Is there a connection between vitiligo and a deficiency of vitamin D and B12? Stories and well-intentioned advice about this regularly surface. You can read how it really works in this issue of Spotlight!

In any case, the conclusion is that there appears to be no relationship between reduced vitamin levels and vitiligo. It is also established that a low vitamin D level does not lead to vitiligo, but the other way around could be the case. Because vitamin D is produced in the skin under the influence of sunlight, while people with large vitiligo spots often stay out of the sun for fear of burning. So going outside is the motto. This does not have to take long, because the lighter the skin, the faster vitamin D is formed from sunlight. The main article in this Spotlight! goes into more detail, and also discusses the complaints associated with a vitamin B12 deficiency.

Further in this issue
Further in this issue the section My moment, with Evianne Dienske (12) from Santpoort-Noord, who is also on the cover. She talks about the moment she first went to seventh grade and how insecure she was about her vitiligo spots. But that ended well! A number of parents of 'bridge peepers' also look back on that special moment of their son or daughter. In the section The stains of... we read the story of Yme Pasma (51), and Margriet Ynema (39) from Groningen tells her own story, in which she discovers she has a vitamin B12 deficiency.