How to improve melanin secretion in body? – Dr. Sachith Abraham

The question is how to improve melanin secretion in the body. Melanin is actually produced by the melanocytes in the skin. This question has two parts. One is in a normal person. If a normal light skinned person wants to improve melanin secretion the he has to tan himself. That means he has to expose himself to ultraviolet light meaning like sunbathing and tanning creams can increase the melanin secretion inside the skin. This is mainly in a normal person. Then there are some conditions where the melanin secretion is destroyed because there is an autoimmune reaction against the melanocytes. The melanocytes are totally lost in the skin. This is a disease called as vitiligo or leukoderma. So to increase the melanin secretion in a person with vitiligo or leukoderma many different treatments are available. First level is the creams. In this we use creams like the steroid creams or non-steroidal creams like tacrolimus used to stimulate the melanin secretion. The next level, level 2 we come to tablets. Sometimes if the vitiligo is very unstable and rapidly progressing then we have to give a short course of oral steroids or some other immunosuppressive tos top the white patches from spreading all over the body. Then level 3, if the creams and the tablets are not working and the vitiligo is stable then we can do a treatment called as phototherapy, i.e. exposing to a special UV light called narrowband UV-B 311 where the person enters into a chamber which has lights with special wavelength of 311 nanometer and the person exposes to this light twice a week or thrice a week which stimulates the melanin secretion inside the skin. Then there is a latest treatment called as targeted phototherapy where we can use targeted beams of ultraviolet light in very localised patches vitiligo and the whoel body is not exposed to an ultraviolet radiation. There are certain newer treatment available known as biologics which is in an experimental stage. A biologic called as tofacitinib has shown quite a great promise to increase the melanin secretion inside the skin.