[pearjoy]

Hi all, I've had mild acne since my late teens but recently it's been worse than usual. I get very small whiteheads everywhere on my face. I still consider it mild as in 3 days I can go from broken out to completely clear. However, the only thing that keeps my face clear is a diet consisting of low-sugar and non-starchy veggies and oils. I can't even say raw vegan because fruit (even low-sugar ones like avocado) seem to trigger these breakouts as well. This diet is extremely limiting and it not only has put a damper on my social life but my work is suffering too. I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. Any and all advice is welcomed.

[MelissaLG]

pearjoy, on Jul 5 2009, 06:05 AM, said:

Hi all, I've had mild acne since my late teens but recently it's been worse than usual. I get very small whiteheads everywhere on my face. I still consider it mild as in 3 days I can go from broken out to completely clear. However, the only thing that keeps my face clear is a diet consisting of low-sugar and non-starchy veggies and oils. I can't even say raw vegan because fruit (even low-sugar ones like avocado) seem to trigger these breakouts as well. This diet is extremely limiting and it not only has put a damper on my social life but my work is suffering too. I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. Any and all advice is welcomed.

I have DH. It only appears on my hands. Never on my face. The outbreaks do not look like a pimple or a whitehead at all. They don't even feel like pimples, whiteheads, blackheads. It is completely different for me.

It looks like a cluster of small fluid filled blisters. The blisters are tight and often painful. Before the outbreak occurs, the area on my hand(s) itches. I literally wake up scratching the area. I always know where the blisters will be before they appear. There is no pus unless the wound becomes infected somehow after the fluid drains. ( gross I know)

I have read that people with gluten intolerance or celiac often experience acne or breakouts due to gluten exposure.

[mysecretcurse]

*disclaimer*- sorta gross, sorry:

I have "acne" on my face which I consider to be DH. I don't really know for sure. But it's definitely an autoimmune reaction from gluten, and I always had understood that the skin reaction from gluten was a sign of celiac, so I'm not sure. I find it all a little confusing. I suppose it doesn't really matter, all I know is it's from gluten and it's extremely unpleasant. It's not a "zit" but more of an extremely painful cysts (or rather, clusters of them) that break out on my skin, usually in a perfectly symmetrical pattern on my face but not always. After about a day the fluid filled cysts rise to the surface and become a large, rock hard whitehead. Not the sort of whitehead you can pop, they are really hard and if I try and pop them they bleed horribly and get infected. The best thing I've found to do is just leave them be and eventually they heal up. It takes about 3 weeks to a month and they leave a scar. They also are extremely painful and sometimes itchy. If I get glutened bad enough, I start getting it on the backs of my hands as well, although it turns out different there because the dry skin of my hands is so different from the oily skin on my face. On my hands they are less painful/cystlike and more itchy, but it's similar, clusters of the little blistery bumps.

It never fails, if I get even the tiniest bit of gluten, these horrible acnes/dh start popping up. Skin reactions to gluten are common and I think everyone experiences them differently, so the important thing isn't whether or not it's DH but more than you can make the connection to gluten being the cause. I have icky scars on my face from the years I spent battling this skin condition before I knew it was gluten causing it, I'm so glad I found out before it got any worse!

Oh and also, iodine consumption can worsen the condition if it's DH. I take iodine for other health reasons but it does have that side effect of making my skin flare up.

[lobita]

I think I've recently got into a slight gluten contamination because my DH reaction is worse than usual. It usually happens on the palm side of my hands, and sometimes in between my fingers and if it's bad enough, it'll spread to the tops of my fingers. BUT lately I've been itching my calves and lower legs, which I first thought was from mosquito bites (I've been camping lately). IT'll flare up like clusters of welts on my legs, although the DH on my hands are more like the tiny water blisters Melissa described.
This morning I noticed that I have a couple of bumps on my face, I first thought they were zits, but they itch and then go away quickly. So I'm thinking that's yet another form of DH.
It's probably time to throw out my suspect rice flour from the Asian store.

[LadyAshleyR]

Growing up i always thought my DH was just acne.
I don't get a lot of it, but when I do, they are never filled with puss.
Like said above mine are like little clear blisters.
Mine aren't so much painful as they are irritating, annoying, and itchy.
Mine also dont turn red or burn.
I used to just scratch them to pieces, (i dint know what they were) and they'd bleed a little, ooze a bit, then dry up, and go away.