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Grover's Disease: What works to help find relief?
Skin Health | Last Active: 5 days ago | Replies (1946)Comment receiving replies
I agree sweating is the worse for flare ups...and bright sun, which living in Texas it's a challenge... I believe years of sailing 30 yrs as my late husband and I had a sailboat here did sun damage...even though I did use sunscreen, and then running 4 /5 miles every am in this heat just triggered it exponentially ....I am now running inside on my treadmill and avoiding our pool until it is shaded....I have been drinking dandelion tea with drops of cilantro oil each am which I think has calmed it somewhat...also when I do get a bad flare up on my hands and fingers I wash them in a 10% benzoyl peroxide which drys the irritation in a few minutes, leaving your skin dry but not itching...after an hour or so I apply CeraVe hydrating Hyaluronic Acid Serum for moisture...it's definitely not a cure but does alleviate some of the discomfort...I have stopped the steroid creams my dr has RX...just didn't work...I keep going back to my dr but frankly I don't think they know how to treat this....
Replies to "I agree sweating is the worse for flare ups...and bright sun, which living in Texas it's..."
I am taking cilantro by concentrated drops which are made from organically grown cilantro and sold by a company called Herb Pharm. I bought them on Amazon.com. Since I started my regimen of 5 drops twice per day, my Grover's sores have faded in color and most of them are bothering me far less than before. I am hoping for continued improvement over time. However, I can't be sure that the drops are the reason for my improvement since it is also possible that it is just coincidence. Would you mind telling us which cilantro oil you are taking? Also, I echo what someone else just mentioned about going back and reading posts on this forum from the past starting in late February of 2019. I think this link will take you there: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/grovers-disease-247ffc/?pg=11#comment-114878
Pay particular attention to @kimass1 and @gardeningjunkie , but there are several other great contributors as well. They have all used fresh cilantro and have made smoothies using it. The details on how to do that are back there if you continue reading the posts going forward. Eventually, the Grover's of @gardeningjunkie went into complete remission, and she has estimated that the cilantro smoothies have helped about 50% of those who have tried them.
This may be a better way to go for you if you are willing to go to a little extra trouble of going through this process.
Obviously, the drops are far easier, but I seem to be the only one trying this experiment, at least at the moment. I seem to recall one other mention of them in these past posts and the person said they didn't work in his/her case, but
they didn't say exactly which drops they were taking, so I concluded nothing from that. I'm glad to have you running this experiment with me and I hope you have continued success, but please let us know exactly what you are taking.
By the way, you are right about your doctor not knowing what to do. They can try to treat the symptoms, but that's it.
It is up to us to try to find solutions. Good luck!
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to @cindytxrunner - how did you come up with the various ways you treat your GD? I'm going to keep them in mind, since I'm getting little help from the steroid creams, either. I've lived in Florida 50 years, where I used to be in the sun all weekend--with suntan lotion and sunblock--but I seriously damaged my skin from sweating it off. I've had 9 skin cancers, too. That's why I've sworn off the sun but I really miss the beach and ocean. As for the doctors, they really don't know what to do for us. There are some trials, I believe, but my doctor didn't encourage me to look for one. I read a brief article on the net and saw a pic of one woman who was covered with GD and after a new drug (maybe from a trial?) was CLEAR of GD. So maybe there's hope.