aloe or not
Several weeks ago I tried some aloe vera gel on my face for the
first time. I found out that intially when you put it on it feels
real good, but in the next couple days my face got much much worse in
terms of redness, and I even started itching for the first time
(especially when rain would fall on my face). I was wondering if
anyone else has had a negative experience with aloe gel. I didn’t
know how often to apply or whether there was a "proper" method in
applying it.
More importantly however, I was wondering if my reaction was
primarily due to prednisone, which is an oral steroid I have to take
for Crohn’s disease (although I don’t have to take it permanently).
Needless to say, since it’s a steroid, ance on my face is severe. I
guess what I want to know is does acne inflame SD?. And when
applying creams or gels to my face, do you think that will increase
the acne?. Again, I couldn’t tell whether the negative reaction I
had was because of the aloe or a just a reaction to prednisone. If
anyone has had any similar experiences drop a post. I could use all
the help I can get.
June 20th, 2005 at 3:44 pm
I had a similar experience with aloe vera gel - when I first put it on it
felt good, but almost immediately afterwards (a couple of hours rather than
days) it just dried up my skin. I didn’t continue using it for more than a
few days.
I doubt the reaction was caused by the prednisone. I think both acne and
sebderm are both a result of oily skin (too much sebum), so while acne
itself may not make your sebderm worse, what’s causing your acne might.
However, the prednisone should actually help reduce your sebderm symptons
(inflamed, red, itchy, flaky skin), so stopping that would probably not help
much.
Richard
June 20th, 2005 at 10:59 pm
I have also had problems using aole gel, right after I put it on, my
face gets really bright red and tight but after a couple hours it
returns to normal (well, normal red). Prednisone is the one thing
that totally cleared my seb derm and made my skin feel great but the
rebound flare is so bad when I stopped taking it. Have you been
decreasing your prednisone dose recently? that may be causing a
little rebound flare.
June 21st, 2005 at 2:41 pm
I have been decreasing my prednisone. It was never intended for long term
use, So I started out at 40 mg, and decreased by 10mg every two weeks, so
I’m at 20mg right now. Reading the responses to my post, I think it probably
was the aloe gel. I never thought how prednisone might cause a rebound
effect, but the dryness and the increases redness sound like it might be the
aloe. For what it’s worth, I’m using "Equate" Dandruff shampoo on my face
(after reading Tameka Norris’s article) and it seems to be an improvement.
The acne is still there and it will probably be there for a while, but my skin
itself is flaking significantly less.
June 21st, 2005 at 7:17 pm
Aloe can be very harsh on sensitive skins. I can’t go anywhere near
it without getting all sorts of reactions from red blotches to
hives. It’s disappointing that so many products for sensitive skin
contain it.
Sel