Testimonial written by: Victoria Rombola
My story is that I have a 7 year old son that was diagnosed with vitiligo 12 months ago. He lost a lot of colour very quickly around one eye and had a large patch on his neck. As with any autoimmune disease, and as you describe so well in your book, the GP and dermatologist were quick to discount any dietary link to vitiligo and just prescribed steroid cream and waved us goodbye and “good luck!” Thus began my research and experimental journey into the link between diet and vitiligo which has just now led me to your book.
My son has been regimenting really well over the year. The patch on his neck is almost completely gone, and the large patch on his eye has re-pigmented about 60%. I have constantly been tweaking his diet since we began this journey. We had a brief (and unsuccessful) attempt at veganism, followed by cutting out refined sugar, refined flour, all dairy and wheat (low gluten), until I have eventually come to the realisation that Paleo is the dietary solution. Also direct exposure of the vitiligo patches to the sun for Vitamin D and to stimulate the areas to re-pigment has also been successful. And finally I supplement his diet with probiotics and Omega 3 to counteract inflammation for his leaky gut.
I wish I had found this book at the start of our journey, but I’m glad that it has cemented my belief that we are doing the right thing to heal my son. I hope other parents of children with vitiligo read this and are inspired that there is a solution that does NOT involve creams/potions/oils of dubious nature.
The “before” pics were taken in December 2013, and the “after” pics have been taken in January 2015. The before pic for his eye is a bit difficult to make out the vitiligo as he was so pale at the time the pic was taken. If you look closely it starts in the inside corner of his eye next to his nose, goes up to his eyebrow, and ends at the outside corner of his eye under the outside edge of his eyebrow.
I found this very fascinating. I experienced vitiligo as a child. Both my eyes looked very similar to your son’s eye. I also had large patches on both knees, down both shins and completely across my right foot. It appeared when I was in first grade. You can imagine that grade school was pretty tough. This was in the 80s, and as far as I remember, there was no solution except makeup. After several years, my eyes completely repigmented, but I still have substantial patches on my legs with my foot being the most noticeable (I tan easily so there is more contrast than on a fairer skinned person). I switched to around 80% paleo/primal a few years ago, but I am wondering if it might be worth the experiment to fully commit and eliminate dairy in order to see if it has an effect on the vitiligo. Thank you for sharing your story!
My vitiligo hasn’t really reduced since I started Paleo, but then again it hasn’t really expanded, either. Holding steady works OK for me. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your experiences – it’s fascinating to me how diet affects so many different things.
As an added note the patch on his eye was very stubborn and took about 6 months to get any real progress. The patch on his neck appeared first, but was quick to re-pigment. The eye vitiligo appeared later but lost pigmentation really, really quickly. Every day he would wake up and more colour was gone which was really scary.
The eye did nothing for a long time (approx 4-6 months) then started to re-pigment in large “freckle” blobs which makes it looks strange until they smooth out in colour. The addition of Omega 3 helped kick the eye re-pigmentation along (I give him 650-1000mg per day; “Omega 3” specifically rather than fish oil). We were still doing “wheat free” at that point too (I replaced wheat with spelt) but I think the switch to gluten-free and now grain-free has given better results. I also did a coeliac blood test 6 months ago but he came up negative.
Good luck.
For your son with vitiligo did you give him any supplements besides the omega 3 and he ate a paleo diet? A lot of people say biotin and other B vitamins play a role. Was he taking any supplements like these or a probiotic?
It would be so helpful if you could provide a shopping list. Foods, supplements, safe body products, etc. I love following the Paleo diet (I eat fish, chicken) but I”ve been reading that those with V should avoid flesh animal products like fish, meat, etc.
animal products are not the issue here…
Robb is right. So many vegetarians wind up with autoimmune issues. Follow Robb’s book. It’s great!
