Updated: 08/01/2016 3:54 PM | Print Story |  Email

Be Well with TCL: Vitiligo

There was a lot of buzz around Michael Jackson when he appeared with lighter skin.  A lot of people thought a medical procedure was the cause of his lighter skin, but in fact it as a skin condition called vitiligo. 

Dr. Mohiba Tareen from Tareen Dermatology explains what vitiligo is.  Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease of the skin where the pigment cells are actually attacked by the immune system and those pigment cells are destroyed leaving white patches behind.  It can develop at any time.

To treat vitiligo, light therapy is used to repigment the skin.  The phototherapy booth looks like a tanning bed but it is not.  What it does is turns down inflammatory cells in the skin so that the cells can come back and make pigmentation again.  Along with light energy, lasers can also be used.

Call Tareen Dermatology at 651-633-6883 to schedule an appointment to treat all medical, surgical, and cosmetic skin issues.