Friends,
First of all it's just my opinion.
Have you ever heard from a Doctor something like: "this treatment does't provide good response in hands and feet..." or "hands and feet are hard to treat...".
When we ask why, some say "i don't know", some others say that we don't have follicles there...
The latter is a big lie, that sounds like ignorance. We do have some follicles there. Of course we have less than on other places, but we do. Besides, melanocytes can migrate from the patches border, or even from the dormant ones inside the patches. They don't need follicles to re-pigment.
As a matter of fact, according to my thoughts (and research) it's real hard to treat these areas because of the following reasons:
FEET:
1) From inside: There are a lot of articulations (joints) that generate internal friction and micro inflammation all the time. I'm not talking about arthritis , which would be the extreme case. These micro inflammations generates something (i have reasons to believe that is the MIA protein) that detaches melanocytes;
2) From outside: Unfortunately we need to wear shoes in a daily basis. Even non-tight ones cause a lot of friction. It's too bad.
I know someone that reverted all knee patches, just because he stopped wearing jeans pants.
I know another person who reverted the genital patch because he stopped sliding (scratching) the underwear when he went to the bathroom. Friction!
3) Impact sports, specially soccer (football). It causes too much impacts that detach melanocytes.
Mostly in the exact position where you hit the ball, but not necessarily, because as I mentioned above, there is something (probably MIA protein) that after being generated, migrates around the spots detaching melanocytes.
*remember that vitiligo sufferers have this pre-disposition, otherwise everybody would have vitiligo in hands and feet.
HANDS:
1) From inside, there are a lot of articulations (joints) that generate internal friction and micro inflammation all the time. I'm not talking about arthritis , which would be the extreme case. These micro inflammations generates something (i have reasons to believe that is the MIA protein) that detaches melanocytes;
2) From outside, I would say that hands are the most active external part of the body. We hit them all the time! We detach melanocytes every single minute. Some melanocytes are able to remain, some go away and exfoliate in the epidermis. Some people are able to generate more melanocytes than what was lost, but some others lose more than their ability to recover. So, new white spots appear, eventually.
3) Impact sports, like: martial arts, weight lift, volleyball, basketball, etc.
That said, so what can we do?
1) Following a treatment is mandatory. It could be a Functional Treatment or any other.
The Functional Treatment is good, because it insures that you would have proper nutrition that helps melanocyte adhesion.
2) Avoid shoes, socks, etc. whenever you can (at home , for example);
3) When wearing shoes, wear loosen socks with;
4) Try to keep hands idle, whenever you can. Texting (ipad, iphone, etc) is a big problem. Every vitiligo sufferer that does it a lot, is eligible to have white spots near the hand articulations (joints). Specially in the thumbs (most used when texting).
5) Stop impact sports;
6) Melanocyte transplantation (in hands and feet) is a good help, as long as you decrease the movements systematically. Otherwise, whatever melanocyte you gain, will be lost.
I'm very sorry to express that in a strait forward way, but I believe that it can help you in a certain way.
Regards.
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