I am a holistic health coach who specializes in treating clients with autoimmune conditions. I’m working with a client who has vitiligo now who has started to have some re-pigmentation after only a month on my program. Please feel free to contact me for a consultation if you need help. http://www.jodifranklin.com
Update: It has been a few years since I posted this comment and I wanted to let everyone know that I have had much success working with many clients who have vitiligo. I am now a certified in functional medicine and I highly recommend that everyone with vitiligo seek out a good functional medicine practitioner. Getting to the root causes of what is driving your vitiligo and “treating” them is the key to putting vitiligo into remission.
You can check out some before and after pictures on my facebook page and my website. I hope this encourages you to get treatment. Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/jodifranklinhc/
eliminating gluten seemed to have helped many, paleo being a cleaner solution which eliminates all grains and processed food. challenge would be to sustain for a while to see the results.
vitiligo-help.com
Hi. I’ve suffering from vitiligo for almost 6 to 7 years. I’ve tried a number of ointments and few injections but the results were not very impressive. Could you please tell me what is paleo diet and the name of the book he was talking about. Thank you.
Could you please provide the name of the probiotics and omega 3 supplements that you have your son? Thanks for your help in advance,
I have a 3 year old son who has just been diagnosed with this disorder.
Can you please be more specific on how i can combat this disease, most especially examples of foods.
Thanks
Hi! I am 33 and I have vitiligo since I was 7. I am following paleo diet for a year more or less and in this year I have tried with paleo autoimmune protocol for 3-4 months. Anyway, my vitiligo doesn’t repigment and I haven’t seen any improvement on it. Maybe it is to late from my disease.
I hope your cure!
I take autoimun protokol 6 monts,and stiil 12 mont gluten free diet.My vutiligo is in fast progres after diet.Before it was slowly.Now i have white pach in whall my body.I dont want how to do
I dont KNOW what to do
The Paleo Diet is a great starting point for addressing Vitiligo and for some people, it can put it into remission. However there are usually multiple triggers for autoimmune skin conditions. It can be a combination of issues. In the case of vitiligo, the skin is the “victim,” of the autoimmune dynamic. Triggers and contributing factors include toxicity, allergies, food sensitivities, MTHFR genetic variation, gut dysboisis, gut pathogens, parasites, lack of proper nutrients-vitamins and minerals, medications, stress, etc.
I actually make a living figuring out what specific issues trigger disease in my clients and then reverse them without using drugs. I’m a certified applied functional medicine health coach. I also suffered with a chronic autoimmune skin condition (CIU) for nearly 20 years and have been in remission for the past 7.
I have been able to help my clients repigment their skin. It takes some investigating to figure out the root cause, but it is definitely doable.
The sooner you address the autoimmune dynamic, the better. Once you have an autoimmune disease, you are 80% more likely to get another within 5 years.
My advice to you is to find a really good functional medicine doctor near you. If you can’t find anyone, I do work via phone or Skype and am happy to help you.
How much,Jody
Hi Jody i’m located in Calgary ab, with vitiligo, what are your charges?
Hi!! I am in Calgary AB too, wondering if you ever healed your vitiligo??
Try reading and following The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf for starters. That is the best starting point. Then I usually have to dig deeper to figure out what is driving the autoimmune dynamic. Usually there is gut dysbiosis/pathogens or parasites, toxicity and food sensitivities. We explore all these things. Unfortunately the testing and treatment can be costly, but definitely worth it. I have been able to stop the progression of vitiligo in every case and in most everyone, get repigmentation (30% to 90% so far). More importantly, you will also likely prevent yourself from getting another autoimmune disease.
I work via telephone or conference call for international clients (I’m in the USA). My consultation is US$349. I then meet twice monthly with my clients and review the test results. We make tweaks as we are going. If you would like to talk, feel free to reach out to me at http://www.jodifranklin.com
I want to get a suitable diet for my son having white patches
suffering with vitiligo last 7 years tried a lot of medicines, due to social avoidance iam totally dipressed pls help me to get rid of my vitiligo thank u
Have you tried the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP)?
I am 18 years old and suffering from vitiligo last 2 years tried a lot of medicines, but I didn’t see any improvement can anyone suggest for cure????? any resource or ???