Vitiligo: tales of lives with white spots

In the World Vitiligo Day which falls on June 25, we have collected, also with the help of the community Vitiligine Italystories of lives lived “in company” of this skin condition that makes the skin in white spots.

The goal is to continue to keep the attention high on a chronic and autoimmune skin pathology, not contagious but deeply impactful from a psychological, social and relational point of view, especially in youth age. The discomfort it creates to those who have to deal with every day, avoiding discrimination and insecurities for the irregular color of the skin, is sometimes underestimated by most. The wish? That does not remain underestimated by the medical and scientific community, only because it does not endanger death, so that more and more studies can be conducted to find a definitive care.

Stefania: “When I tired of fighting my vitiligo, it is almost magically regressed”

«I saw my first stain on the right thumb and I immediately understood what it was because I knew this disease. I appeared following a protein diet, when for a year I ate almost exclusively dairy products, being allowed and being my favorite food, and I lost 20kg.
I don’t know if all this has relevance, but I then discovered that dairy products are very inflammatory and toxic to the body. At the beginning I felt very destabilized and frightened and I started to shoot various dermatologists, who told me that there was no decisive cure, but they ordered various cortisone creams, lamps and sun. Meanwhile, my vitiligo progressed quickly also thanks to the fact that I was not experiencing a nice moment on a personal level.

Over time, through social media, I met a clinic in Tuscany and I entrusted them to them
The results were there, but the therapy was tiring. Apart from the fact that living in Veneto, every three months, when there was control, it was an economic bleeding, but I also found the daily routine demanding. Over time I got tired of fighting my vitiligo and not being more constant in care, almost magically vitiligo is regressed.
At the same time I began to become aware of the thing and to accept my illness.

Maybe I was lucky, but nobody ever made me weigh my stains or moved me away for this. I learned to love my hands and not see the stains on the body. If I have to tell the truth, the only ones who bother me are those in the face and in fact are currently being treated with a drug -based drug, Janu Chinasi inhibitor, (enzymes responsible for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, editor’s note.) To see if I can reproach my face. Now I no longer condition myself from my skin, I feel beautiful, intelligent, serene beyond my spots. I go to the sea, which I love very much, like any other person exposing my body without shame. I have a very intense social life and friends who love me for what they are and someone will seem impossible, he also loves my stains.
I hope that sooner or later you will find a definitive cure and you study the causes of this disease because I understand very well that not everyone can endure such an impacting discomfort at a social level, but in the meantime I believe that we should accept and focus on other aspects of our person and our lives “.

Lilien: “Vitiligo made me feel wrong”

“I have vitiligo since I was 5 years old. At the beginning they were only small spots on elbows and knees, then over time they extended all over the body. My parents, loved me immensely, tried all kinds of care, but in addition to not finding a solution, this made me feel wrong, inadequate. I started to be ashamed, to feel guilty for this same condition of me. I hid I hid for years, so as not to get noticed. I felt different, out of place. I accepted my skin only at dawn of 18 years, thanks to a boy who allowed me to look at vitiligo with different eyes, with admiration and wonder. I went to be ashamed and hide it, to show it with pride, to forget that I have it. Today I am 35 years old and my skin is all stained. Vitiligo is a part of me, my path, of my courage. To date, I would not be able to see me without. My mission is now inspiring other people to look at each other more love, to accept vitiligo and see it as a sign of a unique beauty. And with this purpose I am rediscovering myself and my skin with incredible creativity, enthusiasm and love ».

Manuela: «They say vitiligo must be accepted. But how do you accept something you don’t like? “

“Vitiligo, shock, stress, psychosomatic, autoimmune, melanin, immunosuppressori … At 12 years of age, these words have not prepared for all these words .. at 12 years of years these words have become familiar for me, this my story .. there are only two spots told me the general practitioner. But these two specks began to be increasingly visible and more visible, and I who would have liked to be increasingly invisible, instead I felt all the eyes focused on me, always, at the sea or if I wore my short sleeves, and then on the face, that face of mine who until just before was always tanned by the rays of the sun of those who spend their time playing carefree.
Vitiligine marked me, it changed me, forever. Many things that face each other in life with carefree for me have been a reason for embarrassment, crying crisis and not acceptance … treatments on treatments to see a few improvements. Here I am at 44 years old, I don’t be ashamed anymore, I feel sometimes the same sometimes different, just as we are all, different but the same. They say it must be accepted. But how do you accept something you don’t like? Normalizzi and seek people around you people who don’t judge yourself but see you as you are. To date, I still have good days when I feel even transgressive and fashionable to less tolerant days, in which I try not to look too much in the mirror, but isn’t it so for everyone, with more or less melanin?
Now I appreciate everything about my life, and I respect me now for how a little lighter lives ».

And there are those who thanks to vitiligo had the opportunity to invent a business

Erica Chemolli, born in a small town in Trentino, “of those where everyone knows each other and the time seems to go slower” at twenty years I lost my mother in a road accident, while she was going to pick her up and a few days later, the first stains of vitiligo appeared on her body. «I am part of the 1% of the world population affected by this condition. I studied and worked tirelessly, without even realizing what was going on to my skin, “he says.

«But then I moved to Florida, to Miami, where the sun shines all year round. And there, with the tan, the spots became evident, impossible to ignore. So I started reading, studying, looking for. Vitiligo had become my new obsession – passion. I thought it was a vitamin deficiency, or that some food hurt me. I collected notes, experiences, testimonies, and from all this my book was born: “Keep Calm, it’s just vitiligo“. During those research I discovered a fascinating world: that of probiotics and intestinal health, our” third brain “. And it is at this moment that I have met an ancient oriental drink, fermented for more than 2000 years: the Kombuchaalso called “the elixir of youth” or “tea” of immortality “was produced at home with a” Scoby “, a symbiotic colony of yeasts and bacteria, which was handed down as a family in the family. Intrigued, I started buying it in the shops, but it was often too acidic or sugary. So I decided to create it alone: ​​a recipe of mine, with a pleasant and light flavor, with a few calories, children. and so, step by step, was born Kombucha Queen. I chose a panda as a logo. Because the Panda, with its white and black spots, represents exactly what I learned to love me: my vitiligo. It is more than a drink: it is a story to tell, it is proof that an opportunity can be born from a problem. If I hadn’t had vitiligo, I would never have discovered this world. Sometimes ideas are born in the darkest moments ».

Kombucha Queen is also available in Italy by DM Italia, Naturasì and other points of sale.