New discovery, vitiligo gene same as one for lupus, you may want to avoid hair dyes

Hi--

On a vitiligo forum I go to someone posted that they've finally tracked down the gene for vitiligo and it is the same one for lupus and some other autoimmune conditions.  I'll post the article link when I find it again.  Anyway, it is thought that vitiligo--loss of pigment, Michael Jackson has it--is triggered in individuals with problems with this gene by some kind of environmental factor.  In other words, just because you have the gene mutation, you may never get vitiligo, however, if you have contact with "bad phenols", it can trigger it.  Mine hypopigmentation was triggered by a single drop of hair dye.  I've lost 50% of my pigment from that one little drop.  The vitiligo sites have lists of phenol free hair dyes--henna is safe, as well as drugs and substances that can trigger it.  Since it is the same gene as the lupus one, I thought that people here might be interested and maybe, if you want to preserve your pigment, avoid phenol containing hair dyes.  I'm doing research to find a good list of those if anyone is interested.  Also, this all meshes together with the anti-cytokine research going on for the use of possible interferons and anti-interferons as treatments for various autoimmune diseases.  Vitiligo is a symptom of excessive interferon.  Anti-interferons cause anti-ds-dna.

Hi--
looked for a phenol free hair dye list and couldn't find one. I called clairol and they said that natural instincts loving care-- you know, the old loving care temporary color is PPB (phenol) free. I urged them to make safer hair colors and the lady was really nice and agreed to forward my suggestion to the company. It's funny, the people who usually want to use hair dye the most--people prematurely gray or people with vitiligo are the ones that have the most trouble with it. I've got a few spots from when I last colored that haven't repigented, even with the new vitiligo creams I'm using. I hope that you all read this stuff about the genetic findings. I think it is very important and that soon, are various and sundry aliments will finally be recognized as a syndrome or a few syndromes and will be able to be treated more effectively with less medication by attacking the root cause of it all. Take care.

I don't know, emmi. Most dyes have it in and the girl that does your hair probably wouldn't know, the stuff is called PPB. I called clairol and they said plain old Loving Care temporary color is the only one they make without PPBs but they would forward the request on making more products PPB free. Basically, the article is saying that we have genetic tendency to have autoimmune diseases, and they found the gene and all and this one gene is responsible for 80 autoimmune conditions. Anyway, things we do in our lives or chemicals we get exposed to or maybe other illnesses we get trigger the autoimmune disease to develop. That's why so many people have lots of different AI conditions and some of their relatives may never get any, but they could still have the gene mutation. By finding out what the triggers are, they can prevent autoimmune disease in our children, prevent us from developing more problems, and they hope they might be able to regress existing autoimmune diseases in people with lupus etc. Meaning they would undo the disease and hopefully undo the damage it has caused, basically kind of curing a person, they would still have the gene mutation, but it wouldn't effect them. It's very exciting news.

I could be totally wrong, but I believe it is the dark permanent dye which causes problems. There was a study done years ago about hair dye and lupus. It said that the dye could cause a flare in people with lupus. This is why I decided to go gray (now white !) a long time ago.
Nan

Hi--
Yeah, I was really excited by the news. Can you imagine regressing the disease? Wouldn't that be great. I think in the next ten years we'll see some really promising new treatments coming out as well as preventative measures. On the hair dye issue, there may be a problem with dark pigment as well, but the real problem with vitiligo is the PPB, or phenols in it. I used to double process my hair, bleach it out totally white, then tone it. My vitiligo started with a drop of creme bleach (developer and bleach mixture--the white liquid and the oily stuff or in my case powder) mixture, the same stuff in all permanent hair dyes, which is why there is now warnings on the packages that they may cause pigment loss. This is what they are talking about. Of course, that wasn't on there until just recently in the last year or two I think. Babs, your hair dresser may or may not be aware of this issue, you should definitely bring it up before, call or whatever. If they are careful, they may not get any on your skin. My vitiligo started from a single drop of hair color on my thigh that I wiped off immediately, but it had already taken the pigment, then it spread from there all over my body. Loving care will not lighten your hair, its just a washout color that lasts 6 - 12 shampoos. Possibly your stylist has something better. I can't afford to go to those places so I'm really out of touch. I would call and talk to someone about it. I've been using Balsam color for a while and it hasn't affected me, though it should and Clairol doesn't know why it didn't. Maybe some are worse than others and maybe because I usually just do root touchup and I'm gray there anyway so I wouldn't notice. Definitely, having someone else do it and only getting highlights would be the safest way to go as far as applying it. I just wanted to warn people so they didn't have another problem to add to the list. Not having pigment is a real drag, it burns bad and people stare. I'm glad this helped some people. I think it's important to know, especially if you have teenagers who may want to dye their hair and all.

I had been getting highlights for about a year, then went for the whole dye job for my daughters wedding in 2007. I had been feeling pretty good prior to that, but I fell apart physically after the wedding - actually started sliding down that slope just beforehand - right after getting my hair dyed. Finally did some research and also found a study that implicated hair dye as a possible flare trigger, so I stopped, just in case. Was just about to go for highlights again now (after 1 1/2 yrs) - because my hair is just so much thinner, finer, whiter.....let's just say I throw my hands up! I had decided not doing it hadn't made a bit of difference (still feel like I'm in perpetual flare) so what the heck. But I'll have to think twice as well, now.
Thanks for the info, Marji. Hope you're feeling better.
Lucy

dang, I started going grey at 16 and with an infant there is no way I am willing to just let it go I have a streak of white like Rouge from Xmen. It looks horrid on me. I just can't pull off having half my bangs white. I have never had problems from dying my hair though I am careful not to use dark dyes. I tend to lighten my hair for the most part or add red. I wonder how henna would look on my hair.

Believe it or not . . . this is our good old FDA:

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-818.html

I've waffled a few times on the hair color issue cause of lupus. Working in hospital labs I was exposed to all sorts of chemicals, including phenols. Until recently I colored my hair regularly using the Clairol professional stuff at home, but a few months after being on Cellcept my hair looked like straw. I got it cut very short with highlights and loved it, but highlights are so expensive I haven't done anything with it for a while. I'm sure my body is enjoying the break from all those chemicals. Love, Butterflake