Health

Black Pepper to Treat the Skin Disease of Michael Jackson

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By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor

18th of February 2008, 07:51 GMT

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Here is the solution to see Michael Jackson black again and with a healthy skin: black pepper could treat his skin disease called vitiligo. If it is vitiligo, as medical science calls it so, a condition in which areas of skin lose pigmentation, turning white. A new research made at King's College London and published in the "British Journal of Dermatology" has found that piperine, the alkaloid that induces the pungent flavor in the black pepper, can boost the pigmentation in the skin.

About 1% of the people could be affected by vitiligo. Currently,

corticosteroids application to the skin and phototherapy with UV radiation are employed. Still, corticosteroids cause re-pigmentation in less than 25% of the cases, while UVR, besides inducing a spotted and patchy pigmentation in the long-term, can increase the risk of skin cancer.

The team checked the effects of piperine and its synthetic derivatives applied to the skin of mice, either alone or after UVR treatment. Piperine and two similar chemicals boosted pigmentation to an even, light brown color in just 6 weeks. When UVR was added, the skin turned even darker, much more rapidly than using just UVR and with a longer lasting effect, with a much more even pigmentation than UVR alone. The team puts these effects on the power of the piperine to boost the synthesis of melanin (the dark pigment of the skin) in the skin's melacocytes, the pigment storing cells.

"We have shown that topical treatment with piperine stimulates even pigmentation in the skin. Combining this with UVR significantly enhances the pigmentation with results that are cosmetically better than conventional vitiligo therapies," said co-author Antony Young, professor at King's.

"Vitiligo is a highly visible disease that can greatly affect patients psychologically and emotionally. Any breakthrough in treatments of this disease is most welcome. These findings could potentially lead to the development of treatments that not only provide improved results, but could also reduce the need for UV radiation in vitiligo treatment, in turn lowering the risk of skin cancer," Nina Goad, of the British Association of Dermatologists told BBC News.

TAGS:

skin | vitiligo | pepper

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