Keratosis Pilaris...

[mlh244]

...joy of joys – NOT! I was wondering if anyone else in the forum had this skin condition, if you don't recognise the name you may know those annoying little red goosebump-like bumps on the backs of your upper-arms/thighs/but. My case in particular isn't itchy, but I know a lot of people do find it gets irritated. Anyway apparently a lot of people have it, or do when they're teenagers, and I wanted to know if anyone had treated it or found something that helped reduce it– hopefully in the paleo way of things, maybe I could rub lard on it or something? :) . I've tried the fruit acid wash, selsun, moisturising, exfoliating, letting it dry out...nothing really affects it much at all. I don't use body wash or soap at all...just good ol' water in the shower. I recently heard bengay muscle pain relief cream -of all things!- might work, but I'd love some feedback on this as it's coming up to summer here in oz which means bare arms...

[Nancy LC]

Read the wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratosis_pilaris) article on it

Food allergies may also exacerbate the condition, causing hyper-keratosis pilaris, gluten and dairy being common culprits.[citation needed]

[fetch]

Yes.

Tanning really does help reduce the appearance of it. Daily exfoliation with a brush in the shower goes a long ways as well but is difficult to maintain. If you do try the brush, it will get worse before it gets better. Keratolytic lotions are hit or miss, depending on the person. Finally, picking at it really is a bad idea - the scarring sucks. On a positive note side note, you can tattoo over it without problems (vibrant colors are best).

I have heard anecdotal reports of electrolysis/laser hair removal helping, but don't have any sources to cite. Makes sense if you're prone to the ingrown hair sequela.

Can't speak for the uncited report of a food intolerance/allergy link as I have no food allergies. However, if you do paleo cutting out dairy and gluten and yours disappears you may be on to something. Especially if when you reintroduce them it comes back.

[Bunbun]

A couple months after giving up gluten and dairy, mine was 100% gone.

[ProteusOne]

Had it all my life. Not itchy, and not too noticeable. I agree that tanning reduces its appearance. Other than sex, I know of nothing else that works :D

[fetch]

A couple months after giving up gluten and dairy, mine was 100% gone.
Cool. Did you perform a challenge to determine if it was one or the other or both?

[Bunbun]

Cool. Did you perform a challenge to determine if it was one or the other or both?

Not a very accurate one. I gave up gluten first and noticed huge improvements in my health. I still had some inflammation and congestion so I quit eating dairy about a month later, and felt even better. Other family members have tested positive for sensitivity to both gluten and casein (even a couple verified celiacs) but I've never been tested myself. I suspect that gluten gives me more trouble than casein, but I feel great after eliminating both.

[fetch]

Okay. By challenge I meant to begin eating a suspect food after stopping for several weeks to determine if the symptom(s) in question come back with the reintroduction. It's the longest and sometimes most frustrating way of ruling in/out food allergies as the cause of the symptom(s) since you have to do one food at a time, but it is also the most reliable. It verifies there's a cause-and-effect relationship.

[Nancy LC]

It isn't always that easy. Sometimes it takes a long, long time for the damage to accumulate and show up. Like people with celiac disease who go gluten free, then get back on again, they might feel pretty good for a few years. Once their villi get destroyed again, their vitamin absorption goes to hell and they get sick in a variety of ways.

I'd advise just staying free of it and trusting that your body was correct in sending you happy signals the first time through.

[Bunbun]

Okay. By challenge I meant to begin eating a suspect food after stopping for several weeks to determine if the symptom(s) in question come back with the reintroduction. It's the longest and sometimes most frustrating way of ruling in/out food allergies as the cause of the symptom(s) since you have to do one food at a time, but it is also the most reliable. It verifies there's a cause-and-effect relationship.

Oh man, no way. I feel SO much better eating this way, I don't want to reintroduce any of it, not even temporarily. Even though it'd be nice to know for sure, it's not worth the trade-off for me. :)

[TimesTwo]

I have this on my upper arms, the sides of my rib cage, and my back. Mine does respond to moisturizing and exfoliation, I'm just too apathetic and don't keep up the routine. My dermatologist also said it's an indication of allergies/intolerances.

[fetch]

It isn't always that easy. Sometimes it takes a long, long time for the damage to accumulate and show up. Like people with celiac disease who go gluten free, then get back on again, they might feel pretty good for a few years. Once their villi get destroyed again, their vitamin absorption goes to hell and they get sick in a variety of ways.

I'd advise just staying free of it and trusting that your body was correct in sending you happy signals the first time through.
As I'm sure you are already aware, Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder with a genetic susceptibility component not a food allergy/sensitivity.

