Full Thread

Deb-aura (Boston, Ma) on 04/27/2010
4 out of 5 stars

Hi everyone. This has been a very helpful website to me. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I am 48 and have had PD on and off, currently having the biggest outbreak ever, started a few weeks ago. I had to take some antibiotics back in Jan and Feb, and then it started so I feel like getting at the candida issue is paramount. In the past, my derm treated me for rosacea, but it did not help. After about a week of trying, I am starting to have some visible success with the following approach:

Stopped using oral/body/hair products with fluoride or SLS (and asking my BF to do the same for now, what a great guy!).

Stopped coffee, soda, bread, dairy, sugar (not perfect on this, have always kept these to a minimum anyway but significantly less!)

Skin care: Washing with a very mild cleanser from whl-fds (at the sink, not in the shower, too hot!), applying ACV with a wet cotton ball. Using an extremly light/mild moisturizer, also from whl-fds.

Doing yogurt mask twice a day (organic plain).
Added supplements: probiotics, zinc, garlic, oregano oil, green tea extract.
Drinking 1-2 teasp ACV diluted in water (cutting back on this as it is giving me heartburn).
Now drinking juice of 1/2 lemon in water first thing in the morning before anything else.
I got one acupuncture treatment and am going back for more.

I have a sense that the acupuncture and yogurt mask have been the most helpful, but the other actions are laying the groundwork for healing. Note that I tried the diaper cream approach for a few days but did not notice much improvement. Good luck to everyone!

Replied By Doodle (Narragansett, Ri, Usa) on 10/11/2010

Thanks to everyone on here for all the great tips. I am 15 months pregnant for the 1st time. About a month into my pregnancy this horrible rash started appearing on my face, 2 big splotches, one under each corner of my mouth on my chin. I assumed for a while since I was newly pregnant that it was some kind of pregnancy rash or pregnancy acne. I asked my midwife what she thought, she said acne, even though the rash went from extremely bumpy and inflamed to severely dry and peeling. After another week I went to my dermatologist. She diagnosed me as having perioral dermatitis and prescribed me some erythromycin gel to apply 2x/day, since for me an oral antibiotic is out of the question. I tried it for about 5 days, and then stopped. It was making everything seem so much worse, and I couldn't take all the dryness and peeling it was creating! Along with the fact that I'm not comfortable taking unnecessary meds while pregnant. So I went online and started my adventures with natural remedies. EVERYTHING I HAD TRIED TO DATE THAT DIDN'T WORK:

-organic plain yogurt (washing with and masks)
-grapefruit seed extract (washing with and taking internally)
-violet extract (topical)
-organic apple cider vinegar
-non toxic diaper rash cream with calendula
-calendula cream
-internal probiotics (which I take every day anyway)

I did all of these things at different times, sometimes one at a time, sometimes some of them together, sometimes while going back to the antibiotic gel. No matter what, nothing was working, I was getting more and more impatient, and concerned. I am a bit ocd when it comes to things looking out of place on me, and thinking that I might have to contend with this rash till I was able to take oral antibiotics (roughly 2 years due to pregnancy and breastfeeding) was becoming unbearable. I was definitely getting depressed and not wanting to go out and do things. Then I got a lovely yeast infection (woohoo). I told my doctor I was afraid I might have an overgrowth of yeast in my body, considering some people believe the rash can be due to yeast. She said I should get some antifungal cream (one that you would use for a yeast infection) and apply to rash to see if it works. Also, for this yeast infection my acupuncturist gave me a product called 'yin care herbal wash'. After looking online I read it's good for all sorts of things (yeast, bacteria, fungus, dermatitis, etc). For the past few days I have incorporated both these things into a new routine, and one that is actually working!! NEW ROUTINE THAT IS FINALLY WORKING! :

