Vitamins and Vitiligo

There is evidence that vitamin consumption can lead to some stabilization and in some cases repigmentation. Vitiligo patients showed significant improvement in the following clinical studies.
A clinical study describes the use of vitamin supplements in the treatment of vitiligo. Supplementation with large amounts of folic acid (1-10 mg. per day), vitamin C (1 gram per day) and vitamin B12 injections (1,000 mcg. every other week), produced marked repigmentation in eight of the fifteen people studied. These improvements became apparent after three months, but complete repigmentation required one to two years of continuous supplementation.

Abnormally low levels of Vitamin B12, Folic Acid and Vitamin C are found in a large number of vitiligo patients.

Vitiligo: Nutritional Therapy, by Leopoldo Montes, M.D., M.S., FRCPC Westhoven Press, Buenos Aires.

Patients with vitiligo show diminished blood levels of folic acid, Vitamin B12, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Prolonged oral administration of these vitamins was followed by definite repigmentation without side effects.

Folic Acid and Vitamin B12 in Vitiligo: A Nutritional Approach, Cutis Magazine, Volume 50, July 1992.

In India, BEHL (1994), a vitiligo expert who has probably managed more vitiligo patients than any other dermatologist worldwide, has observed copper deficiency in the serum and in the skin of vitiligo patients.
Vitiligo: Nutritional Therapy, by Leopoldo Montes, M.D., M.S., FRCPC, Westhoven Press. Buenos Aires.

Nutritional deficiencies, both in animals and in humans, are known to alter melanin pigmentation. Copper and zinc deficiencies have been reported to induce hypopigmentation in various animals. Hypopigmentation of the skin and hair results from copper deficiency in humans; the depigmentation associated with chronic excessive molybdenum intake is related to a decreased storage of copper in the liver. Copper would seem of prime importance because tyrosinase is a known copper-requiring enzyme.

Vitiligo and Other Hypomelanoses of Hair and Skin, by Jean-Paul Ortonne, M.D., Plenum Medical Book Company, NY.

Achromotrichia has been claimed as an early indicator or copper insufficiency. This color change is associated with the decreased activity of tyrosinase, a copper-containing polyphenyl oxidase which is required for the synthesis of melanin pigment from tyrosine.

Copper in Animals and Man, Volume II, by John Howell, McC., D.V.Sc., F.R. C.Path. Jeffrey M. Gawthorne, Ph.D., CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, FL.