1. What is Tinea Vesicolor?
Tinea versicolor (TV) is a common skin condition caused by yeast overgrowth on the skin. The yeast lives normally on everyone's skin, but becomes overgrown in some people, especially during the warm summer months. The yeast thrives on oily, moist skin and usually grows on the chest and back, but it can sometimes grow on the face, neck, and arms.
TV can be easily diagnosed just by examining the skin, but sometimes your physician will scrape the skin to look for yeast. The yeast forms strands and little dots that look like spaghetti and meatballs when viewed though a microscope.
2. What Does an Infection Look Like?
The infection can appear as white, pink, or as brown patches on the skin. The color varies depending on the person's natural skin color. On people with white skin, it appears brown or pink, but on people with brown skin it usually appears white. Though it can cause mild itching, often it does not cause any symptoms at all.
Interestingly the yeast creates a substance that can bleach your skin. That's why TV is diagnosed more often in the summertime: people who have tans will notice patchy areas on their chest and back without a tan. These are areas that were bleached by the yeast!
3. Can You Catch It from Someone?
The yeast that causes TV lives normally on everybody's skin. It is not contagious, and you cannot catch it from using other people's towels or clothing. The yeast likes to grow on warm, moist skin, and summertime heat and sweating provide a perfect environment for it to grow.
4. How is Tinea Versicolor Treated?
Fortunately, the organism that causes TV is very easy to treat. Unfortunately, it is very likely to come back and often has to be treated weekly during warm weather months.
One of the easiest ways to treat TV is with over the counter dandruff shampoo. Selenium sulfide (Selsun Blue) seems to work best, but it can also be treated with zinc pyrithyrone (Head and Shoulders).
Apply the shampoo to your head and to the areas of your body which are affected by the rash. Leave the shampoo on for at least 3 minutes before rinsing it off. Do this everyday for a week to eliminate the yeast. Then you can repeat once or twice a week as needed to keep the yeast away.
For some people with extensive or hard to treat TV, I advise the following: apply the shampoo to the affected areas on your body and sleep with it on. Wash it off the next morning in the shower. Repeat this process 2 more times to eliminate the yeast. Then use the shampoo on your head and body, in the shower only, once or twice a week to keep the yeast away.
For some people, TV can be resistant even to this therapy. In that instance, a physician can prescribe oral medication such as ketoconazole. It works best if you work up a good sweat about an hour after taking the medication, as it will be secreted in your sweat glands and concentrated on your skin right were the fungus resides.
5. If Its So Easy to Treat, then Why Does It Seem To Stay?
Often patients complain that their TV infection will not go away regardless of how they treat it. Often this is because they still see white spots on their skin. Unfortunately, these are areas that were bleached by the yeast. Even though the infection has been treated, the bleached spots will remain until their sun tans fade, which can be months!
