Vitiligo girl with dietary taboos

For young girls suffering from vitiligo, the most important thing to know about their diet is: there is currently no evidence-based medical evidence proving that certain types of common foods can directly induce or aggravate vitiligo. The "definitely avoid vitamin C, seafood, and hair products" spread on the Internet are all misunderstandings that have been over-amplified. Compared with blanket taboos, individualized dietary adaptation is the most friendly choice for recovery.

Speaking of which, I just treated a 19-year-old sophomore girl last week. She had a patch of vitiligo as big as a fingernail on the corner of her mouth. After taking notes in a certain book, she didn’t dare to touch strawberries, oranges, or tomatoes for half a year. She even refused the orange candies offered by her roommate. Her face was sallow when she was checked last time. She said her aunt had postponed it for almost two months. When she saw the white spots, not only was she gone. There was a new growth on her chin that was as big as a grain of rice. When I asked her, I found out that she was afraid of eating the wrong thing every day. Even the food in the cafeteria had to be washed repeatedly, and she couldn't keep up with her nutrition. She didn't even dare to go to class dinners because she was afraid that others would ask her why she didn't eat this or that. She cried secretly many times. Her mood was so bad that her immunity dropped, which caused new white spots.

Some people may ask, are all the taboos mentioned by the older generation wrong? Not really. The school of traditional Chinese medicine does recommend patients with vitiligo to eat less highly photosensitive and overly spicy foods, such as amaranth, coriander, fennel, hard liquor, and super spicy hot pot. Traditional Chinese medicine theory believes that vitiligo is mostly related to wind evil intrusion and qi and blood stasis. Such spicy and divergent foods may aggravate the spread of wind evil, which is not conducive to the stability of the condition. The mainstream view of modern dermatology is that unless you are allergic to certain foods, there is no need to deliberately avoid foods. Take the most rumored vitamin C as an example. Only ultra-large doses of intravenous infusion of vitamin C can affect the tyrosinase activity of melanocytes and inhibit melanin synthesis. If you usually eat an orange or gnaw a kiwi fruit, the vitamin C content will not even reach the threshold for taking effect. On the contrary, proper intake of vitamin C can also resist oxidation and help stabilize the state of melanocytes. There is no need to avoid it.

Most of the so-called "eating aggravated" cases I encountered in clinical practice were allergy-induced isomorphic reactions - there was a girl who was allergic to mangoes before. She ate half of the food and the area around her mouth swelled for almost a week. Later, a new white spot appeared where the redness and swelling had subsided. This is not a problem with mangoes at all. It is the inflammation caused by allergies that stimulates the damage of melanocytes. If you are not allergic to mangoes, there will be no problem even if you eat them every day.

A little girl came to me for a follow-up consultation before and asked if the "hair products" mentioned on the Internet can be touched? In fact, the so-called hair products are mostly for people with allergies or those who are recovering from postoperative wounds. I have a patient from Qingdao who grew up eating seafood. After getting vitiligo, he did not have any dietary restrictions. He ate some shrimps and crabs every three days and recovered faster than those patients who had strict dietary restrictions and had clear soups with little water every day. They can keep up with nutrition and don’t have to worry about dietary restrictions. Their emotions are stable, their endocrine and immune systems are at normal levels, and their white spots will naturally recover faster.

The advice I usually give to these young girls is never to make a long list of fastings, but to let them keep a simple food diary: what unusual things they ate on that day, whether the white spots are red and itchy, and whether there are any new white spots. , if you have reactions after eating the same food two or three times in a row, then avoid it. If you don’t feel anything, you should drink milk tea or hot pot. When you are in your teens or 20s, there is no need to ruin your mouth and hurt your body for an unreasonable taboo.

To put it bluntly, for a little girl suffering from vitiligo, the most "taboo" thing is never certain foods, but the anxiety of following the taboos, and the eye-catching rumors on the Internet. Eating well and having a balanced nutrition is more effective than all the taboos. If you are really unsure, just ask your doctor. Don’t speculate on your own.