-wash with warm water or with grapefruit seed extract (if I need to wash off makeup)
-apply the e-mycin antibiotic gel (at night only) and let it sit for 1/2-1 hour
-rinse off e-mycin with warm water and rub on some hydrogen peroxide with cotton ball
-after a couple minutes rub on some yin care herbal wash (50/50 dilution product and water) with cotton ball
-after sometime (not a science here) I apply some terconazole 0. 4% cream (a prescription yeast infection 7 day suppository cream). I would think any type of antifungal cream made for that purpose would work, over the counter included. -last step in the mornings I actually put on some mineral makeup (not the mass marketed ones), some really nice organic makeup that doesn't include the harsh ingredients. I just make sure to wash it off when I get home. I've been following this routine since friday night, and it's now monday night. I cannot cannot cannot believe it but I am watching this beast disappear every time I look in the mirror! Every time I would read on this site about someone finding the thing that would actually cure their dermatitis, rather than feeling hope I would feel more and more like I must be the exception and that nothing would ever work for me.. But trust me, there IS hope! You just need to keep an open mind and continue to try different things, no matter how weird these things might seem. For me, I think it's either the yin care herbal wash, or the terconazole prescription cream (or both). But I'm not gonna stop my trusty routine just in case there's some magic in it. The rash on the right side is almost totally gone, just a couple bumps left but pretty much all smooth skin! It's still quite pink, I guess a bit scarred. The left side is the worse side, it's healing but not nearly to the extent as the right side. I think once it is all completely gone I will dab on some vitamin e oil to heal the pink scarring. I will update once this monster is totally gone! Good luck everyone, and hang in there..

Replied By Doodle (Narragansett, Ri, Usa) on 10/12/2010

Regarding my above post.... Not 15 months pregnant, 15 weeks pregnant. Now that would be interesting..

Replied By A (Traverse City, Mi) on 01/12/2011

Hi, I recently came across your post after looking tirelessly for a natural rememdy to my case of POD. I am also pregnant for the first time, approximately 6 months at this point. I also broke out in POD on my chin roughly a month into my pregnancy. I have had POD in the past, and it has always been treated with an oral antibiotic. My derm gave me the same advice about waiting until after breastfeeding to start the normal treatment, and in the meantime prescribed me Metrogel (which I used for 6 weeks, to no avail! ).

Since then, I have been trying to keep POD at bay with all of the same remedies that you tried, currently I'm using calendula oil AM/PM and nothing else. Since I've had POD before, I switched to SLS free products years ago, and my diet is excellent! So, I don't know what other areas to change, at this point.

I'm writing in response to your last post about the yin care herbal wash, are you still using that product? How has your POD responded? What about the yeast infection cream? I've never had a yeast infection, so I hesitate to use products for that purpose. But, at this point I'm feeling so frustrated and helpless that really, I'm up for anything!

Thank you for your time!

Replied By Kotori (Los Osos, Ca) on 01/14/2011

Remove gluten from your diet. Give your body at least 2 months to eliminate residual glue from your digestive system before judging whether this is root cause of dermatitis. Any rash that occurs near mouth is related to what you ingest. Try eliminating deadly nightshade family(tomato, eggplant, potato) if still suffering. The toxins that cannot be eliminated through digestion or filter organs come out via the skin. It is the bodies largest organ.

Replied By Cured! (Durham, Nc) on 10/18/2012

I struggled for a year with a skin condition that was diagnosed by various dermatologists as either PD or Rosacea. After having clear skin all my life, I went from doctor to doctor, trying all their prescriptions and also all the natual remedies I could find. None of these worked and the conditon was painful and embarrasing, and progressively getting worse.

Finally, I saw an acupunturist who does a therapy called Nutritional Response Therapy. ' She diagnosed a candida (yeast) overgrowth in my entire body, leading also to fatigue and digestional distress. She put me on a very strict anti-yeast diet and gave me a regimen of natural supplements to kill the yeast.

Within one week I noticed improvement. Within three months I was cured. My skin is gorgeous, I feel better than ever, and I am back to my normal eating habits with no supplements.

If you have not had luck with other natural treatments, I highly recommend finding a practitioner who can evaluate what is happening systemically that may be leading to your skin issues. It has changed my life!

Entire Thread

You must be logged in to love this post! Please sign in:

You must be logged in to follow this post! Please sign in: