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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@locutus

I finally took the time today to go back and read all the forum posts from Feb. of 2019 to the present. It took HOURS, but there was indeed a wealth of information. As far as cilantro is concerned, I agree that the capsules may not be a viable option. Fresh cilantro in smoothies obviously works well for some people (about 50%?) and I will try that route eventually if my experiment with the drops doesn't work, but the intensity of my Grover's has definitely diminished since I started them on 6/9. I doubt if all cilantro drops are created equal. These are made by HerbPharm in Williams, OR and the cilantro used is USDA Organic and Certified Organic by Organic Certifiers which may be an advantage over cilantro found in grocery stores in that at least I can be sure that I am not ingesting any pesticides. They are highly effective according to the Amazon reviews, but effective against GD? Who knows? I also will soon start taking the Now Foods Chlorella and am considering ordering the FLANAX and maybe Lysine since I've had herpes way back when, but supposedly the virus hides in your body forever. I also found your very liberal usage of witch hazel after showering to be intriguing and will give that a shot too. I have used it in a spray bottle in the past, but perhaps not liberally enough. Also, I will definitely NOT be getting the Shingles vaccine! YIKES! Thanks so much for sticking around on the forum even after your GD has gone into remission, which I hope is permanent for you!

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You covered it all. Good luck.

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@babbs

An unexpected finding: a member of the Facebook GD support group had posted that she was taking selenium. Her GD was in remission. She, for some reason, stopped the selenium and her GD came back. Went back on selenium and GD went back into remission. That was interesting to me because I've been traveling and forgot my Brazil nuts which I take for selenium (1 per day) and my GD was rearing its ugly head. I didn't make the connection, but when I read that, I went to the store and got some Brazil nuts, went back to one a day and the GD receded but didn't disappear completely. So then I went back to the literature to see what levels of selenium are safe and found that 400 mcg is the upper limit. Brazil nuts are about 90 mcg per nut. So now I am taking two Brazil nuts per day and I will see if that does more than the one nut per day. Stay tuned. As an aside, I had been taking hyaluronic acid - approximately 100 mg/day. I upped it to 200 mg a day because my knees were bothering me. My facial skin looks so great, I look like I've had a face lift. Crazy. Going to stay at this level. I use the Bulk Supplements HA powder. (I can't swallow pills.) ⅛ teaspoon dissolved in water the night before is a bit over 200 mg. It has zero flavor but takes about 12 hours to dissolve fully in water. Forest Leaf HA pills are also good. You only want high molecular weight HA (low molecular weight HA is pro-inflammatory. High molecular weight is anti-inflammatory.)

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Congrats on your "face lift", @babbs ! Thanks for that very interesting info. One more thing to order from Amazon!
I take a few of Bulk Supplements products already, so why not throw one more into my drink shaker bottle? LOL

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@locutus

Congrats on your "face lift", @babbs ! Thanks for that very interesting info. One more thing to order from Amazon!
I take a few of Bulk Supplements products already, so why not throw one more into my drink shaker bottle? LOL

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A warning about hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid works well on your skin because it attracts water. If you add to smoothie, it may clump and stay gummy and stick to the container. If you do want to add to smoothie, you need to dissolve first. 1/16 teaspoon of the Bulk Supplements HA powder = approx 120 mg HA. ⅛ teaspoon is about 220 mg. You would dilute it in about ½ cup of water overnight. I put mine in the fridge. It has zero taste so you can drink it straight and I find that's the best way to make sure I'm getting it inside me and it doesn't stick to the sides of the container. You could also add to smoothie once diluted.

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I seem to recall seeing something on here about taking chlorella in conjunction with cilantro and that one should be taken about 45 minutes to an hour before the other. Can anyone recall this and which should be taken first?

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@locutus

I seem to recall seeing something on here about taking chlorella in conjunction with cilantro and that one should be taken about 45 minutes to an hour before the other. Can anyone recall this and which should be taken first?

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Never mind, I found the answer to my own question. It is recommended that Chlorella be taken 45-60 minutes before Cilantro.
Has anyone ever tried taking food-grade Bentonite Clay either externally or internally to absorb the heavy metals or whatever other nasty substances that the Cilantro is supposedly mobilizing within your body? I just started experimenting with this substance yesterday and am mixing it with water and chugging it down a few hours after I take Chlorella followed an hour later by Cilantro.

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I am an avid runner in Texas, evidently years of intense sweating, heat and sun exposure to sailing have created this very frustrating disease. It has severely affected my hands, particularly between my fingers...After numerous visits to my dermatologist and numerous steroid creams I'm done. Last week I had accupuncture and he also dispensed two different herbs (one primarily rhubarb ) and he recommended dandelion tea. I also have started to take vitamin A minimal dosage. Six days have passed my hands are not itchy but very very dry, which is better than blisters and uncontrollable itch. I have also ordered Cilantro drops....this site has helped me to realize other folks have this very irritating disease that prevents you from your lifestyle ....thanks to all of you!

