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. Using custom embroidered patches, you can also spread the good news to others.

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

A sudden outbreak of hives is caused by an agent such as strawberries, shellfish, nuts, insect bites, jellyfish sting and medications, sensitivity to sunlight, and parasitic, bacterial, or viral infection from hepatitis and other underlying diseases. Mechanical irritations, a belt or collar-type metal watchband worn around the neck, can lead to hives and swelling around the pressure sites. Anxiety and dust are also implicated. Often, however, the cause is unknown.

The Danger: On rare occasions severe allergic hives (angioneurotic edema) can cause difficult breathing to the point of asphyxiation.
Symptoms: The primary symptom is severe itching with the appearance of wheals (large, red, raised patches), ranging from the size of a dime to a half dollar and even larger.
Treatment: Prompt medical care is advisable. The physician may employ antihistamines or inject small quantities of epinephrine ( Adrenalin ).
The acute form may last from a few hours to weeks. Treatment is dependent upon the severity of the case. In the chronic type the itching and the wheals come and go. The allergic agent should be sought, identified, and removed. Drugs such as headache pills, sedatives, laxatives, and sleeping pills should be under suspicion. The search for the responsible cause may be long and arduous and in many cases the trigger remains elusive.