With perhaps the exception of life-threatening allergies, for the majority of food allergies, yes it really is that easy if you perform eliminations and challenges of one suspect food ingredient at a time. Granted, I'm no M.D. allergist/dermatologist but I was taught elimination and challenge trials are the gold standard for confirming the existence of a food allergy and what clinical symptoms are directly attributable to said allergy.

In the discussion at hand, a challenge would be appropriate to confirm the resolution of KP was directly due to stopping dairy or "gluten" consumption. It would, in fact, be needed in order to determine which food was responsible since multiple foods were eliminated at the same time. It's great to say after giving those items up, the KP resolved 100%. But without a challenge or some other way to verify a cause-and-effect relationship, you cannot definitively say a "gluten" or dairy allergy/sensitivity caused the KP.

That's all I'm getting at.

[Nancy LC]

Given that the person is posting in the Paleo section of the forum, they probably shouldn't be eating grains and dairy if they're following that diet. I think most of us here have come to accept, from our reading and our own experiences that both do lousy things to us, then challenging with either is usually only something we do when we're falling off our diet in a bad way.

Once I figured out I had a gluten intolerance, I decided then and there to eliminate it forever. I'm not going to cause further harm by playing games with it.

[MamaSara6]

I have it too. It went away when I started taking fish oil capsules. I stopped the fish oil and it returned. Started them again and it went away. I'm off the oil again and its back. :( For me, at least, I'm pretty sure of what the cure is.

Problem is that I listened to Dr. Mike Eades and tasted one of my FO capsules to see if it was rancid and it was. <blech> So, I bought Carlsons Cod Liver Oil, which he recommends, but I haven't had the nerve to try it. I'm afraid it's going to be like when I took mega-doses of castor oil to induce labor. <shudder> I can "do" butter and coconut oil, but I'm afraid of the fish oil. :lol:

[misia]

Coconut oil applied right after a shower works wonders. I had pretty bad KP for years and this cleared it up almost immediately. Now if only the scars would fade faster!

[MamaSara6]

I have a concoction of CO and organic shea butter that I mixed together. I'm sure I'll use it more this winter, but it takes forever to soak in and gets my clothes greasy. :(

[mlh244]

I think i'll definitely have to try the coconut oil, is there a specific one specially for skin or will any old coconut oil do? I don't use it in cooking so I don't really know about it. As for exfoliating, in anyone's past experience have gels, creams, gloves or brushes made the most improvement? I sometimes use a shea butter/sugar one from the body shop but it seems to irritate the places where I get exma occasionally so I'm not sure it's too good...

I've been almost completely dairy and gluten free for the past three weeks and I haven't noticed a change, but it probably takes longer than that to find out whether it's affecting it or not. I also tried to 'dry' it out...not moisturising for a while, but that didn't help either. So I went back to using palmer's cocoa butter as usual and it doesn't seem to help or worsen it. I think I read on a forum somewhere that bengay muscle-pain relief cream works?! I'll see if i can find it here in oz.

[MamaSara6]

The reason I started the fish oil was because i read that it's the Omega3/Omega6 imbalance that causes it. So, even if you take fish oil capsules it should clear up.

I use the regular CO that you would use for eating because I developed an allergy to it internally. I think that's what most people use. I put some on DS's excema inside his elbow just yesterday and it looks a 1000% better today! I've never used it for that before.

Finally, I use dry skin brushing for exfoliation. It helped the back of my arms a lot, but didn't cure the KP like fish oil.

[Monique723]

Something like 50% of women get this skin condition. The only thing that has worked for me so far is Amlactin 12% lotion. It is available over the counter without a prescription. It needs to be applied once or twice a day. It contains 12% lactic acid.

I have not tried, but I am sure there are other solutions out there.

[girlgerms]

It's a seasonal thing - gets worse in summer. Don't go tanning unless you want skin cancer: there's no such thing as a safe tan (besides, tans age you). Just ignore it; most people have it. So what?

[ProteusOne]

Tanning is one thing, but the sun is not dangerous unless you stay out in it too long. Not long enough and you're depressed.....

[Kskline]

Tanning is one thing, but the sun is not dangerous unless you stay out in it too long. Not long enough and you're depressed.....

I'm with you. I believe from my reading that we should be out in the sun, just don't get burnt. Build up your resistance (which is a tan) slowly. And I don't use sunscreen either because of the chemicals. I think that people who spend time in the sun and don't get burnt are the ones that don't get skin cancer.

Kim