New Member Story
Hello All,
I saw the call for new members to speak up so here I go. A little
more than a year ago, seemingly out of the blue my skin got super dry
and my hair extremely brittle. It was a time of extreme emotional
stress, so the constant itching and gross hair texture didn’t help
matters. I had been an avid user of the trendy Kiehl’s line of
products. It was driving me crazy that these expensive but heretofore
extremely helpful products seemed to only make me itch more and more.
Head and shoulders only exacerbated the hair issue, which was lovely.
I moved cities that summer and the problem definitely didn’t improve.
I was shuttling between my father’s apartment in the city and my
mother’s beach house. When I’d walk through the threshold of my
father’s apartment it was if my face knew to light up like a christmas
tree. I treated it as some bizaare reaction to my strained
relationship with the parental unit. Anyway, it burned and the redness
seemed to flare out from my nose. I happened to be uninsured at this
time, so I resolved to research skin conditions.
My mother mentioned that my little sister had been diagnosed with
rosacea as a teenager. At this appointment, the derm told my father
he had it too. I did the google search, saw the pictures of rosacea
sufferers, and pretty much concluded my research right there. I had
rosacea.
Uninsured I found a local health clinic staffed by hard working nurse
practitioners and a doctor or two. The NP agreed with my rosacea
diagnosis. She gave me a script for metronidazole and sent me on my
way. This didn’t do any good. Next time in she gave me a script for
Doxcycline. This helped. I looked like me in the mirror,
unfortunately I can’t stay on anti-biotics all year.
Fast forward a few months and I’d sort of resigned myself that I’d
just have to deal with this bs condition. I had a physical last Fri
and told the doc that I’d like to try the antibiotics again. He told
me it looked like I had seborrheic dermatitis not rosacea. For
whatever reason I talked him out of that spot diagnosis and asked for
more Doxycycline.
On the way home from the physical, a light went off in my head. A
google search of SD seemed to pull up all my symptoms of the last year
or so. I’d itch like crazy in strange spots. Eyebrows, nostrils,
ears, back of the knee, elbows, etc. The real tip off was that
Nizoral was frequently used to treast SD. I had previously been
prescribed Nizoral!
In HS, my nose had broken out. I’d never had any acne issues but this
crusty nose stuff was a real bitch. The derm spotted it right away
and the Nizoral cleared everything up. It hadn’t been a problem for a
long time and my last script probably came in 1998. It was a long ago
problem.
The real problem here is that I was just a kid and didn’t know SD from
a hole in the wall. The name didn’t really register. I just wanted
the cream to cure my crusty nose. So that leads me here. I turned 30
in October and it seems my skin has changed. I’m relieved that it
appears to be SD and not Rosacea. So that’s where this group comes
in. I’m meeting a doc early next week and intend request a script for
nizoral. As a teenager, the problem was my nose area. I now seem to
be perpetually red all over my face. It probably doesn’t help that I
work out a ton, but I’ll never change that. Will applying nizoral
over my face diminish the redness most everywhere and make my raccoon
eyes a thing of the past? I’m looking for reccomendations from people
that have a similar case here who have responded to Nizoral. In
addition, my insurance right now is a little funky so there’s a chance
they might not authorize a nizoral script. What other topicals have
been helpful?
General observations and all questions welcome. Hope I didn’t bore
anyone to tears. Thx in advance for responses.
JR
December 28th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
JR,
Glad to hear that you don’t have rosacea that stuff is wicked.
I have facial SD with the accompanied raccoon redness.
I tried many topicals which did nothing but make things worse. This
is not to say that these chemicals will not work for you but I just
feel you need to be very aware that if the meds make things worse,
don’t get caught in the cycle of going from one med to the next.
I started to clear once I abstained from chemicals and focused on a
healthy diet and lifestyle.
Good luck.
December 29th, 2006 at 1:46 am
Thanks for the input. What topicals seemed to make things worse for you?
The itching/redness was so infuriating that I had convinced myself it
was diet-related. I’d moved to Chicago and was indulging regulary in
the city’s GI delights, mostly cheap beer, deep dish pizza, and hot
dogs. I’d previously been very healthy, so in the last six months
I’ve rededicated myself to my healthy lifestyle. I’ve probably had 3
beers since January and dropped almost 40 lbs from a diet rich in
protein, green veggies, and healthy fats. I haven’t noticed many skin
changes as a result of the change.
I currently take a packet of Coromega fish oil every day. Have people
had success managing SD by supplementing a greater amount of fish oil?
December 30th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Jr,
Welcome to the board. Seems as though stress and poor diet triggered your SD. Me too years ago when I was in college. Common pattern in most. So you changed your diet and things looked good from there, switching from processed chemical based foods to nutritious whole foods that actually heal the body. Fish oil - good choice.
