Has Anyone Ever Used Protopic?

My Dermatologist has given me protopic 0.1% and he says I should use it twice a day of course to the affected areas and then he said to come in three times a week for UVA therapy. Have any of you had success with Protopic or UVA therapy? I have been using Hemp Oil and I have been using Dead Sea Mineral Mud on my face and I have noticed some more spots coming in. I just don't know about that light therapy and the protopic. I'd much rather use natural things to cure this.

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  • I have been using Protopic for about 2 months now. So far I haven't seen any any repigmentation, but I have noticed that my spots aren't stark white and sometimes have a reddish color to them. Hopefully that means I'm one step closer to repigmentation. I also started taking vitamins at the same time and I believe that has somewhat slowed down the progress. I have read postings about people eating chickpeas and seeing positive results.

    Here's an abstract of an article I found:
    ORIGINAL ARTICLE
    Narrow-band UVB phototherapy combined with tacrolimus ointment in vitiligo: a review of 110 patients

    Results Study population included 110 patients (mean age, 42) with a total of 403 lesions. Within the treatment period, variable repigmentation was evident on more than 70% of lesions. Clinical response (repigmentation more than 50%) was observed in 42% of lesions. Response was strictly dependent on the site, being more frequent for face lesions (73%), followed by limbs (68%) and trunk (53.5%). The therapeutic effect on the extremities and genital areas was quite disappointing. Treatment was well tolerated.

    Conclusions Our preliminary data suggest that the combination of topical tacrolimus with NB-UVB phototherapy can represent an alternative highly effective approach to refractory vitiligo located on the face, trunk and limbs. Long-term safety data and randomized controlled trials on a large number of patients are required.

    Article found at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/home
  • Hi I'm new here, We used Protopic on my son who was 3 yrs. old at the time for about 4 mos. but did not notice any improvement and then our doctor suggested we discontinue treatment because the FDA had "black boxed" the medication because it could cause cancer. We figured cancer was a worse fate so we stopped using it and after many doctors and specialists we took a break from trying to "fix" our son. Now he is almost 6 yrs. old and I am back to looking for anything that might help. Let me know if anyone one has any suggestions. Please remember he is only almost 6 yrs. old.
    • Tammy: Welcome. You will really enjoy being part of this new family here on this website. Pl search the discussions I posted in this forum since last year. My daughter 8.5 yeears old has the condition. We found great success with protopic, especially on face, 100% cured. Our derm. prescribed, Protopic 5 days and Cutivate 2 days. later, switched to Apexicon for 2 days. All along, protopic min of 5 days. he says, he uses that on 100's of patients. he is very aggressive in treatment. his belief is that, V can be reversed in early stages completely. We saw pictures of 2 dozen kids, ages 3 years to 16. Now, we are working on teh ankle. It's coming down, finally, but taking more time, since it is bony part. Yes, you need to make the decision regarding the medicine. We went with protopic. Good Luck....
  • my son used prototopic and it has been cured .but he also followed dairy free diet and had ayurvedic medicines for digestion , lots of brown chickpeas n vitamins.he is cured but cant say what helped. it takes 4-6 weeks to show effect. so shud try. dr says vit on face is easy to cure with prototopic.
    • Meera , Could you please give me the information of the ayurvedic practitioner in India? I'm from India and we found one doctor in a rural place and he is asking us to go there for treatment. I would really appreciate if you could give me the address/phone number of the doctor. My mail id is smoses3@its.jnj.com. Waiting for you reply.
  • i am on protopic for my face, it seems to be working.....ive been on it for about 8 months....
  • My daughter has been on Protopic for 3 months. Have not seen any sign of improvement yet but it may be too early to tell. I have heard of many having success. Good Luck!
  • well if u go in my pictures and u could see the improvement i used protopic and whent to puva for 3 times a week it help me alot!
    • I went in for UVB three times a week for about 2mths.I had a infection then had to have a pelvic scan and it showed I have blood clots in my abdomen.I can't say UVB caused this as no one knows but I have to go in for a internal procedure so the gynae can see what is causing the clots and also I have some abnormal cells.I stopped UVB about a mth ago.For me I know it is stress that has caused my vitiligo and it is spreading but I can't do anything about my stress level as I am forced to live in a stressful situation and can't get a job.
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