Human Albinism Affects the Production of Melatonin

Albinism or Albino is a disorder that’s inherited that affects the production of melatonin. There are two types of albinism Ocular and Oculocutaneous. In general, a person affected by oculocutaneous has very pale skin, no pigmentation of hair (so a near white colored hair), and very light colored around the eye. There is a type of albinism that only affects the eyes that make the irises very pale to not very existent this is called ocular albinism. In the U.S., albinism isn’t a big problem but in Australia, Tanzania, and Pacific Island countries have huge impacts of albinism. In most of the world there is a 1 in 50,000 chance you’ll have a child that will be albino, but in Tanzania there is a 1 in 1,400 it’s likely to have a child that’s albino. The symptoms of albinism are patches of skin that are missing color, lighter than normal skin, absence of color in the hair, skin, or iris of the eye and associated with cross eyes (strabismus), light sensitivity, rapid eye movement, and blindness. [www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus] People with albinism have a greater chance to develop skin cancer due to the fact melatonin is so low or none is present to make the skin burn in sun light. To find out if someone has albinism generally a health provider would have blood test taken in the womb of the mother before the child is born. Also, genetic testing may occur to see if albinism has occurred. Albinism affects the body by not producing melatonin which makes the skin pale, very light colored hair, and very light colored irises because of a very low production of melatonin they are very susceptible to getting sun burnt and having skin cancer. Because of very light colored irises, eye problems can occur which is primarily the only health problem a ...

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