So if this makes sense then why would you continue to use chemicals on your face or scalp? Chemicals are toxic your body knows this. Steroids or non steroid creams suppress the immune system…not very good. Your body will never heal. The medical system is about disease management and sympton suppression. Your body is sick so heal it.. I used at least 15 different creams over the years that did nothing. Elidel worked well till I think it gave me Rosacea(not confirmed) and then I found out about the long term cancer warnings on it so I stopped cold. Went natural and now I’m in complete remission and drug free. Review some of my pervious posts and I will email you some articles.
R
Here’s a good explanation of what’s happening:
This is evidence that the hydrocortisone is not addressing the cause; it simply suppressing the symptoms. I cannot express to you how dangerous this is. You really need to address the cause of the irritation in order to receive true healing. Your skin is manifesting those symptoms to warn you of the dangers taking place within your body. Silencing the symptoms gives a false sense of security. It is like taking the battery out of a smoke alarm so that you no longer hear the annoying beep. The purpose of the smoke alarm’s high pitch ring is to alert of impending danger and to save life. Silencing that warning signal is dangerous. This is the same thing that you are doing with the hydrocortisone; you’re shutting off the body’s warning signal. Your body is warning you of the high toxicity that exists within it. The inflammation, redness, etc. is evidence of the fight existing between your immune system and those toxic invaders. Hydrocortisone (steroids) suppress the immune system and impedes their ability to fight and defend against those toxic invaders. Hydrocortisone is an anti-histamine. A natural anti-histamine is vitamin C; thus, you can achieve that type of relief naturally without the harmful side effects of your cortisone treatments.
Nonetheless, the most important thing that you need to address is the identification of the toxic allergen/irritant that is promoting your distress. When you get rid of the thing that is promoting your distress than the body can truly heal. Hydrocortisone is not addressing the cause; its simply suppressing your body’s warning signal to alert of the danger happening within the body. In addition, and because the body sees the medication as an additional foreign allergen/irritant it is causing further damage to the immune system and promoting the longterm suffering.
My same recommendations still apply. You need to rid your environment of the allergen/irritant promoting the irritation, feed your body the nourishment needed to replenish the deficiencies that are represented with the flareup (beta carotene, zinc, selenium, essential fatty acids, vitamin C, D, & E) through your whole food intake, and feed your skin the nourishment (through natural/organic product) it needs to promote true healing. Healing and symptom suppression are not the same thing. With the steroid/hydrocortisone treatments, you’re simply covering the problem; thus the problem remains. You need to remove the problem so that the healing can complete its course
December 31st, 2006 at 4:31 am
Thanks for the input. I guess I misinterpreted "chemicals" in the
first responder’s reply. I assumed this meant alcohol or drugs as in
substance abuse. Newbie mistake.
I’m all for a natural cure. I’ve been a health nut for a while now.
I just wonder how long a course of the natural remedies will take show
an impact on my skin. For the record, I used Nizoral before not
Hydrocortisone. Nonetheless, I hear your point loud and clear.
If it means anything I’ve also recently been diagnosed with asthma and
IBS. Both are thought to be diseases of inflamation. All this stuff
seemed to come down all at once, which suggests some deficiency
somewhere.
How much fish oil is reccomended per day? Is there a preferred
DHA/EPA split I’m looking for? Ironically, I stopped taking a
multivitamin two yrs ago b/c I didn’t think it made a difference.
My interest in chemicals is due largely to a lack of patience. I’m a
single guy wanting to see Mr. Red Face every time I look in the
mirror. It zaps the confidence just a tad. Thx for helping me see
the big picture.
December 31st, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Since you have had SD for a while it will take a bit longer for you to recover. Eczema and asthma are related and IBS well your not the only one. I mentioned in my posts the importance of cleansing or detoxification. I would be careful with the asthma part…take it slow. As you clean your body you will experience greater symptoms.
Everyone does some worse than others. Remmember to focus on the cause not the symptoms.
For supervision I used a natural holistic type md actually a chiropracter, general MD practiotioner (integrative medicine) and nutritionist to guide me. You just need one…I had many problems besides SD. The MD was good for a few blood tests etc. Seeing another mainstream doc is a waste(disease management). You’ll never get to the root of the problem.
Your body might not be able to support the vitamins. I would not give up. If you need a product recommendation let me know.
Shampoos. Natural only with ingredients like tea tree oil, selenium, or neem oil.
I sent you articles. Let me know your thoughts. You call the shots. I’m not a doctor.
I’m just educating you not medicating you.