What are the chances of children getting vitiligo from parents?
Vitiligo does have a hereditary component and sometimes, it passes on from one generation to another.
But, genetic factor plays a role in 20-30% cases only.
In remaining 70-80% cases, a person develops vitiligo despite having no family history.
Time to time, people with vitiligo have been interviewed for various case studies and surveys.
These case studies and surveys have discovered that around 20-30% of people with vitiligo have a family history of this skin condition. (1)
It means, someone in their immediate family (parents or siblings) or the close relatives (maternal and paternal grandparents, uncles, aunts and first cousins) also got vitiligo.
That’s why it has been concluded than the genetic factor plays a role in 20-30% cases of vitiligo.
And, importantly, when we talk about hereditary, it is not limited to parents only, it includes the other close relatives also.
Now, if we dig deeper into this figure of 20 to 30%, and try to identify only those cases where vitiligo has passed on from the parents to a child, it would be somewhere around 10% only.
Hence, to say that in 100% cases, kids are going to get vitiligo from their parents is definitely an over-statement.
In many cases, a person develops vitiligo although none of the parents have vitiligo.
Similarly, there are several cases where the parents (either of them or both) have vitiligo, but, their kids don’t have.
In a separate article, we have also discussed various strategies that you can try to reduce the risk of childhood vitiligo in your children.
Can faulty genes alone be responsible for vitiligo?
No, faulty genes alone cannot trigger autoimmunity until some other prominent reason join in.
To understand this important observation, let us study the case of identical twins.
Identical twins have pretty much the same set of genes.
So if genes solely be responsible for a health problem, then both identical twins in a pair would always suffer from that disease.
A study conducted at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, United States of America found that if one of the identical twins got vitiligo, the other twin also developed vitiligo only in 23% cases. (2)
So, logically it should have been 100% if genes alone would have been responsible for vitiligo. So genetics is certainly involved, agreed, but something else must team up with it to cause vitiligo.
What causes Vitiligo?
Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin condition.
The immune system malfunctions and damages the healthy skin cells. It destroys the pigment producing skin cells to cause skin de-pigmentation in the form of white patches on the skin.
The exact cause of this malfunctioning is not known, but, list of commonly known causes includes:
- Chronic stress and anxiety
- Any sudden sad or traumatic event in life, such as the death of a loved one, losing a job, divorce or any other unfortunate incident
- Poor gut health (digestive health)
- Liver impairment
- Faulty genes
- Excessive consumption of antibiotics, certain medications and vaccination
- Poor diet, sedentary lifestyle and lack of sleep
- Infections such as strep throat
- Skin injuries
- Heavy metal toxicity due to contaminated water and pesticides in foods
Hence, apart from genetic component, there is a long list of contributing factors.
And, faulty genes play a role only when any of these factors gets activated too.
For example- if a person has a family history of vitiligo and she or he has a stressful and unhealthy lifestyle, then the chances of vitiligo get higher.
I have vitiligo. Should I think of having a baby? What if my baby also develops vitiligo?
As we have discussed that vitiligo has a weak genetic component and it does not get activated until some other factor plays a part too.
So, there is no need to be afraid of it too much.
Moreover, it is a random phenomenon and happens by chance.
It is impossible to predict if vitiligo will affect your kids in the future or not.
So, what’s the point in getting worried about something you have no control over?
Just leave it to the God and live your life with a positive attitude.
Before you read further, check out this blogpost that shares some really useful info to lower down the chances of childhood vitiligo.
One more thing!
As we learnt that heredity is not limited to parents only but it is extended to parents, siblings and first degree uncle/aunts and cousins.
So, even if we assume for a second that you do not go for family planning fearing vitiligo, but how you are going to ask your siblings not to have kids as well? Because you will be the first degree to their children, so they may develop vitiligo at some point in the life owing to your skin condition.
It does not make sense, right? Because we cannot ruin our present anticipating the future troubles which have a little chance to become a reality.
We hope the information shared in this article would help you get a better understanding of the genetic aspect of vitiligo.
Next time you see people aggravating the relation between genetics and vitiligo, do educate them with facts to clear this common misconception.
