Skin Pigmentation

 

Your skin gives off its natural coloring or pigmentation through the production of melanin.   If your skin cells produce excessive melanin, then you will not wonder if your skin coloring is darker than other people while little or small amount of melanin in your body could also make your skin lighter.  Apart from this, skin pigmentation for some people might be minimal or come in small patches of the skin but there are some people who may and can suffer from the skin pigmentation disorder in their whole body.  Skin pigmentation disorders can affect your melanin production thus creating an uneven and unhealthy-looking skin coloring.

 

Also, the area or place that you were born, raised and grew up has an effect in your melanin production.  If you are living in a place wherein you will have too much sun exposure, it could then trigger your skin cells to produce more melanin to shield your skin from ultraviolet rays that are harmful to your skin.   So, if you are living in a tropical country, you might probably have a brown to dark brown skin, those people whose country runs along the equator belt have black skin while people who lives in colder places most probably have white skin.

 

More so, genetics play a big role on how your skin produces melanin, it is the reason why there are people whose skin color are white or fair-skinned, yellow, brown or black and genetics also affect the color of the iris of your eyes and also the color of your hair.

 

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Causes of Skin Pigmentation Disorder

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The culprits behind the occurrence of skin pigmentation disorder are unhealthy skin cells and imbalance in your skin cells that produces melanin.  Hormonal changes during pregnancy, excessive exposure in the sun or certain medical conditions like Addison’s disease could also trigger excessive melanin production that could make your skin darker. But even though you are not on your way to motherhood, avoided direct sun exposure or does not have any Addison’s disease, your skin can still have uneven skin pigmentation because of albinism, vitiligo and other skin pigmentation disorders like:

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• Albinism- The skin pigmentation condition of albinism is genetic in nature and it could run in your family for generations. Needless to say, if you have an albino-colored skin for a parent, you or one of your siblings may inherit it.  More so, people with albinism have light or very pale skin, light yellow or white hair and eyes that are gray.  Since the melanin protects the skin from the harm of ultraviolet rays, people with albinism are more prone to develop skin cancer that people who are dark-skinned.

• Vitiligo - The skin pigmentation condition of vitiligo, on the other hand, could give your skin light-colored skin patches that could appear in one area of your skin or numerous skin areas in your body.  Vitiligo, a condition mostly affect people with darker skin, is the loss of cells that produces skin pigment or melanocytes. Researches also show that Addison's Disease, autoimmune disorder and hyperthyroidism may also cause vitiligo.

• Lichen Simplex Chronicus is a skin pigmentation condition that causes the skin to itch and produces dark patches in your skin.

• Port-wine Stains are marks in your body that may appear purple or red in color.  The skin pigmentation condition is caused by the irregular development of your capillaries.

• Birthmarks are skin condition that you are born with or it may also appear after a couple of weeks after your birth.

• Melasmaor also called as chloasma is caused by hormonal imbalance during pregnancy wherein dark skin patches will appear in your cheeks, neck or even in the bridge of your nose.  After giving birth, melasma naturally disappear.

• Hypo pigmentation is a condition wherein your body fails to produce enough melanin and this usually occur after your skin was burned, had blisters, ulcers, etc.

• Hyper Pigmentation is when your body produces excessive melanin during sun bathing or your body’s reactions to medications or drugs.