[YEA]  11/02/2011: Dave from Los Angeles, Us writes: "Hi,

I thought I'd share my story in hopes that my experience will help others.

I've been suffering from this horrible condition since I was 18 - I am 36. I went through the vicious cycle of antibiotics (many different kinds) and lancings with little success. My aliens were all in the groin area. At first, this process did help with flare ups. I would go for several months and somtimes over a year without serious flare-ups - the condition was manageable, minimal discomfort and pain that would heal quickly. it stopped being manageable about 8 years ago.

During this period I was partying often (drinking, smoking, etc. ), not sleeping much, eating very poorly (I have never been overweight, a bit underweight... just eating a lot of fast and processed foods) and not exercising much if at all.

Several years back it got really bad (constant pain and discomfort, it was painful getting out of bed). I had sores that constantly drained, never healing. I did some serious googling on remedies and ran into this site among other sites that provided information that I was looking for.

I tried remedies looking for a quick fix still maintaining the lifestyle drinking, smoking, poor sleep, bad food, etc. without any improvement. Acv, turmeric, vitamins, tea tree oil, epsom salt baths, etc were all in the mix. I was pretty down as there was minimal improvement. I did this for a few months.

I then read posts about detoxing with raw organic foods. So I gave it a try. I went 100% raw for about a week and continued at about 90% for a month - I also added probiotics to the regimen and ate some cooked foods, but removed processed foods almost completely. I was also continued the other remedies. I was still smoking but drinking much less with my sleep slightly improving. I don't exactly remember the progress or when everything clicked, but I remember waking up one morning and noticed the pain and the draining coming to a complete stop. Everything flattened out! I continued the strict diet for a few more months with zero flare-ups. I then began adding bad foods back into the diet and increasing the partying forgetting how horrible things were. The aliens did reappear but would go away quickly, nothing like it used to be. Zero medication during this period.

Thinking I was in the clear, I discontinued the strict diet completely. I was eating poorly , but still taking the probitics and other remedies mentioned. At this point I quit smoking but continued to drink. I was good for about a year. flare-ups did occur but they healed quickly with minimal discomfort - more like zits instead of cysts.

About 2 months ago an angry alien came to visit and has not left. It is in a new area and has been very painful. It grew and continued to drain. I've been back on the strict diet (95% raw, daily green juices, no processed foods, etc) for about a week now as I've been rudely reminded of this horrible condition I have and will likely always have. I've also quit smoking and have limited the drinking. I'm also trying to rest as much as possible. The alien has, today, stopped hurting and is flattening out with minimal drainage. From previous experience, I'm confident the sore will heal as long as I continue the lifestyle change.

Your body does a good job of telling you when something is wrong and I believe, from experience, what we ingest plays the biggest role is HS. All the processed foods we ingest, I believe, act like poisons to our system. From my research, medical conditions have increased dramatically since processed foods were introduced. These foods do not have any nutrients and not having the balance by consuming nutrient rich, raw, living foods results in our bodies breaking down. if you really think about it, it makes sense and I suggest all of you to do your own research.

A dramatic change in food required a huge lifestyle change for me and I think it will be for most of you, but it's so worth it. As I've found and as many of you already know, there isn't a cure or a simple fix for HS, but I believe there is a long term solution that will keep me symptom free. This is my experiece for those suffering. I tried most everything and I feel that I've found what works for me and I hope this helps with many of you suffering."

[BETTER BUT NOT CURED]  05/14/2009: Tony from Sydney, AU writes: "I have just stumbled across this site and am so happy to read all these cures i have yet to try, but for these 4 years i have realized that some things that i eat also affect the site that i got on my neck, for instance deep fried products, white flour products and anything that has hydrogenated oils and sometimes some red meat that i have eaten and many others that i do not realize. I found that cutting these foods out of my diet has greatly decreased the severity of HS but will not cure. But now hopefully i can try some of these remedies that might work and hope that they will work for everyone because none of us need to have these red spots on us."

