what´s your opinion about sunbathe?
Hi everyone,
I’m still using Essex and it works just fine. Now I wonder what experience
you have with the sun? Does it make the skin worse or do you think it makes
it better? Everyone who have noticed someting, please tell me about it.
I also wonder if anyone of you have noticed any reaction after eating
strawberries? And finally, how many of you can eat icecream without any side
effects?
Summergreetings, Tina
September 1st, 2003 at 9:49 pm
I think a moderate amount of natural sun does more good than bad–first, it
may make the red areas not stick out so much and second I think it helps
kill some of the fungus. However, don’t let yourself burn.
The Bclear Photoclearing is a UVB treatment and supposedely it clears up seb
derm and psoriasis–it has FDA approval for treating seb derm so I would
think that it was somewhat helpful–i am going to begin searching for a derm
in my area that has this laser to try to get more info about cost and
success rates–it is very new so would probably be hard to find one.
Stay away from the tanning salons because I think, but don’t quote me, that
they only use UVA bulbs.
Can’t comment about the strawberries because i have sworn off all fruit
because of the high sugar content.
And about ice cream, that is the absolute worse and number one trigger for
me–I will break out with flares within 24 hours of eating just a
little–however, they do make sugar free ice cream which is sweetened with
Equal and it is not bad at all
September 7th, 2003 at 1:40 am
Tina, I have heard that sebderm is supposed to improve
with a little sun, but if I get any appreciable amount
of sun, I have a worsening of my sebderm. This is an
especially big bummer for me because I live in
Arizona, where it is hard NOT to get sun.
On a happier note, I eat ice cream all the time and it
doesn’t have an effect. Neither do strawberries. I
have done all sorts of experiments with diet and have
found that there is no correlation between my diet and
my sebderm. I even went on an all-clear-liquid diet
for a week (not by choice - I had surgery) and there
was no change for better or worse. I have also
experimented with various supplements and have noticed
no resulting changes. I have gone on virtually
no-carb diets, no-yeast diets…you name it. Nothing
affects the sebderm. I guess that’s a positive in the
sense that nothing seems to worsen it — I drink lots
of beer and eat lots of ice cream
If only there were a food to make it better…
Sandy
October 2nd, 2003 at 10:29 am
Thanks to you Ralph and also thanks to Sandra and the others of you who have
answered.
We have a wonderful weather here now and after making a decision I have now
begun spending some time on the beach, under the sun. I use Clinique’s
suntan lotion and hope this will be ok for the skin after using it several
times.
Now anoher question for you. Can you exercise without making the sebderm
active(worse) again?
Summergreetings,
Tina
October 2nd, 2003 at 8:48 pm
Tina, sadly I get bad outbreaks after exercise. The
only exercise that doesn’t have that effect is
swimming, maybe because there isn’t any sweat sitting
on the skin.
October 3rd, 2003 at 4:53 am
Yes, from my experiences, sweating makes me much worse–gives the litle
fungi more good stuff to feed off.
I try to excercise indoors mostly so that I don’t sweat–I think excercise
is important becasue seb derm can proliferate if you live a sedentary
lifestyle.
I used to be a restaurant manager, on my feet and running around 10+ hours a
day, six days a week, and my seb derm was basically non-existant–when I
got my desk job about two years ago my seb derm has become a major, everyday
problem. Could be coincidence, but I also find that on the weekends when I
am much more active, my seb derm seems to do better for a few days following
a lot of activity. I have tried exercising in the morning and at night, but
I think you need to be moving constantly during the day to really make a
difference–
Sandra, by the way, can you give us a Tea Tree Oil update–is it still
working for you–let us know.
Thaks,
RJ
October 3rd, 2003 at 5:06 pm
Ralph, the tea tree oil is still "working" in its odd
way, in that it still keeps my skin looking better
once I deflake. I am definitely still having to
deflake, though, and I think maybe tea tree oil could
be a great partial solution in tandem with rotating
use of selsun and ketoconazole. Maybe the selsun and
ketoconazole will help prevent the flakes from
forming, and the tea tree oil will make whatever
flakes DO form flake right off easily. I have been
thinking about using selsun again, along with the tea
tree oil, to see what that does. Both selsun and
ketoconazole cream were almost complete "cures" for me
for about three weeks each, then they stopped working.