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@locutus

I seem to recall seeing something on here about taking chlorella in conjunction with cilantro and that one should be taken about 45 minutes to an hour before the other. Can anyone recall this and which should be taken first?

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I have been taking chlorella tablets for years based on an anti inflammation diet. I usually take it with my dinner meds. I only do a cilantro smoothie about every 3 months now, out of precaution.

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@cindytxrunner

I am an avid runner in Texas, evidently years of intense sweating, heat and sun exposure to sailing have created this very frustrating disease. It has severely affected my hands, particularly between my fingers...After numerous visits to my dermatologist and numerous steroid creams I'm done. Last week I had accupuncture and he also dispensed two different herbs (one primarily rhubarb ) and he recommended dandelion tea. I also have started to take vitamin A minimal dosage. Six days have passed my hands are not itchy but very very dry, which is better than blisters and uncontrollable itch. I have also ordered Cilantro drops....this site has helped me to realize other folks have this very irritating disease that prevents you from your lifestyle ....thanks to all of you!

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If you follow results of cilantro starting mid Feb 2019 on this blog you will only see that either fresh or fresh frozen cilantro has benefit. Perhaps I missed reading the positive results from those that did the drops, if so please correct me.
All other treatments of which I have a cabinet full of were a waste of time and money- my GD had a predictable rhythm after the first full year of rash it was six months of dormancy and 6 months of activity. My first year was the most severe with all the front and back torso covered, after that the rash area was smaller, not going up to my neck and the pain and itching a few degrees less, still awful.

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@gardeningjunkie

If you follow results of cilantro starting mid Feb 2019 on this blog you will only see that either fresh or fresh frozen cilantro has benefit. Perhaps I missed reading the positive results from those that did the drops, if so please correct me.
All other treatments of which I have a cabinet full of were a waste of time and money- my GD had a predictable rhythm after the first full year of rash it was six months of dormancy and 6 months of activity. My first year was the most severe with all the front and back torso covered, after that the rash area was smaller, not going up to my neck and the pain and itching a few degrees less, still awful.

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I would never contradict you, @gardeningjunkie, when it comes to this miserable subject that brought us all together here, but I just recently read absolutely EVERYTHING on this forum from 2019 forward until the present, and I don't recall seeing any more than one mention of someone taking the cilantro drops, but I may have forgotten since I'm an old geezer. Also, there was no mention of which particular formulation or brand that was tried, so my conclusion was that there was almost no evidence one way or the other concerning their efficacy. Perhaps you are referring to info you gathered on drops from elsewhere? Anyway, since there was such a lack of evidence about them as far as I knew, I decided to experiment on myself using USDA certified organic cilantro drops from Herb Pharm which I found on Amazon.com. The reviews I found there indicated a serious detox effect from most people who took them, but they were not referring specifically to Grover's. Also, we don't even know what causes Grover's and whether the cause of it is the same for all who develop it. Since exposure to heavy metals or to chemicals which are used in many common products is one possibility, that could be the reason that fresh cilantro helped you and the 50% of people overall that you have mentioned in the past. If Grover's is caused in some people by over-exposure to the sun, I see no reason any form of cilantro, fresh or drops, would help these people. At any rate, my Grover's has been quite noticeably improving since I started taking the above-mentioned drops on 6/9, so I will continue on this course to see if it might ever go away completely. More evidence is needed from far more people to draw any conclusions here. All these treatments that doctors try and that we try on ourselves are just trial-and-error anyway, so perhaps newer participants here on this forum can run some more trials and see what happens. I sincerely hope your days of trial-and-error are over forever and you stay in remission, @gardeningjunkie !

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I'm an old geezer to and I don't believe I ever said the drops helped, in fact I never read where the drops or tablets helped anyone. If I wrote that the drops helped it was an error and should have written the drops never helped and that's my mistake then and glad you corrected that. If you can tell me the date I wrote that I will go back and correct it. I tried the drops and the tablets and got no benefit. As I just stated 3 hours ago it was only the fresh or frozen that helped about 50% of us. We have lots of smoothie recipes, most of us used about 1/2 a bunch daily with stems included and added fruit, yogurts, almond milk, collagen and so on in the blender. We listed tips to keep it fresh for about 5 days and also freezing tips. If you are being helped by the cilantro drops, keep it up. Perhaps your brand or concentration is superior. As you pointed out the professional really have no idea what the cause it and no idea what treatment put it into remission.
You are also right about there being limited information about GD, they state it is a rare form of eczema, but you can see from this site alone we have many suffering from GD. Facebook is said to have an active site and earthclinic's GD blog is where Kimass 1 read about it helping the first time and that's when she shared with us about cilantro around mid Feb 2019. That information was only about fresh cilantro. Also, you are right about even the causes being iffy. It seem likely since cilantro helps only about 50% of us, at least that's about the results from our Mayo site, we can assume it has different causes. Today more and more is written about heavy metals causing diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. All I know is that my torso skin feels normal. Even after I went into dormancy after using the cilantro it still took over 8 months for all the residual scabs to loosen up and fall off for good so don't be discouraged. So even free of active GD it takes time to heal. Good luck and hope you keep improving.

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