I’ve been looking into vitiligo for you for the last hour or so and I am again shocked and disheartened by the short-sightedness of medicine. While there have been studies confirming the effectiveness of B-12 with folic acid with sun exposure/UVB treatment, NO-ONE is talking about the big picture.

That is, that chronic illnesses always need a multi-pronged strategy because thousands of factors affect health outcomes… B-12 and folic acid are only a small part of the big picture. B-12 and folic acid have been spot-lighted because they were low in vitiligo sufferers as you probably know (although so was vitamin C but that is rarely mentioned).

So… instead of looking at correcting only 3 of the thousands of factors that affect health, why not correct the WHOLE LOT?

For example, we know that in susceptible people, gluten can damage villi — absorption sites for nutrients. So, say you were gluten intolerant which is VERY common, supplementation with B-12 and folic acid will not get to the ROOT cause of the problem. And this is one of the many flaws of the medical approach in general. For the BEST CHANCE of health, CORRECT all possible ROOT CAUSES.

What this means in practice, is living a life that your genes expect… i.e. not much like the life the most people live.

Also, what speaks to me as I read about vitiligo, is rather than being innocuous and purely cosmetic as is often stated, vitiligo could well be a symptom of a larger problem… autoimmune problems can lead to related problems so vitiligo sufferers are more at risk from other autoimmune problems. And B-12 deficiency is not only implicated in vitiligo but in irreversible nerve damage, and along with folic acid and homocysteine… heart disease.

It is also very interesting that anti-inflammatory steroids are being used topically, because chronic inflammation is at the root of so many chronic illnesses.

The truth is that everything affects everything else, not only B-12 and folic, but EVERY nutrient interacts directly or indirectly with every other in immensely complex biochemical pathways that in turn are acted upon by the body which in turn is responding to and being acted upon by the environment.

So… in the first instance, look to your whole lifestyle to make sure you’re living the life your genes expect… human food only, sunlight, exercise, sleep, LOW STRESS, etc. And then perhaps you can look to where you need to go the extra mile to reverse deficiencies etc. You can get your doctor to check for nutrient deficiencies and then look at controlled sun exposure to help re-pigmentation — you can research this to find out the optimum program… re-pigmentation seems to happen anyway for many during summer…. so call me crazy, but isn’t that a big clue? :-) In the winter, UVB lamps maybe a good way to go… as I said I’ve not looked deeply into it so please research the best NATURAL approach. I personally would not take drugs to enhance the response to UVA for example (PUVA treatment).

From my limited look, it seems that sunlight exposure at first causes vitiligo to look worse as the pigmented skin tans, but then re-pigmentation happens later. So, it will take perseverance.

Habit Guide will lay out for you how to get on track with the best lifestyle, addressing all factors. I got your email btw asking about a hard copy and yes, Habit Guide will be available in the next week or so in regular printed book format — if you sign up to our mailing list, we’ll let you know as soon as it’s available. In the meantime, the eBook is the format we’re using.

Please get back to me with any questions once you’ve had a full read through of Habit Guide.

Very best wishes,
Mike

I agree it’s difficult to get to the truth sometimes. A red flag goes up for me when data is presented by people selling the stuff! E.g. the link you gave. You’re only ever going to get a one-sided argument from people with a vested interest. In my experience, science can be, and is, used to make pretty much any case people want to be made. The best way to come at any health dilemma is to ask “is it natural?” That usually sheds immediate light.

The situation we have right now is humans living unnatural lives, which in time has undesirable effects, disease. Then we have other humans selling the sick humans more unnatural stuff (pills) to solve the problem. It’s nuts :-) But it’s a big money maker. All those desperate people looking for a solution… easy to sell them a quick fix. The truth is there is no quick fix, our problems can only be solved by correcting the causes.

We would be wiser to focus on what is natural for humans and move in that direction, than to figure out if spirulina has active b-12. Alas, there is no money in it.

Mike