What should patients with vitiligo avoid eating?
Aug 30, 2025
Source: Cainiu Health
Dr. Liu Wenmin
Introduction
Under normal circumstances, patients with vitiligo should avoid consuming spicy chili peppers, fruits with excessive vitamin C, seafood, alcoholic beverages, and irritating seasonings. They should also avoid certain medications such as cyclosporine soft capsules, prednisone tablets, penicillamine tablets, tetracycline tablets, and chloroquine tablets. Patients with vitiligo should maintain a light and nutritionally balanced diet in daily life and consume more foods rich in tyrosine.
Generally, patients with vitiligo should avoid consuming spicy peppers, fruits with excessive vitamin C, seafood, alcoholic beverages, and irritating seasonings. They should also avoid medications such as cyclosporine soft capsules, prednisone tablets, penicillamine tablets, tetracycline tablets, and chloroquine tablets. Detailed explanations are as follows:
1. Spicy Peppers: Capsaicin in peppers can irritate the skin and mucous membranes, affect local skin immune status, intensify inflammatory responses, hinder melanocyte repair, and potentially cause the spread of white patches.
2. Fruits with Excessive Vitamin C: Fruits like oranges contain vitamin C. Excessive intake inhibits the activity of key enzymes in melanin synthesis, reduces melanin production, and impedes disease recovery.
3. Seafood: Seafood such as shrimp can easily trigger allergies. Allergic reactions may irritate the skin, interfere with immune function, affect melanocyte function, and even induce the expansion of white patches. Patients with allergic constitutions must strictly avoid these foods.
4. Alcoholic Beverages: Alcohol affects bodily metabolism and immune balance, stimulates skin blood vessels, reduces nutrient supply to melanocytes, and may worsen vitiligo symptoms.
5. Irritating Seasonings: Strong seasonings like Sichuan peppercorns stimulate skin nerve endings, disrupt the local microenvironment of the skin, and hinder melanocyte growth.
II. Medications
1. Cyclosporine Soft Capsules: Although they can regulate immunity, long-term use might excessively suppress the immune system, affect melanocyte function, and must be used under strict medical supervision.
2. Prednisone Tablets: Effective for short-term control of acute symptoms, long-term use may disrupt immune balance, cause skin atrophy, affect melanocyte regeneration, and require strict adherence to medical instructions regarding dosage and treatment duration.
3. Penicillamine Tablets: Containing sulfhydryl groups, they bind copper ions in tyrosinase, inhibit its activity, reduce melanin synthesis, and may worsen the condition.
4. Tetracycline Tablets: Some patients may experience photosensitivity reactions after taking them, increasing skin sensitivity to ultraviolet light, damaging skin and melanocyte function.
5. Chloroquine Tablets: May affect melanin metabolism; some patients may experience induction or worsening of white patches after taking them, interfering with treatment progress, which must be strictly prohibited.
Vitiligo patients should maintain a bland, nutritionally balanced diet, consume more tyrosine-rich foods, avoid excessive sun exposure and skin trauma, and maintain regular sleep patterns. Before using any medication, patients must strictly follow medical advice, never self-medicate or arbitrarily adjust dosages, to ensure safe and effective treatment.