[BETTER BUT NOT CURED]  10/01/2010: Suezenny from Columbus, Ohio, Usa writes: "I want to start off by saying that I've been suffering from H.S. since I was five.... At least that is when I had my first boil in my groin. I believe that I've had it my whole life and the boil was really just my first symptom, rather than the start of the disease. I grew up eating highly processed foods, high fructose corn syrup, and very little fruits and veggies. I believe now that because H.S. is really a reaction to a poor immune system, that my body was trying to rid itself of toxins in the way it knew how.... Through the skin. Having developed stage II H.S. in middle school and going through the extensive western treatments, ie; antibiotics, antibiotics, and more antibiotics, sitz baths, compresses, antibacterial soap, and even accutane, I tried everything, to no avail and eventually just learned to accept H.S. that is until now. At age 33, I progressed into stage III, where half of my buttock was inflamed with a baseball size "boil" painfully making it difficult to sit, walk, or even lay down. I went to my doctor, hoping it could be lanced. After much pain and torture, she gave up, gave me a list for a surgeon and said I have to have it removed through surgery. After hearing all you out there with horror stories, I said to myself, "No way am I doing that! "

I've truly believed for some time now that food can be either a medicine or a poison. Although I've known this intuitively, I've never really tried to eat to the standards I knew I needed. I thought "now or never, ya gotta do it Susan! " So after two days of using the antibiotics (it just got worse anyway, which I knew would happen) I decided to cleanse out my system and give my body what it needed.

Here is what I did:

1. ) having read everyones praise about turmeric, I started take 1/4 tbs 3x day. (I've taken it before without much improvement, but have considered the fact that it might not be all I needed to do)

2. ) I only ate vegetables, mostly greens such as swiss chard, kale, spinach, and mixed salad greens. I sometimes would juice these to get more in one setting.
3. ) I drank distilled water with lemon added (roughly 84 ounces each day.
4. ) I took vitamin D and a multivitamin.
5. ) I avoided sugar, caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, meat, dairy and gluten.
6. ) I saw a naturopathic doctor who agreed that gluten-free dairy free was the way to go if you have H.S. She is currently looking into my blood work to see how we can adjust my diet to be more appropriate. Additionally, she has several H.S. patients that are in remission! A doctor who actually has positive feedback!!!

So the results: After two days of this my boil came to a head and started draining. After one week it shrunk to the size of a pea! Additionally, the rest of my smaller symptoms of H.S. are dried up and gone, my skin overall is smoother, my hair shinier, face glows more, and I have energy like never before! I'm not 100% yet, as I have days where I cheat (I'm only human ;) but I strive to eat well at least 90% of the time. My final conclusion is that our bodies are actually totally amazing at healing once we nurture ourselves. Disease is Dis-Ease. Sickness is our bodies being out of balance and striving to re-balance themselves. When a condition is acute (such as my baseball size boil on my buttock) I nurtured myself completely. Got plenty of sleep, flushed my system with clean water, and gave my body the vitamins, minerals and nutrients it has been craving for years and years.

I would say the turmeric is also essential with this as after I would take it initially, the pain would stop altogether. I wanted to share this story because, like I said, I've tried the turmeric in the past with not much in the way of results, but I was really looking for a quick solution rather than a total revamp to how I treat my body. Once I gave my body what it needs to heal, the turmeric had a friendly playground so to speak to clean up all the junk! The good new is that there really are a bunch of healthy options for food out there now days, especially if you have a whole foods or trader joes near by. Luckily, even grocery stores are coming around with organic throughout. (Oh, that being said, try to eat as much organic and clean food as possible). The initial period of switching your diet will be difficult, but the results are worth it! The longer you eat clean food, the more you like it and the less you want all the junk/processed foods that you used to think tasted good. Good luck to all my brothers and sisters out there who deal with this dis-ease. Love yourself and give your body what it needs!"

[YEA]  11/04/2008: Sarah Simpson from Brighton, UK writes: "Giving up coffee gave me back some control of the size of my sores.

I have suffered with HS for a long time and had to have an operation on my armpit 8 years ago but was not actually diagnosed until much later. Once I knew what I was dealing with I started to use tea tree oil and echinacea. But to be honest, particularly when I was stressed, the painful sores would still emerge. Finally a dear friend read on the net that coffee can have a massive effect on sufferers. So I gave up coffee (was on 3 or 4 large expresso's a day). And it worked. I'd occasionally get the odd little murmur of an outbreak but was able to control it with a dab or Tea Tree and up until this weekend, I'd been clear of any real offending sores.

