An opinion, based on my own experience
People who try nutritional therapy for themselves sometimes ask, How long do I need to keep taking the supplements? Of course, I can’t say for sure that supplementation is even the right course of action for everyone with vitiligo. I can only say that it was for me. So my response to this question is based purely on my own experience.
It seems to me that if vitiligo really was a disease, in the usual sense of the word, research scientists would probably have come up with a vaccination by now. And it would be a proper cure. Unfortunately, this is not the case. My own experiences – and all the evidence that I have read on the subject – point to a different conclusion. That vitiligo is in fact a symptom. An indication of other underlying, systemic health problems. And that makes it complicated.
Ongoing improvement requires ongoing therapy
Treating a systemic condition (in my case poor digestion, leading to malabsorption, leading in turn to vitiligo) is not like treating a bacterial infection. You can’t just take a course of antibiotics and, hey presto, your symptoms permanently disappear. If your body is not working as it should, due to nutritional deficiencies, you can’t dose up on the nutrients it lacks for a fortnight and then stop and expect a permanent improvement.
Over an extended period of time you may find that you can reduce the quantities of key nutrients you are supplementing. Because your body may start to heal itself from within. But, even then, I think you will always need to maintain a seriously healthy diet and lifestyle. And guarding against becoming depleted again is wise to ensure your symptoms do not return.
My body “told me” when it had had enough supplements
In my case, it took about a year and a half, supplementing with Boost and Five a Day+ every day, to produce results. By then my re-pigmentation was well underway. And it looked as if the white patches would most likely disappear completely, given enough time and sunshine. At that point something unexpected happened… I started to develop a small itchy rash on either side of my chin and wondered why. I wondered if I had exposed myself to any irritants that could have caused this. Eventually, I considered the possibility that I might have finally topped up my reserves of certain nutrients. Maybe my body was trying to tell me I didn’t need any more.
It’s important to listen to what your body tells you
Since Five a Day+ is literally a blend of “super” foods (not, strictly speaking, a supplement at all) it was actually a way of turning my average daily diet into a super-nutritious one. So I guessed that the only possible cause of the you-can-stop-now-because-I-have-had-enough rash (as I came to think of it) was Boost. This product had been supplying me with quite a high daily dose of L-Tyrosine and B vitamins. Maybe I no longer needed so much of these. So, I stopped taking Boost every day but continued with Five a Day+ and the rash went away… But the re-pigmentation continued.
I didn’t leave anything to guess-work though. I conducted a simple experiment. Having discontinued Boost for about a week and then re-started it, the rash came back. I firmly believe that your body tells you when it has had enough of something! However, after several months without Boost, I decided to try another short course of it (since the weather was sunny) and no rash appeared. This suggested that depletion of certain nutrients is a gradual process. And that – once the initial period of replenishing them has passed – occasional top-ups are all the body needs.
I realised then that taking both products together – as well and getting sun or UV exposure – was what had kick-started the re-pigmentation during the first year and a half. And that Five a Day+ (with the occasional “boost” of Boost (!) contained all the nutrients I needed to maintain healthy pigmentation after that.
You can never have too much good nutrition in your diet
The thing to bear in mind is that Boost is a nutritional supplement, whereas Five a Day+ is a food. So I know I can take as much of that as I like without fear of overdosing. My theory is that (in my case, as least) my vitiligo was caused by a deficiency of the nutrients required to maintain healthy pigment. (These are the ones contained in Boost.) Digestive problems meant that I was unable to absorb these nutrients in sufficient quantities from my daily diet. This resulted in a gradual depletion of those nutrients over my lifetime. And this explains why my vitiligo was so widespread by the time I was 50.
In short…
I think that if something like Five a Day+ had been around when I was a child I might never have developed vitiligo. It is so rich in nutrients (including antioxidants, catalase and SOD… if you google these you will see what part they all play in pigmentation) that it would have compensated for my digestive malabsorption issues and kept me healthy.
So, what I am saying (in my long-winded way!) is I took Five a Day+ (1 – 3 doses a day) and Boost (2 capsules twice a day) for the first year and a half. After that, I was able to reduce Boost to 2 or 3 short courses per year. I continue to take Five a Day+ and intend to do so for the rest of my life. My aim being to maintain good general health and keep my digestive problems and vitiligo at bay.