Hidradenitis Suppurative (chronic boils)

[kidkid]

Yes, it's quite gross. Worse than that, it's painful and little studied. It's like acne, but not acne. It's a chronic blockage of sweat glands, resulting in a large and painful boil which rises, becomes hard, drains, and leaves a purple scar. It usually occurs on areas of the body where skin touches skin, like inner thighs, armpits, or under the breasts. I have it on my inner thighs and it has flared up now and then since I was about 13. Sometimes it's so painful that it's hard to walk.

So far I haven't found any concrete solutions. They say it is incurable and degenerative, and it has nothing to do with good or bad hygiene. Weight loss (to minimize how much skin touches skin) has been suggested, also making sure you don't sweat (which is really hard when you're trying to lose weight). There may be a link between HS and candida. Also, it is connected with hormone imbalance, which makes sense because I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. For that reason, taking anti-androgens is also suggested. However, there's also a theory that foods high in estrogen might make it worse...so there's a lot of different ideas floating around.

Does anyone else out there have this? Has anyone had it improve with raw foods or a specific diet therein? How does one eat to heal candida anyway? Are there any foods which inhibit androgen and might be useful to try?

thanks! much love.:)

[jumpingbean]

Wow, I'm so sorry you are going through that. :( I don't have any personal experience with it but wanted to suggest that you research spearmint tea for it's anti-androgen properties. I have grave's disease (overactive thyroid) and my hormones are all out of whack. I used to take a drug called spironolactone which helps get rid of androgens. I was told by my naturopathic doctor that flax seed is also very good for this so I add 1 tbsp. of flax seed to my green smoothie in the morning. Back to the tea--I drink two cups of spearmint tea a day and it's very good and definitely seems to help with the hormones. My skin is much less oily since drinking it.

Have you tried exercising? I have psoriatic nails (lovely!) and exercise seems to help as well as a very clean diet. I think many of our ailments could be linked to faulty liver function or adrenal overload but that is just my humble opinion. Good luck and I hope you find something that eases your symptoms.

[kidkid]

jumpingbean, thank you for your insight! I'll look into spearmint tea right away. and yes, I think exercising more would probably help a lot. It's supposed to help with whacky hormones. It's a little frustrating because sweating triggers a flareup, but i might just have to exercise anyway and plow through some flareups in order to get over this illness.

I don't know much about the liver function or adrenal overload, but I'm beginning to think that a really good extensive cleanse might be on my horizon, seeing as I've never done one.

[genevabh]

i've seen lots of dr's and i almost had surgery...the surgeon changed her mind after I was unable to take antibiotics for a year and i was overweight...i was made to feel that it was my fault but after several more dr's that was not the case

i take motrin and tylenol (not together but after a while one doesn't work) and then some ice--it takes a while, but the swelling (which is the cause for the pain) will go down enough to walk

i've been trying to loose the weight myself, but it's extremly hard when you can't move, so I can relate...so you are definitely not alone

good luck and i'm going to try that spearmint tea too

[Draginvry]

Virtually all skin problems are related to the intestines. If you have clean intestines, you should have clean skin.