In Loving Memory
Michael Joseph Jackson 1958-2009
For ever in our hearts
salam...
article taken from http://www.mjportal.com/michael-jackson/vitiligo.html..
Millions of ignorant people have been addressing to Michael Jackson as "the singer who whitened his skin" or "the black who repudiated his race" during the last 20 years. Once again, let's tell the truth about Michael's color!
In 1993, during his famous interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Michael revealed that the cause of his much talked about change in skin color was due to the skin disorder called Vitiligo. Not much is known to the general public about Vitiligo.
What Is Vitiligo?
Vitiligo is a pigmentation disorder in which melanocytes (the cells which make pigment) in the skin are destroyed. Patients with Vitiligo develop white spots in the skin that vary in size and location. The disease affects both sexes and all races. The distinctive patches of discoloration are most noticeable in people with darker skin tones. Approximately 1 to 2 percent of the world's population (or 40 to 50 million people) has Vitiligo! About 95% of people who have the disease develop it before their 40th birthday.
What Causes Vitiligo?
The cause of Vitiligo is not known, but doctors have developed several theories. One theory is that people develop antibodies that destroy the melanocytes in their own bodies. The most credible theory, and the most frequently reported precipitating factor, is a single stressful physical or psychological event such as severe sunburn, surgery, pregnancy, loss of job, bereavement, or some other source of emotional trauma or distress. The beginning of Vitiligo and the severity of pigment loss differs with each patient. The disorder is usually progressive and for some people the depigmentation spreads slowly, over many years. For others, the spreading occurs rapidly. There is no way to predict how much pigment a patient will loose. Illness and stress can result in further pigment loss.
Treatment Options
Unfortunately, there is no known cure for Vitiligo at this time. There are, however, two basic treatment options: Repigmentation - to try to restore the normal pigment; and depigmentation - to try to destroy the remaining pigment cells.
For repigmentation, new pigment cells must be produced from already existing ones. The patient is given what's called a psoralen drug and then exposed to ultraviolet light (UV-A). When the drug is activated by the UV-A it increases the availability of color-producing cells at the skin's surface. The patient must take the psoralen drug by mouth about two hours before lying in the sun or under artificial UV-A. A doctor's supervision is required during each step of repigmentation therapy. People with Vitiligo should always protect their skin against excessive exposure to the sun by wearing protective clothing (such as long sleeves, hats, etc.), staying out of the sun at peak periods except during treatment time, and using sunscreen lotions with a SPF of 15 or higher. Potential damage to the eyes can be prevented by wearing special sunglasses with protective lenses. They should be worn during sunlight exposure and for the remainder of the day after treatment with psoralen drugs.
Depigmentation is warranted when a patient has Vitiligo over more than 50% of the body. A cream containing a drug called monobenzone is used to permanently destroy the pigment cells in unaffected areas of the skin and produce a uniform skin tone. After using the drug, the patient should then avoid direct skin-to-skin contact with other people for at least two hours. Depigmentation is permanent and cannot be reversed. Also, people who undergo this procedure should be advised that it does result in extreme photosensitivity (they will always be abnormally sensitive to the sunlight).
A parallel story: Vitiligo turns anchor-man white
Lee Thomas is an anchor and entertainment reporter for US tv channel WJBK in Detroit. He was diagnosed with vitiligo - the same disease that Michael Jackson is suffering from - when he was 25. Vitiligo is a pigmentation disorder in which pigment-making cells in the skin are destroyed. White patches appear on different parts of the body. As many as 65 million people worldwide have the disorder. But only few people, outside medical professionals and those with the disease, had heard the term "Vitiligo" until Michael Jackson revealed in the early 1990s that the disorder was behind his skin turning brown to white.
Viiligo is not fatal, but it robs people of self-confidence, evokes ridicule and unpleasant stares, and pushes some into unforced seclusion. Thomas' once brown, even complexion is now mottled with pale patches around his eyes and mouth, along his nose and on his ears. His arms, shoulders and chest are also speckled and blotched. He says: "I'm a black man turning white on television and people can see it. If you've watched me over the years, you've seen my hands completely change from brown to white. There is no cause. There is no cure, and it's very random. I could turn all the way white or mostly white."
Thomas uses a combination of creams and makeup to cover the growing patches of skin on his face, hands and arms. Until 2005, only family members and those closest to him knew the secret he had kept since age 25. He first noticed a change after getting a haircut while working in Louisville, Ky. He looked in a mirror and thought the barber had nicked him. A closer look revealed a pale spot, about the size of a quarter. "I got two more on the other side of my scalp, on my hand and one in the corner of my mouth. That's when I went to the doctor and got diagnosed."
But he didn't let it slow down his blossoming career. In Detroit he has carved a niche with his quirky, upbeat and humorous reporting style. His confidence, constant smile and positive air on the set mirrors his demeanor off the set as well. Meanwhile he even received an Emmy and routinely travels to Hollywood for one-on-one interviews with celebrities including Will Smith, Tom Cruise, and Halle Berry. But even though Thomas used makeup to conceal his skin discoloration, he realized that vitiligo was becoming more obvious when he couldn't hide it from a preschooler during a story about a playground.
His two-toned hands frightened the girl, who began to cry. "I thought my career was over." So he gathered himself one day and approached the station's news director, prepared to walk away from tv: "She said, 'Let's just see what happens. As it got worse, she kept encouraging me to tell my story." So Thomas finally agreed to tell his story on tv in November 2005. Dana Hahn, WJBK's vice president of news, recalls: "I received 40 to 50 e-mails a day the entire time he was gone. So many people found support and encouragement in his story. I've never seen the kind of response to any story in my 12 years at Fox 2."
Thanks to MJFC for this article.
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to make things more clear please do click to this website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson
