Vitiligo

Autoimmune Disease

exacerbated by

• stress

Symptoms

• skin loses color/pigment in patches
• often starting with face, hands

Affected areas:

• skin
• mucosa (genitals and mouth)
• eyes

Autopsy Report, page 11, Anatomical Summary point 3. ->

Otherwise mention of vitiligo in Autopsy Report: ¹The decedent’s overall skin has patches of light and dark pigmented areas. Source for all the following: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/251735/autopsy-0001-optimized.pdf,²There is focal depigmentation of the skin, particularly over the anterior chest and abdomen, face and arms.,³Sections of skin (slide U) show no melanocytic pigment. Melanocytes, although present, are reduced in number. The skin is otherwise unremarkable. No scar or suture material is present.

Vitiligo Clinic and Research Center

Vitiligo and Bleaching

His skin color changed drastically in the late 1980s which fits the timeline, that he was diagnosed right after Thriller in 1982, tried to cover it up for a while and then decided to change course and use Benoquin to not look spotted. Benoquin is the right treatment for someone with vitiligo prefering to completely remove their remaining pigment than have spots all over. According to Oprah his hands had no pigment and were translucent in 1993, which is what Benoquin would do after about 12 months of use.

Microscopic examination of his skin [on his autopsy report] revealed a lack of pigment and reduced number of melanocytes, which is most consistent with vitiligo, with or without the use of Benoquin, and vitiligo was the official diagnosis on the report.

All medication found upon his death is useful and advisable to someone who has vitiligo and had depigmented their skin.

So there is no question that Michael Jackson had vitiligo, by his own admission and according to his autopsy after his death. He did appear to use Benoquin to help depigment his skin, but not because he “wanted to be white”, but as an FDA-approved treatment for his vitiligo.

Photo Explainer

Vitiligo Vulgaris vs MBEH-treated skin

After his death Benoquin cream was found in MJ’s home. Its active ingredient is MBEH and it is used to depigment skin. Technically you can call it bleaching. The treated areas have a confetti-like pattern. Vitiligo-affected skin is lighter and more uniform.

The pattern we see on this photo is consistent with that. Notably there are body parts without darker patches. We can conclude that these areas are not being treated. They are: face, hands, wrists, elbows, upper chest, neck.

These happen to be body parts where vitiligo vulgaris typically occurs, and this is a common distribution pattern. We can therefore reasonably assume that MJ had vitiligo vulgaris on these areas and used MBEH to even out the skin color on his arms and chest.⁶he got his chest and his hands and arms and things bleached up – Source: Katherine Jackson Interview

Dermatologist’s Opinion

Bleaching without having Vitiligo

TL;DR

Bleaching skin to turn white: It doesn’t work that way

• Doesn’t work for 30% of patients
• Repigmentation occurs almost always
• Lips almost never lose complete pigmentation
• Inner corners of his eyes (caruncle) changed their color. You can not bleach eyelids/inner eye without threat to eyesight.
• Fingernails sign of bleaching: Fingernails of both Black and white people are pink. MJ’s sometimes discolored nails are due to lupus