). More recently, Clinuvel conducted a smaller clinical trial at the National Skin Center in Singapore, and the results are promising.