Does any one know — are these things likely to work
again if it has been a few months since I used them
and they stopped working? When the selsun stopped
working, I switched to the ketoconazole.
Ralph, have you been using the tea tree oil and/or
soap?
October 4th, 2003 at 1:11 am
Sandra,
Do you get really bad redness from your sebderm or do you just have the real
flaky variety–if you get the deep redness areas, is the Tea Tree helping to
alleviate the redness and inflammation at all–I can deal with the flaking
and then deflaking, but for me, most of the the time when I deflake, the
redness is still there so as bad as the layers of flakes look, it looks
better than the redness which is my real concern these days.
As far as the Selsun and ketacanozole, they lost effectivenss with me as
well and I think that you may have luck introducing them again if you have
not used them recently–for me right now, I can’t use anything that is too
harsh or too drying.
I have only used the soap a few times and it is does not really irritate me
but I don’t think it is doing anything either–I have not bought the oil yet
but am interested in trying but if you can tell me if it alleviates redness,
then I will try it.
Also, has anyone ever tried Emu oil–it supposedly is a good
anti-inflammatory.
Thanks,
RJ
October 4th, 2003 at 1:24 pm
Ralph, I don’t think it is the soap that’s really
helping me — it’s the oil. As far as redness is
concerned, it definitely seems to help. HOWEVER, for
the first two days or so, the redness got dramatically
worse, but I was also going off of the ketoconazole.
Selsun didn’t do this to me when I stopped using it,
but when I tried to go off of the ketoconazole I ended
up not being able to because I had such redness and
PAIN, not to mention massive flaking. Using the tea
tree oil, I was able to go off of the ketoconazole
FINALLY (it had long since stopped working). So, to
make a long story even longer, I don’t know if the tea
tree oil irritated my skin for the first two days or
if it was the cessation of the ketoconazole — I
suspect the latter. Having said that, though, I think
that one of the reasons that my face was red and
irritated much of the time before I started using the
tea tree oil was that I was removing the flakes, and
possibly they weren’t quite ready to come off nicely.
As a result, my skin was ALWAYS red and irritated.
Maybe because the flakes come off so neatly with the
tea tree oil, my face is MUCH less red and actually
not at all irritated. One thing that has made me very
happy with the tea tree oil is that it seems to
especially help a really annoying area for me, my
nostrils. I used to have serious flaking and redness
around my nostrils, and that area (KNOCK ON SERIOUS
WOOD) is in great shape.
In short (NOT
I would definitely try the oil.
It’s really cheap, and it just might help in some way.
I started it on a Friday night so that I would have
two days to hide in my house if need be!
October 5th, 2003 at 5:47 pm
Thanks alot for this info Sandra–I am glad to hear that the tea tree can
help with the redness–seems like you are doing pretty good with this stuff
so far.
I know exactly what you are saying about deflaking before your skin is
ready–same thing happens to me when the flakes are not ready to come
off–the skin underneath is extremely red and very sensitive–seems like the
tea tree is helping to kill the fungus and acting as an anti-inflammatory at
the the same time which may explain why you are getting less redness and
less flaking.
I am going to pick some up this weekend as well and give it a try–if it
doesn’t work, I will just add it to my tea tree shampoo.
I am also eagerly anticipating the release of the new sensitive skin DRL
lotion to try on my real sensitive areas on forehead, eyebrows, bridge of
nose–the effect that it has had on my milder seb derm areas around my nose,
mouth and ears has been amazing–that skin is 99% normal at this point and I
only need to use the DRl sparingly (once or twice a week) to keep away the
redness and dryness.
RJ
October 7th, 2003 at 12:27 pm
Even if it turns out that it doesn’t help you that
much, it sure feels great on oily skin. I am not very
prone to breakouts now that I’m old (31), but I will
get the occasional isolated one here and there. Since
I began using the tea tree oil, my skin is totally
soft and COMPLETELY breakout-free. If breakouts are
an issue for you, then this could be a godsend.