Healthy Live Everyday

Skin Diseases: VITILIGO (piebald skin)
Vitiligo has no other symptom but the loss of pigmentation in patches of the skin, with the affected parts becoming more vulnerable to sunlight and, consequently, burning more quickly.The area may be a single patch or a number of patches of any size with sharply demarcated lines. Often a permanent condition, vitiligo is usually slowly progressive. Generally there is no specific medication except protective ointments or lotions against the sun.

Skin Diseases: BALDNESS (alopecia)
The only cure for male pattern baldness (hereditary) is a toupee or hair transplant. The latter is unpleasant, tedious, and expensive, involving the transplanting of each individual hair by punch graft from a thick spot to the bald area. Despite years of research and large expenditures of money to cure this affliction all that has been learned so far is that it is not an affliction-it is the same as inheriting blue eyes or a long neck or pointed ears.

There is some small solace believed by many, including some authorities (perhaps they are bald themselves), that bald men with heavy beards also enjoy a superior virility, noting that such men have a higher output of male hormones. Eunuchs, they argue, are known to have a heavy head of hair and little or no beard. The validity of this concept has not been thoroughly investigated.

Male pattern baldness can start in middle age or in youth, often as early as in the late teens. Patchy baldness (alopecia areata) , ranging in size from a dime to a quarter or larger, is a different matter. After a few weeks or months the hair returns as mysteriously as it disappeared. No one seems to know much about it. Women do not suffer from hereditary pattern baldness. They can and do lose some of their hair, but it is usually in late middle age and follows a less definite pattern. However, hair loss earlier in life does occur, resulting from specific causes, such as pregnancy (the hair will return after the child is born).

Other conditions that can produce some degree of baldness in both sexes are high fever, syphilis, TB, and infectious diseases. If and when the underlying condition is removed, the hair usually returns. Hair loss in women is more often due to abuse-dousing the hair with rinses, bleaches, hair dyes, none of which does the hair the slightest bit of good.

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Other articles about skin:

Pemphigus
Lichen Planus
Contact Dermatitis
HIVES (urticaria)
Psoriasis

Lichen Planus

The cause of the itchy skin eruption lichen planus still defies the medical profession. Its occurrence has been noted more frequently among high-strung, tense personalities, especially after an emotional upheaval, between thirty and sixty. There is some possibility that the source of this disease might be viral, although the theory of a psychological cause is still the most accepted.

The Danger: None.
Symptoms : Pimple-like violet lesions, which are flat and angular with a distinct sheen that glistens, varying in size from pinhead to tackhead, often coalesce to form larger patches on the wrists, trunk, legs, male genitals, vagina, and the mucous membrane of the mouth. On the legs the eruption can become quite large and warty (verrucous) . Any minor injury, such as a scratch, produces new lesions. Itching can become quite severe and is difficult to control.

Treatment: Topical steroids. For relief of itching, mild tranquilizers or antihistamines are prescribed. Large local lesions are often injected with steroids.

Outlook: An erratic disease, the course of lichen planus is difficult to determine, for it is often marked by remissions and exacerbations.

Although it rarely clears up in under six months, it leaves no injurious permanent effects.