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DiscussionGrover's Disease: What works to help find relief?
Skin Health | Last Active: Nov 4 2:57pm | Replies (2012)Comment receiving replies
Replies to "I am a 39 year-old male and was diagnosed with Grover’s Disease last Summer. I originally..."
You will read a lot about Cilantro on here , Like you, I had no luck with prescribed medications so I tried the Cilantro in my Smoothie every day. It took Three to Four weeks then my Grover's improved by 95% + and no itching . Heat and Sweat are the enemy (Mine was the steam room at the Gym), once you have Grover's it breaks out in the cool weather also. When you go out in the Phoenix heat cover your Grover's area with Zinc Oxide( Diaper cream) it will protect you from sweat. Use half a bunch of Cilantro @ a time. Good luck .
None of those dermatological solutions work for making your Grover's spots go away...strong steroids, weak steroids, or whatever. They may help with the itching, but that's it. Grover's has a mind of its own and for some people it just magically goes away after awhile, but for others like me, it stays around probably for life. I've had it for maybe 15-20 years. Heat and sweating are your worst enemies, and no direct sun on the Grover's area of your body! I would recommend a soap like Dove For Sensitive Skin, hypo-allergenic and fragrance free. The chlorine in your water probably isn't helping either, so maybe get a shower filter. Some people on here swear by the Sarna lotion to help with the itching. I got some recently and it does help a little. I also use aloe vera gel for itching and it helps too. Apparently the cilantro smoothies have resulted in total remission for some people on here, but for others it didn't work or caused remission for awhile only to have a recurrence later. @gardenjunkie knows all about this stuff! She is very helpful. I am experimenting with concentrated and organic cilantro drops from iHerb right now instead of going to the trouble of doing the necessary shopping and daily prep work of making smoothies. It has only been a week or so, but the spots are noticeably less inflamed so far, but it could just be a coincidence. There is no scientific way to prove any of these things work, but the drops may be helping. However, if you don't mind going to the extra trouble, there is far more evidence on this forum that the cilantro smoothies are the way to go. Best of luck to you!
Sometimes doctors are simply grasping because in truth they know nothing that can help with GD. I wrote up our successes with cilantro and gave it to 2 derms. One was completely uninterested and the other said he would pass it along to other GD patients. I have a friend who goes to the derm who said he would pass it along and he never suggested it to her. If they don't read about it in a medical journal it's simply hearsay to them. Both doctors could see my results but probably figured I was in a dormant period.
You have a common reaction to like most of us with GD. I could even feel my collagen impared skin on my upper back start to raise up bumps when I got hot. It's like our skin is just waiting to explode and on the already errupted areas sweat would cause stinging. I was prescribed ever product mentioned in our blog: Clobetasol, Calcipotriene, steroid shots, steroid topicals, px anti-bacterial washes and had all sorts of OTC anti-itch creams or lotions like Sarna recommended and nothing helped. I do correct that, one derm told me to try Flanax (capsacian- hot chili extract) which I would apply at bedtime, avoiding facial contact to help with itching. After my shower I would use a disposable vinyl glove to apply and remove from the bottle with a Q-tip. If you inadvertently touch your eyes it would burn them. It would burn fiercely on the rash areas for 30 sec, surprisingly the burn was a relief from the itching and pain and then the burn would leave I would get about 30 minutes of itch/pain reduction which gave me time to settle in bed and fall asleep. I think it confused our nerves. I trained myself to sleep only on my side and never move in my sleep. My sides were always clear (no sun exposure?). Moving around in bed would set off the itching and pain to higher levels.
I've never read that not washing with soap helps GD. However what soap you use is important for many reasons. I have 2 other forms of eczema, besides GD. Many of my ACD issues were related to ingredients in most soaps and detergents. All 3 of my forms are in remission right now.
Never assume you only have GD. You could also have Allergic Contact Dermatitis, ACD. Many with eczema have multiple types. I've learned a lot about what we commonly put on our bodies not knowing how toxic the ingredients are and how over time our bodies loose their ability to tolerate them and thus raise up our histamine armies in the attempt to rid ourselves of what they believe is poison. Just like GD is tied to heavy metal poisoning or overloading. That is why the cilantro is helping some of this. Do a GD and heavy metal search. Heavy metals are being tied to Parkinson's and also Alzheimer's. With eczema histamines raise our inflammation levels. Just because a bar soap says it is safe or for sensitive skin means nothing- read all the the ingredients, active and inactive.
You should wash with soap like our ancestors did hundreds of years ago before we started contaminating our grooming products to lather more and smell better. Get a soap made from natural ingredients which are moisturizing. The fewer the ingredients the better. Many use Dove for sensitive skin, I used that for years and was allergic to it! Get a pure soap made the old fashioned way. I can buy a locally made soap which is simply lard and glycerin and is inexpensive. A commercially available one sold on Amazon and a Mayo Skin Safe approved product is Grandma's, a bar soap which is made from lard and lye. The soap building process turns the lye into glycerin. Both lard and glycerin are moisturizing. Until I found shampoos safe for me I even used Grandma's to wash my hair. It does leave the hair heavy feeling, but at least it was clean and it stopped the itching. Also Kiss My Face unscented olive oil soap is wonderful, simply olive oil and salt. It lathers better then Grandma's. It may be unscented but it does have an olive oil scent which when first removed from the wrapper is strong, but fades in time so I leave it unwrapped for a a week or more before use. It is extremely good at both cleaning and moisturizing. Today some liquid hand and body soaps are free of the preservatives that trigger my eczema, that said, most contain preservatives so based on my past experiences I avoid them.
I'm glad to see new members following this blog. We are real people, many of us blogging on this site seeking answers since our doctors weren't any help then we learned about cilantro from Kimass1 so we followed each others progress in experimenting with cilantro. I only do this now to encourage other's to try it, the results for me were amazing. Hope is all we have at times.
Have you tried Cilantro smoothies. They work !