Look for What Is Causing the Imbalance
★★★★★
(Laguna Beach, CA)
08/13/2008
★★★★★
After trying everything listed on this site, I decided to get tested for food allergies. I was skeptical, but after two weeks of avoiding foods I was allergic to, my scalp was 90% better. I am hoping the seborrheic dermatitis completely goes away in a few more weeks. I highly recommend getting the blood test for food allergies / delayed food allergies. Is is worth every penny. Everything else works temporarily.
(Tonasket, WA.)
08/18/2008
While a blood test for a skin allergy is at least going to work, why not try a muscle test, then just get it cured instead of having to avoid it. Better yet, treat the allergy, using NAET practitioners, and then avoid the lousy soaps anyways, and use a vinegar rinse to boot. Your scalp and hair, not to mention body, will love you for it.
Lotrimin
★★★★★
In researching the condition on the internet, I believed I had sebhorrheic dermatitis. I read that this can be caused by a yeast called Pityrosporum ovale. I had a old tube of clotrimazole left over from a treatment of a vaginal yeast infection. I began to use it immediately, rubbing it into my skin, particularly between the eyebrows.
To my surprise, the rough skin and scaly patches were gone by morning. I picked up a generic version of Lotrimin the next day because the tube was nearly empty. I intend to continue this treatment for at least 2 or 3 weeks. I want to make sure that this yeast is dead.
Even if this cure is not permanent (although I hope that it is), at least I have something to fight this with!
Lugol's Iodine
★★★★★
I hope this helps someone. I know how frustrating and embarrassing this condition is.
Lugol's Iodine
★★★★★
At first I diluted 3% lugol's iodine 50/50 with water and applied it with a q-tip. I held the q-tip on the spot for 60 seconds. It burned like the dickens, but it was worth it! After the second day, I held undiluted lugol's to the spots with a q-tip. After 7 days it was gone and I applied it every few days, thinking it would come back if I didn't. It never did and I stopped the lugol's application altogether.
Dairy and especially cheese is a huge trigger for my seb derm.
Please try lugol's if you have sebhorreic dermatitis. It has been a miracle cure for this impossible condition!
(Chicago, Il)
01/19/2016
2 year Update on lugol's iodine for seborrheic dermatitis - success!
I am sorry it took me so long to update my post on using lugol's iodine for seb dermatitis. I don't know why I could find my post before today!
After applying the lugol's daily for approximately 7 days, and then every 3-4 days after that for another 2 weeks, I am pleased to say that the seb derm on my face never returned. I can confidently say that lugol's was a COMPLETE CURE for me.
I hope this helps many others who struggle with this condition.
Magnesium Oil
★★★★★
Magnesium oil has cured it. I leave it on for about 5 min before rinsing it. I leave it on until it stings and it stings less the more you put it on until eventually it doesn't. But I do it once a week to make sure it doesn't come back just in case.
Milk of Magnesia
★★★★★
Milk of Magnesia
★★★★★
As to whether I have a fungus or a candida issue I really do not know, but I feel I may just be allergic to cheese and white bread - or both in combo with candida. Anyway, for those suffering give this a go you will be stunned at the results. It may also just work with ACV (5%) and not the 25% vinegar / ACV mix.
Multiple Remedies
★★★★★
I've had SD for about 9 months now and over the last 6 weeks have really gotten it under control to where it's not noticeable. My symptoms got extremely bad (months 5-7) - very red / flaky face & chest and bad dandruff. I was really bummed when ACV didn't work for me as that seems to be the cure for so many others (ACV and hydrogen peroxide did a great job removing flakes on my scalp but neither helped facial or chest redness etc.).
I've been doing numerous things to help the condition so it's hard to point to one thing as 'the cure' but if I had to I would probably list dandelion as helping the most. I've detailed my current regimen below (note: I went ~5 weeks no meat, no dairy, no wheat, no sweets and saw a bit of improvement but things really started improving when I added in other supplements & products):
Diet ('Shakes' & 'Meals')
Shakes: Plant based protein powder, chia seeds, flaxseed. Usually breakfast and throughout the day if hungry.
Meals: Vegetables (Broccoli, caulifower, carrots, squash, onion etc.) eaten with hummus (usually melt non-dairy cheese on top for flavor), sometimes I'll add small portion of ahi tuna.
I was a big meat eater and have a huge sweet tooth so it's been tough but those items aren't worth a bright red face to me. Diet is probably pretty extreme, I'm starting to add back items and see how they affect my condition.
Supplements:
Dandelion: Mine is root, leaf and flower. Take 40 drops 2-3 times a day between meals (Brand: herb pharm).
Glutamine: Right when I wake up I drink a glass of water, wait 15 mins, take serving of glutamine and don't eat for 20-30 mins. I don't know how big of an impact glutamine has had, I read it worked for someone else so I've been doing it.
Enzymes: Taken with every meal (Brand: garden of life).
Multi-vitamin: Taken as directed (garden of life).
Probiotic: Taken as directed (garden of life).
Green superfood drinks: I drink occasionally (Brand: amazing grass).
Omega-3's: Just started taking this once a day (Brand: Ovega-3).
Skin Products:
Soap: Dandruff shampoo bar (Brand: round tree organics)
Shampoo: Burdock & neem healthy scalp shampoo (Brand: 100% pure)
Conditioner: Burdock & neem healthy scalp conditioner (Brand: 100% pure)
I used to shower twice a day, now I only shower at night. Make sure to really rub in the shampoo using fingertips & nails, may notice some hairloss at first but it would have fallen out anyways.
