Grover's Disease: What works to help find relief?

Posted by 43219876x @43219876x, Sep 23, 2016

I have been diagnosed with Grover's disease under my breasts. I had a biopsy for diagnosis. Tried topical ointment with no really good results. Any ideas?

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@bg1910

I have had Grover's Disease for over 4 years praying it would go away. I treated it with steroids for years and tried to make sure I was wearing the correct fabrics and doing all the things my dermatologist suggested. I have Hashimoto's and have also had multiple autoimmune issues x 30 years. About 2 years ago I started looking at my diet. I cut out gluten 2 years ago, and my skin slightly improved. 1 year ago I cut out dairy and eggs. My skin stayed the same. My husband and I started hearing about and researching the carnivore diet. 30 days ago I started in on just meat, salt and water. I started it as an elimination diet to see what triggered my autoimmune symptoms. After 14 days I added back in minimal dairy including hard cheese, heavy whipping cream in my coffee and butter. My skin is 90% clear. If you're reading this, please research plant oxalates and plant anti-nutrients and what it does to your gut health. If anything, use the carnivore diet as an elimination diet short term, to see what foods are triggering your symptoms. I truly believe that diet is the answer to cure this.
If going this route, please research the diet thoroughly before you start. There are tricks to doing this safely and correctly, and taking this route requires knowledge to keeping your body safe, while you adjust to a sudden change. Again research: carnivore diet, oxalates, oxalate dumping, lectins, plant antinutrients and Sally K. Norton who is leading the research on this. I believe there are good plants to eat, I just don't believe all of them are safe for you.
I know if you are suffering from this disease, you're willing to try anything to live normal again. I spent multiple hours on chat boards trying to find answers. This is the first time I've felt hopeful that this will go away and I can go to sleep at night without my skin feeling like it's on fire. Good luck to everyone posting on here. I pray you find answers and your own path to a cure.

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I have 3 type of eczema and resisted dietary changes, but my yeast misery gave me the impetus to try diet change based on my gynecologist recommendation. Your diet plan is more restrictive, but both of us are having great results. Thank goodness I like meat!! The Dr. William Crook, MD anti-inflammation diet to kill the stubborn yeast which resides in the intestines and gives off waste byproducts raising our inflammation (this is because yeast byproducts going into our bloodstream raise our histamine levels) is also heavy on meat, but I get poultry, fish, probiotic yogurt and eggs, almonds and walnuts and this detox allows masses of vegetables, except night shades. It is also stated to help with eczema. After the 2 month detox my decades old chronic yeast inflammation issues were gone!!! No inflammation in my female privates. Now 6 months later and on modified diet control-no processed sugar, natural sugar limited and zero carbs for life, yeast symptoms still gone and no meds to help!!! I believe dietary changes help with many forms of eczema, especially the most common type, Atopic which I don't have. My types of eczema aren't simply related to diet, as I must control my external contacts and exposure. My GD has definitely been helped by joining the Cilantro Club; nothing else ever made much difference. Steroids did nothing. Everyone should try this cilantro plan unless they have some sort of vitamin allergy. With the Crook diet, going off the sugar and carbs made no noticeable difference with my GD, in fact after being on this plan for 4 months I began another residual breakout of GD. Yet may have helped with my ACD because I did not need my annual corticosteroid shot in Dec after starting this elimination diet in Oct. Even with all my contact avoidance's I still required on annually until this year. My Perioral Eczema, PE has been controlled since I learned what to avoid. The PE contacts are not allergies and different than the ACD 5 Day Patch Test Allergens so can't say if diet helped with that as I learned to control it before dietary changes.

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Those of us with eczema are constantly studying .
Because of this site we have read that cilantro works as a heavy metal detox and for some reason it is helping at least 50% tremendously, me included. I didn't test positive to nickle or cobalt on my patch test 5 years ago and these were the only metals tested for. Yet recently had a blood test to determine allergies to metal and bone cement as I am considering a knee replacement. Of the 9 metals it tested for I reacted to 7, only iron and titanium not causing an allergic reaction. My worst reactions were to aluminum and nickle and cobalt. Why this didn't show up 5 years ago with the patch test I don't know. Perhaps the blood test is more accurate.
If cilantro is working as heavy metal detox and cleaned out the allergic metals in my blood perhaps that is why I am improved. My thinking is that if Grover's is caused or can be triggered by metals then those of us that are allergic to metals have more of a tendency to develop Grover's and once we have Grover's a chronic incurable autoimmune disease the metal may trigger symptoms. Metals build up in our bodies.
This revelation about metal allergy's puts a few more pieces of my eczema puzzle together. I have avoided all other allergen's identified on my 5 Day Extended Patch Test, yet even when I avoid make up with my know allergens I find the majority of products that should be "safe" cause an allergic reaction. After wasting money and suffering I have found a few products I can use without irritation, but a safe eye shadow has alluded me. After buying dozens of eye brown pencils I finally found one that causes no reaction and believe me this has made me very happy as my brow hair is so light. I never tossed or gave away many of these expensive offending products and re-read the ingredients, many contain metals.
Metals are hard to avoid, they are even in our water, so let's hope the continued daily use of cilantro will continue to alleviate symptoms for many of us.

