Julie (Phoenix, AZ) on 11/22/2008

I've had oral lichen planus for 8-10 years and latley light outbreaks on wrist/ankle. With me, my oral lichen planus will often clear up completely, and always get milder, if I stick to a lower carb diet. While I'm not overweight I confess to preferring to eat lots of carbs typically from sweets. When I ease off, my condition always improves - often to miraculous degree. Today on internet I searched 'lichen planus diet' and found a similar post from a dentist stating a patient of his experiences same. I'm convinced there is a link between proper body funtioning (caused by better diet) and ease of auto immune probs like lichen planus. Likewise my other auto immune issue of painful joints also worsens with poor diet, and goes away when less carbs consumed. Other posts on earth clinic have suggested links to vitamins, acidity, etc for treatment/cure. I think perhaps when your body functions properly when you eat right, burning fat as it should, that your body heals itself of some odd ills. And conversely, when you eat poorly, your body's systems are adversely affected, sometimes presenting in various ways such as lichen planus for some of us. I'd love to know if others experience same. I hope this helps some others. I will try to stick to better diet. It's tough though. To remove my lichen planus completely I have to drastically reduce carbs, then I can have sugary desserts, pasta, etc. 2-3 times a week without recurrence of lichen planus. What's tough for me is falling off wagon and getting into bad cycle of too much sugar too often - if I don't break pattern my lichen planus remains and can worsen. But the good news for all is it CAN be done. I recall many times where I broken pattern, fixed my lichen planus, and ate well for MONTHS at a time without issue. The real trick is this: when you see even the smallest hint of lichen planus returning, you've been eating too many carbs and need to ease off.