Unfortunately I realise that I've been gradually reintroducing coffee into my diet over the last year (hubby got a coffee machine for Christmas) and I am now suffering for it. Safe to say, I'm off coffee again and will try the Turmeric and the other suggestions to deal with my current and extremely uncomfortable sore. I've also changed my deodorant and now use crystal spray which has been great. What a wonderful site. Thank you all for sharing and making me feel less of an outsider."

[YEA]  01/30/2009: DJ from Pensacola, FL writes: "I went through a period where I was getting genital boils or pimples that would be very painful and sometimes had to be lanced. I began to get them with ever increasing frequency until finally I was getting them every 2-3 weeks. They would take 7-10 days to develop and resolve and I would be relieved only to get a new one within a short time. That made it kind of difficult to work and I used up a lot of vacation time and annoyed my employers. The gynecologist thought I had something called hydradenitis suppurativa. My dermatologist agreed. There was no real treatment, so they said.

Looking it up on the internet I found lots of painful stories but not much help to be had. I did come across a doctor's explanation to a poster, though, that I would remember later. The doctor said that the problem was that the oil in the hair follicles was too thick and was clogging up the pores because the poster was not getting enough essential oils. That made no sense to me so I forgot about it. Later, at the height of my boil problems I decided that losing weight would help so I started the Atkins diet program. If you do it right, you take their supplementary oil capsules - esential fatty acids, ie. Omega Oils. I did that. After a period of months, I suddenly realized that I had not had a boil in a long time and I remembered that doctor's comment. Eventually I stopped the diet and stopped taking the oils. The boils came back. I started taking the oils again - they went away.

Connecting the dots, I now make sure that I supplement with Omega oils regularly and that keeps the little beasties away. If I get one, which is rare now, I usually realize that I haven't been taking my oils again and when I restart, they disappear. We need these essential fatty acids anyway for other reasons so why not? To me, it seems a reasonable trade and a very easy cure for a tough problem that I have discovered is a lot more common among women than I would have expected."

[BETTER BUT NOT CURED]  07/09/2011: Ck from Anchorage, Ak writes: "After trying the gamut of internal and external treatments for the past 30 years - everything short of surgery - I have had some promising results (touch wood) with two simple products: exfoliating body scrub and a tea tree oil-based deodorant. This will not necessarily clear up an existing outbreak but it may help prevent or reduce the severity of future ones.

Try an exfoliating body scrub daily on problem areas. I have been using a Neutrogena acne scrub containing salycilic acid, as well as a delightful coconut scrub from Pure Fiji. They help keep pores and follicles clear and may keep nasties from getting a foothold.

Have also switched to a tea trea oil-based deodorant (by Jason), applying it to armpits as well as other problem areas.

I started this about 4 months ago after an especially nasty and persistent outbreak that affected several parts of my body at once. It finally cleared up with a course of heavy antibiotics supplemented by several of the home remedies described on this forum (especially turmeric tea, turmeric paste, and tea trea oil). In 4 months I have had only a couple of very small and superficial "pimples" that subsided in 1 or 2 days. Good luck.

CK"

01/23/2012: Ace from Vancouver, Bc writes: "Everyone with HS needs to go to a Naturopath and get a Food Allergy TEST!

I am trying to get this message out to as many ppl that have HS as possible - THIS can be the cure for 80% of you!!

Most of us have digestive issues and weakened immune systems, and our bodies are reacting to what we put in our bodies, which are bodies can not handle, and it shows up on our skin in the form of boils.

For me it was dairy, for you it could be dairy, it could be gluten or wheat, or something else!

TAKE THIS MESSAGE VERY SERIOUSLY - THIS CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER!!!

My dermatologist told me to take anti biotics for the rest of my life - I had really bad HS - I just went to see him recently, and showed him I was almost 100% cured... He was shocked!

It is very simple for me, and will be for most of you, my body can not digest or handle certain foods, and that causes HS reactions. You need to figure out what foods!!! Day by day figure out what you ate, and see how it reacts on your body. For me, if I have diary, it will immediately show up on my body (ex- within a few minutes)... it is very obvious what is effecting me..

Allergy test is only step 1... healthy lifestyle is step 2 (yoga, gym, healthy diet)...

DONT LIVE YOUR LIFE IN MISERY WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE TO!!!"