Face: Calcium bentonite detox clay powder. Use 2 nights a week. (Brand: living clay)
Face: Facial seborrheic dermatitis lotion stick. Applied in morning and at night. (Brand: derm-essentials)
Scalp: Oil for SD from derm-essentials. After I shower at night I mix with a small bit of coconut oil and apply to scalp / hair. (Brand: derm-essentials)
Scalp: In the morning I quickly rinse hair and apply a SMALL bit of coconut oil and may reapply throughout the day.
Some of these products are exclusive to the brand, others it probably doesn't matter what brand you use.
General lifestyle: I make an effort to sit in the sun each day even if for only 10-15 minutes and I also workout regularly (Male, age 27).
Multiple Remedies
After all this years while trying diffrent diets it occur to me not to eat PORK! Yupiii this was a Bingo for my DS!! I do not know what this have to do but I really dont care!! I do not have those flakes and patches no more, I can eat whatever I want and even drink alcohol! Now that I have found this page thanks to Ted and others I think that I have this disease due to drinking alot and this may have caused me candida and can be seen in my DS. I have to address that since then I been DS free until a feel days I was in a severe stressful and nervous sitation my DS came back but in a mild way just with the clear bumps but left in 2 days when I was calm. I really hope this will help someone out there..
I am now following Ted in EC and have been doing the ACV, lemon with H20 and trying not to eat sugars and I am trying to give up that social, ocasional drinksss. So for me right now is NO PORK, ACV, LEMON, -moisturizers OLIVE oil or CASTOR oil, and trying to keep myself CALM in upset, nervous breaking situations.
Multiple Remedies
★☆☆☆☆
Please help me, I am at my wit's end. I got seb der in my eyebrows about eight months ago (and I think my trigger was make-up). This winter it flared up really badly. I tried drinking only soy milk but that did not help. My entire eyebrows are covered with flakes, and have been covered for several weeks now. Steroid creams worked initially and my skin calmed down, so I switched to Elidel like my doc said to, and my eyebrows got really bad. I tried Jason's tea tree oil shampoo and that irritated my skin. I am currently on Desonide (a steroid cream) and a salicylic acid cream, and there have been some slight improvements. Please help me, this is so embarrassing and frustrating. The seb derm is spreading so more and more of my eyebrows are getting scales. Before it was only a small area, but it expanded.I am also afraid of hair loss. The flakes are so huge that usually, most of the scale gets off of the roots of the hairs, but when I go to pull out the flake, since not all of the flake became detached from my skin, I pull a couple of hairs with it. Please help, I am very desperate. I am thinking of doing something drastic like cutting off of my eyebrows and just not showing up to school for a month.
(Monroe, MI)
01/19/2009
Hello and thank you for this wonderful site, I love Earthclinic!
I have had many skin problems, especially on my face, the constant itching has at times, nearly driven me crazy. I have tried many remedies many of which seem to work only temporarily (although I must confess that I am not as good as perhaps I should be about sticking to one remedy at the time, or giving a given remedy a chance to work). Lately I have been taking the remedy that is listed here as a "blood cleansing" one, which is the Blackstrap Molasses (1 teaspoon) plus Sulfur (in form of MSM - 2 teaspoons), twice daily. I usually mix these two ingredients and eat them with a spoon and then drink about 2 cups of slightly warm water to get rid of the awful taste. So far, the results have been very good (I have only been taking it for about 2 weeks), the itching is almost completely gone and my skin is fairly soft. I don't wear make up or any kind of facial creams. I try to avoid anything that can cause irritation, but because of the cold, I have to use some moisturizer, for that I choose one drop or two of Jojoba oil. I hope this helps.
(Vero, FL)
01/19/2009
Here is a link that may help you.
http://dermatology.about.com/cs/seborrhea/a/sebderm.htm
Try applying Selsun Blue shampoo for about 10 minutes each day for a week to the area and then a couple of times a week until the flaking is gone. This has worked well for several patients of mine.
Best wishes!! Let us know what worked!
(Mo)
12/17/2015
Neem Oil
★★★★★
Apple cider vinegar unfortunately did not work for me... But NEEM oil did. I have applied Neem twice now, using a mixture of 2:1 Neem to a carrier oil (i used oliver oil) and added a few drops of various aromatherapy oils, clove, tea tree, peppermint, lavender etc. I think it is important to get a correct diagnosis for what is troubling your scalp. Seborrheic dermatitis is caused by a fungus called Malassezia, and so any treatment really needs to be potent in anti fungal properties. It has worked for me so far and no flakiness, reduced reddness, and much less itchy. Wonderful!
OTC
★★★★★
Prescriptions
★★★★★
Probiotic Wipes
★★★★★
I was recently diagnosed with SD on my face. Like most, I tried everything without success. It then dawned on me to try probiotic wipes seeing as how this appears to be a yeast problem and I wanted to report that I have had great success with this treatment and my problem has completely resolved after about a week and my skin is nice and soft. I have been doing this 2-3 times per day. It may take longer for some. I hope this is helpful.
(Fairfax, Va)
02/16/2016
Watermark (Buffalo, NY): Where are the probiotic wipes you used available? Thanks. Larry
(Sweden)
10/14/2016
Hi, what do you mean by probiotic wipes? How do you apply it? Thansk
Salicylic Acid
★★★★☆
By far and away the most helpful thing I've found in my battle against SD is salicylic acid - The strongest over the counter percentage is 3 percent - this helped me but was not enough. My doctor prescribed salicylic acid at 6 percent prescription strength and that applied twice a day keeps it mostly under wraps. Once or twice a year it flares up despite the salicylic acid cream, usually at the beginning of summer and winter - at these times I use a lot of apple cider vinegar and sulfure masks in addition to the prescription strength salicylic acid cream.
