Every day routines including food habits, the choice of cosmetics and usage of plastics can influence the onset of Vitiligo disease, a medical condition where skin loses pigmentation resulting in white-like patches randomly. Eminent Unani physician Dr. M. A. Waheed, who was presented Padma Shri in April 2017 for his breakthrough research on Vitiligo warns “certain food articles like sea food when consumed along with milk products, excessive consumption of broiler chicken and eggs, and pickles may aggravate the disease”.
He urged the people to maintain a balanced diet consisting of mutton, organic chicken, vegetables, chapatti, rice, sprouts, and non-citrus fruits.
“Vitiligo too has genetic predisposition meaning it can be hereditary, but not among all. Vitiligo is non-contagious, relatives of nearly 13% percent patients have inherited the disease while 87% have not. However, mode of inheritance is not fully understood and is attributed to multiple other factors, he explained.
Patients with auto-immune disorders like Diabetes, Thyroid (most commonly hypothyroidism), psoriasis, pernicious anemia, Halonevi, Addison’s disease, alopecia areata and atopic dermatitis, scleroderma and hyper parathyriodism among others are more likely to be affected.
