British Skin Foundation


Sudden darkening of skin likely triggered by intense gyming

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SanjivSharma
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Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2017 5:36 pm
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by SanjivSharma on Wed Mar 29, 2017 5:40 pm

Sudden darkening of skin likely triggered by intense gyming

I am an 18-year old Indian male. Last year in the month of January I joined a gym for the first time in my life and had a series of very heavy workouts. After each of these sessions, I felt very nauseated and had loose stools. I could not pinpoint the reason and therefore had to quit the gym. In two or three weeks, I noticed my skin (starting from the abdomen area) began to darken in colour. My skin-colour prior to this was pretty fair but it discoloured my entire abdomen aside from my chest (which oddly. is still the same colour). My hands and feet also changed to light brown. The pigmentation was in no way too heavy and I almost put it down to hormonal changes due to my age. In rough estimate, my skin colour in those respective body parts must only have dropped by some four points (in accordance with the Von Luschan's chromatic scale). But this is only an estimate.

This is odd because I didn’t have any medical conditions then, and don’t have any now. If it was anything too serious, I guess it would have come up in more than an year’s time (the gym-thing happened in January, 2016).

I’m still unable to understand why this has happened. And now I have mustered up the will to go to a clinic and get some tests done. What condition do you think I might be suffering from? Also, what ‘general’ tests would you suggest I get done? Should I look at getting dermatology tests done or other body-related ones? If yes, what dermatology tests? I’m even pondering a visit to a dermatologist. I have no other issues with my body other than this one, and of course the skin darkening has stopped (at least that’s what it looks like). I even looked at a few supplements and probiotics because I considered that the sickness after the heavy workouts might have damaged my gut bacteria; but I wanted to check before getting regular on any medication.