If Michael Jackson had vitiligo

[purple_frog]

Only approx 10% of suffers have relatives similarly afflicted - although a friend pointed out a photo of MJ's eldest son, apparently with some patching on his hand, so who knows whether or not he too has it. But yeah, the hats, masks, umbrellas, long clothes and sun glasses all help many vit sufferers live 'normal' lives without excessive sun exposure. The surgery thing hadn't occurred to me, but it makes sense!

[purple_frog]

A lot of people 'hate' their white skin and use sunbeds and fake tan to darken it, any whities offended?

 

Too true!

[Mandem]

My sister has had vitiligo since she was 4 years old, she is now 50. She has never heard of an "operation" to make skin tone more even, in fact she has never been offered any type of treatment at all. She has patches all over her body which move around and manifest themselves in different places all the time.

No one in the family before her has ever had it and no one since has had it.

[cloudybay]

What I find curious, is that his children appear to be white.

 

Even if he did have vitiligo, surely his genetic make-up would remain the same..?

 

It never ceases to amaze me how so people have happily suspend disbelief in the sad and sorry case of MJ.

All 3 of his children are white and that's because they're not biologically his. The mother of 2 of them, Debbie Rowe, is quoted as saying 'Michael knows the truth. He has to come clean'. He then bought her silence, but for how much longer?

As for the vitiligo, make your own minds up.

[metaphoria]

I can't see why the other Michael Jackson thread became closed, as I think the jury's still out on his lifestyle and death (as it were), and it does still remain headline news.

 

And yet this thread is still allowed. To me, it almost seems like the racial issues of an untimely death are permitable over and above all other issues, on this forum. Or have I just missed a few unruly and unsavoury posts on the former Michael Jackson thread?

 

Disappointing, nevertheless.

[Miss_S_83]

how is it curious?

 

Their mother is a white woman, so the "african" genes are going to be diluted (And we don't know what white heritage is in MJ's family lineage from years ago) so it's perfectly feasible for them not to look entirely "black".

 

My aunt and her sister are half-Caribbean, and aren't really "dark" afro-looking, despite their father being really dark "plummy" black.

 

(to visualise them, they are a sort of Shirley Bassey, tan/ mixed race colouring and in looks, although my aunt's sister looks somewhat more "white" than my aunt)

 

 

Oh, come on PT, you cannot honestly believe they are his blood children??!??!?!

[Plain Talker]

Oh, come on PT, you cannot honestly believe they are his blood children??!??!?!

 

I don't know what the truth is... Like millions of other people, I was there neither at the conception nor the birth.

[BananaSplit]

how is it curious?

 

Their mother is a white woman, so the "african" genes are going to be diluted (And we don't know what white heritage is in MJ's family lineage from years ago) so it's perfectly feasible for them not to look entirely "black".

 

My aunt and her sister are half-Caribbean, and aren't really "dark" afro-looking, despite their father being really dark "plummy" black.

 

(to visualise them, they are a sort of Shirley Bassey, tan/ mixed race colouring and in looks, although my aunt's sister looks somewhat more "white" than my aunt)

 

 

Lol I'm not so old that I can't remember doing genetics in Biology at school!

 

I can recall an instance of a couple having twins - 1 was black, 1 was white, so of course genes can be carried in weird and wonderful ways sometimes.

 

But to have 3 children, by 2 different mothers, who ALL appear caucasian - well, I'd love to know the odds of that happening.

 

Seems like the Express are running with the same thoughts on their front page today too..

[Buttercup88]

It seems that nobody has a clue about vitiligo!

 

PT - sunbeds would not darken the vitiligo - it never gets darker in the sun, or on sunbeds - it just goes red as there is no protection from the rays. He did use a hell of a lot of fake tan though!

 

I never believed Michael Jackson had vitiligo either, until after he died and I was looking at photos and saw that he did have patches all over his face and arms etc.

 

You CAN make all of your skin white with a drug called monobenzone. Woggle - as the form of vitiligo which he had spreads, he would probably end up with white skin eventually, he would never be able to get black skin again.

 

Minimo - there are a few different types of vitiligo. It's a simple case of losing pigment/melanin in the skin. Michael had the type which spreads all over the body in all different places. I have 'segmental' vitiligo which means it's only on one side of my body, I'm lucky as it doesn't spread and is actually filling in with pigment a little bit now but it is really patchy and I hate it so much!!

 

Nazo - you're right, stressful events can bring on the vitiligo, it is an auto immune condition, and can be brought on by emotional and physical stress. Mine came along after I had a bout of impetigo when I was two.

 

There is no cure! You can have all different types of treatments, but none are guaranteed to work. I'm really passionate about it at the mo because I'm researching it so much, sorry to go but I love to clear up all the confusion people have about vitiligo!

[Plain Talker]

It seems that nobody has a clue about vitiligo!

 

PT - sunbeds would not darken the vitiligo - it never gets darker in the sun, or on sunbeds - it just goes red as there is no protection from the rays. He did use a hell of a lot of fake tan though!

 

I never believed Michael Jackson had vitiligo either, until after he died and I was looking at photos and saw that he did have patches all over his face and arms etc.

 

You CAN make all of your skin white with a drug called monobenzone.

 

I do have enough of a clue about vitiligo. I know that the "de-pigmented" patches certainly won't tan, as the point is that the melanin is missing.

 

This was my point about the late Bob Monkhouse, with his orange "permatan" look thing.

 

As I said in my early post on this thread:- To make himself appear the same shade all over, and to hide the patchiness, Monkhouse tanned the pigmented area, and then covered the de-pigmented area with fake tan, which gave him the even skin tone, even if it was a "permatan".

 

Some people opt for coverage by tans or cosmetics, others go for bleaching. It sounds like MJ went for the bleaching route.

 

As MJ also had Lupus, another autoimmune condition, that often does not react well to exposure to sunlight, It sounds like the bleaching route was the more sensible option, rather than the tanning route. It may also have gone some way to explaining why he used masks and veils outdoors, and was perceived as being weird when he did so.