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I have had great success using the "Cilantro Club" plan and still make my cilantro smoothy daily and plan to do so for life.

I want to tell my allergist and dermatologist about this because now after 2 1/2 months of remission I believe it is worth sharing what we "guinea pigs" have learned with our personal testing.

From what I have read previously at least 50% have benefited like me.

Could you check in and share if it did or didn't work with you so I can pass that along to my specialists.

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Yes! Been working for me for 3 months. Real test now this week as I am in Pacific Northwest and a little isolated. I am relying on Cilantro capsules and the very cool weather. Will let y’all know next week when I return to Texas.

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Thanks. So far using the fresh I am able to garden in the morning and sweat for a few hours outside and no new breakout. We're lucky.
If you have electricity have thought of packing the fresh and freezing it when you get to your destination? Others say frozen works for them. Also if you only have refrigeration, no freezer, I keep mine for a week by trimming an inch off the bottom and putting it is a glass with a few inches of water which I change every 3 days. I top with a plastic bag with cuts in it to allow some fresh air.

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@gardeningjunkie

Thanks. So far using the fresh I am able to garden in the morning and sweat for a few hours outside and no new breakout. We're lucky.
If you have electricity have thought of packing the fresh and freezing it when you get to your destination? Others say frozen works for them. Also if you only have refrigeration, no freezer, I keep mine for a week by trimming an inch off the bottom and putting it is a glass with a few inches of water which I change every 3 days. I top with a plastic bag with cuts in it to allow some fresh air.

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Yeah but airport screening might think the cilantro was something other than my “medication” LOL.

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@gardeningjunkie

Thanks. So far using the fresh I am able to garden in the morning and sweat for a few hours outside and no new breakout. We're lucky.
If you have electricity have thought of packing the fresh and freezing it when you get to your destination? Others say frozen works for them. Also if you only have refrigeration, no freezer, I keep mine for a week by trimming an inch off the bottom and putting it is a glass with a few inches of water which I change every 3 days. I top with a plastic bag with cuts in it to allow some fresh air.

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Yes. But I’m in middle of national park and don’t think flying with a green herb would get by TSA.

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@gardeningjunkie

I have had great success using the "Cilantro Club" plan and still make my cilantro smoothy daily and plan to do so for life.

I want to tell my allergist and dermatologist about this because now after 2 1/2 months of remission I believe it is worth sharing what we "guinea pigs" have learned with our personal testing.

From what I have read previously at least 50% have benefited like me.

Could you check in and share if it did or didn't work with you so I can pass that along to my specialists.

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Hi all, I did a bit of Google Scholar searching for research articles about cilantro and its potential medicinal use. While the effects and results some of you are experiencing are promising, please note that there isn't yet enough information to know for sure if cilantro is safe when taken as a medicine. More research is required.

I agree @gardeningjunkie that it is valuable to tell your specialists about your experience with cilantro. Gathering anecdotal evidence is often the first step to prompting more research. Here's more info to help your conversation with your allergist and dermatologist. (Note, for some people cilantro can cause allergic reactions.)

- WedMD https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1533/cilantro
- Elsevier Review Article - Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) essential oil: Chemistry and biological activity https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2221169115000647
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: Health-promoting properties of common herbs https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/70/3/491s/4714940

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@ethanmcconkey

Hi all, I did a bit of Google Scholar searching for research articles about cilantro and its potential medicinal use. While the effects and results some of you are experiencing are promising, please note that there isn't yet enough information to know for sure if cilantro is safe when taken as a medicine. More research is required.

I agree @gardeningjunkie that it is valuable to tell your specialists about your experience with cilantro. Gathering anecdotal evidence is often the first step to prompting more research. Here's more info to help your conversation with your allergist and dermatologist. (Note, for some people cilantro can cause allergic reactions.)

- WedMD https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1533/cilantro
- Elsevier Review Article - Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) essential oil: Chemistry and biological activity https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2221169115000647
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: Health-promoting properties of common herbs https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/70/3/491s/4714940

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Thank you Ethan for sources of information about cilantro. You are right we don't have enough information to know if this could be harmful.
It is true that when suffering from a disease we often jump into treatments that are not documented and could have harmful side affects.
In my case with Grover's when in full blow breakout the pain and suffering interferes with my quality of life It's 24/7 of burning, pain and itching and sleep is fitful, even lying in bed I have trained myself not to move to my back and only stay on my sides, as this area has always been clear for me. I can't join it boating, jeeping, and doing activities with my family that involve heat, sweat and friction. Can't even lean back in my seat driving a car, must hunch over the steering wheel while holding the wheel. You get the picture.
Since my results a have been so positive, even if I started turning green it might be a tolerable side affect. Yet, if it gave me cancer that's a different thing.

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Most of us develop GD as adults and as adults we often face surgeries. The WebMD site information was useful in that it pointed out that consuming large amounts of cilantro slows blood clotting time. It is recommended to stop consuming cilantro 2 weeks before surgery. Good information.

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