My journey to skin health through Nutrition - Part 1

Welcome to my life. It's a bumpy ride but well worth it for the destination.

Health.

 

• The primary purpose of this site is to chart my findings while looking for the "cure" for my hidradenitis suppurativa.
• The secondary purpose is to help other folks with this disease find the way to their own healing.
• The tertiary purpose is to help even more people understand that true health can be found in food, not in drugs offered by companies looking at their bottom line rather than our health.

As of this writing I do not have any formal training nor certifications in the health field. I am learning by reading mass quantities of information from other folks who either are certified or are also learning about their own food/health issues through their own trials. That is why I named this blog trial-by-fire - my own trials.

Since 1982 I have had a nasty skin condition called Hidradenitis Suppurativa. If you've never heard of this disease before it is because we hide it. We (those of us who have it) are ashamed of it, we do not talk about it to anyone, sometimes not even our family. It makes us feel dirty (brought on by the fact that doctors thrust soap at us like we don't bathe!). It hurts. It goes deeper than skin. It goes to our psyche because we can't always participate like we want to and we can't give the "real" reason (we have a bad breakout and just the mere touch of something against that lesionous skin patch is enough pain to send us through the roof... or worse, it breaks open while we're out doing something and the disgusting smell associated with an open "alien" as I've heard them called, is wafted into the olfactory path of someone who might make fun.) These are the things that make us stay at home and be less a part of society than the next person.

Although I was not diagnosed until well into my 30s, this disease has progressed from stage 1 through stage 3 in the 3 main areas of the body that any dermatologist worth their salt will list off immediately - pubic area, under the breasts, under the arms. A few years ago I started truly trying to find a cure for this nastiness. I had lived with it and worked around it for most of my life and I was tired of being depressed because I felt dirty and ugly. I was tired of missing out on life because of this disease. I decided that living was what I wanted rather than subsisting as I had been for the 28 years prior.

I visited my dermatologist again and pushed him toward a lifetime prescription of antibiotics because I remembered that during a period when I was on tetracycline when I was younger, my skin stayed pretty clear. I filled that prescription and happily started taking the pills daily - and I did this for about 12-15 months - with no discernible change in my skin. When I went to the drug store to get the prescription refilled (I could only get 3 months' supply at one time) I was told that tetracycline was no longer manufactured. At this point you'd think that I would've seen the great big arrow pointing the way to another path rather than go back to my dermatologist to find yet another DRUG to try to cure something that they didn't even have an understanding about. Well, you'd be wrong – almost. I did go to my family doctor and asked for a new prescription – whatever he knew of that would be similar to tetracycline. He thought it best that I see the dermatologist again since he had prescribed that in the first place.

After being checked out by “today's dermatologist on call” and an intern or student (not sure), I was told there was a drug trial which I could become a part of if I was so-inclined. I was told that the drug they were testing was already on the market and that it had helped some folks see a reduced number of breakouts. I thought about it for a few days and then they called me to set up the trials... NOPE, I could not go through with it. The side effects of this drug were too many to list and the thought of “reduced number of breakouts” being the best consolation prize they could offer I balked and refused to join the test group.

That's when my search for something different started. I started by trying to reach out to the HS community - I hadn't been there in quite some time but I couldn't remember the specific website that I had been a member of so I tried another avenue - I searched within MyFitnessPal for a group related to HS... and I found one. In one of this group's sessions there was a link to PrimalGirl's  blog (a 2 part series on HS) and my life was forever changed.

I read Tara's blog with fascination - the thought that food could be the culprit - and the solution - to this horrific disease had never before crossed my mind. That's how "dumb" I was. That's how I feel now... because the answer is staring us in our face and we just don't pay attention. How funny (not really) that we've always had control over our health but we've just never picked up the pieces to make it work for us.

Tara's causative foods are the Nightshade group of vegetables. She swears that this is what causes her to breakout... so of course I eliminated those foods for a month (because she suggested that) to see if they were my cause too. Logic told me that a cure is a cure is a cure... but the human body is so individual that something that causes an interruption in the normal process for one person won't even bother the next. I was truly looking at HS as a disease, not as the way my body tries to tell me that I'm eating the wrong foods! So, during my trial I was somehow (slightly, OK, greatly) hoping they were NOT the cause of the issue because I love peppers and eggplant and pepper spices and paprika and I like to eat french fries every now and again too... but after 28 days of no tomatoes, no potatoes, no peppers, (I cleaned my refrigerator and spice closet out and gave everything away, including my Chipotle Tabasco!!!!), I didn't see a change in my "aliens". At this point I was a bit depressed because I really had my hopes set for this to be over and done with for good.

Of course, my brain kicked in and I realized that maybe the nightshades were not my causative factor and I decided I'd try dairy as the possible culprit... and that lasted about 2 days. I was not ready to give up cream in my coffee and Greek yogurt!

The nightshades test was during the month of May 2012. Dairy was going to be July... in October or November I bought a book called Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo BS NC, and started reading about how food really can be the cause and cure to so many different "diseases" of our modern world.

On January 2, 2013 I started eating following the Paleo diet. I didn't cut out the nightshades (as those of us with autoimmune diseases should) because I had already performed my trial on that particular group of vegetables and all was well there! In about 3 weeks time, maybe 4, I was flying high! My biggest open lesion had closed up, the smaller ones were fewer than ever from recent times and my thighs even seemed like the scars were healing!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was dancing a jig - literally, I was dancing in my bathroom! And I was so very excited that I couldn't contain myself... and my entire attitude toward life started to change. Those of you with this nasty disease probably know how depressing it is and how life feels like a trial you are forced to go through, not something you want to do.

Then I started reading It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig. This book was mind-blowing. It really put everything I'd read about from Diane's book into an even sharper perspective for me. I started this mid February... about 34 - 40 days into my Paleo journey.

Again, I didn't cut out dairy, even during my Whole30 because I'd been eating dairy for the previous month and my cure was happening! I was sure that Dairy could not be the culprit. The same goes for the nightshades. I didn't overdo the nightshades... I stayed away from tomato sauces and eggplant was not in season ... I cut down my bell pepper intake to about 1 pepper per week. I still used Cayenne pepper seasoning and other chili pepper seasonings to make all my foods taste yummy!

In March I made my own world famous Turkey and Bean soup to take to a get together. As usual it was fantastic and I decided to have a small bowl - which turned into 3 small bowls over the course of a few hours. And 5 to 6 hours later I started getting that "itchy" feeling on the inside of my thighs. Both of them. This only means one thing... breakout on the way. The culprit: beans. Beans are not included on the Paleo diet... but I figured that a few bowls-ful of turkey soup was not going to hurt me... well, it did. Fortunately because I'd been following a very healthy eating regime for the past 2+ months it didn't affect me very badly and healed within a week.

Now, whether beans will make every person who has HS break out within 5 or 6 hours? Who knows? Certainly not me. But the reason I am putting this out there is so you can find out what DOES work for you!

OK - I think that's enough for now. I'll pick up here again next week. I promise to give you the absolute truth about my journey. What I find that works for me, how I manage to eat paleo and pay my bills, and other amazing things that happen (and some not so amazing things - like what happens when you don't have a gallbladder and you start upping the intake of fat in your diet!) when you start becoming healthy and eating the right foods!