Dh In Ears?

[salexander421]

I'm pretty sure I have DH. All my life I've had what I thought was acne around my chin and sides of face, except it was always itchy...acne is not supposed to be itchy. I also always had really itchy bumps on my scalp and around my hair line that I would literally itch until they bled. All has mostly gone away since being gluten free, except the bumps on my head will come back occasionally (prob from CC). Anyways, I've always had itchy ears from gluten but just recently when I got into some CC, along with the irritatingly itchy ears, I broke out with some bumps right on the inside of my ears that hurt when I itch. They eventually oozed a little and seem to be going down a little. Just wondering if maybe this could be DH too. Anyone experience DH in their ears??

[ravenwoodglass]

Yea and boy does it hurt. I hope it clears up soon for you. If you haven't already try to make sure your hair care products are also gluten free.

[squirmingitch]

Oh yeah! On the tops of my ears, in the curves of my ears, on my ear lobes --- I'm terrified that one day one will be INSIDE my ear! The ear ones seem to hurt more than anywhere else. They really are painful. They ooze & they itch & it's fiery.

I get dh in my scalp too. HATE IT!!!!!!! They ooze & matt your hair together & are just horrible!

[Di2011]

Me too Though thankfully for me it wasn't as bad as other areas.

Check all your bathroom and laundry. etc etc etc. It is worth the effort.

If it continues you might want to "test" xanthan gum. It seems to be rare in DH sufferers however for me, in food and bathroom products, it makes my skin as bad as anything else.

Have you got your iodine intake low?

[ciamarie]

Yes. And now I'll share some of that story with y'all. In fact I've had it in my ears for 2 years now. At first it was just my left ear, and I thought it might be some sort of bug or whatever so I started eating more yogurt for the probiotics. Bad move, that just made it start getting 'weepy' and blocked up my ear so bad I couldn't really hear out of it. A few months later it started to affect my right ear also. Where I used to work they had an on-site nurse-practitioner so I finally made an appointment. She dx DH and said it was a type of eczema and prescribed steroid ear drops. She also said it usually recurs, so she made it refillable. It actually helped, but shortly after it did come back. A coworker mentioned that sometimes eczema can be related to allergies, so I started researching that. I never refilled the drops, because I knew more steroids wasn't a good solution. I also have some DH on the back of my knees that seems to run in tandem with the ears.

I was laid off from that job almost 6 months ago, which gave me time to research, on top of looking for a job! I had mostly stopped eating wheat over 10 years ago, and I'll leave that part of the story out for now. But I was eating spelt on a regular basis. So about 6 weeks ago I got a book at the library called 'Healthier without Wheat' and that book told me that DH = celiac disease. I was somewhat familiar with celiac since I'd previously had a co-worker that had it. I decided after reading that book that I needed to stop eating all gluten, and eventually found this forum and the helpful people here.

While trying to figure out if there was some allergy related to the 'eczema' in my ears, I started keeping a food diary, and it turns out that some of the things that bothered it the most were those that are high in iodine. Cutting way back on the high iodine foods and added salt items (as listed in the thyca pdf download) and the sea salt, as well as being gluten-free has helped a lot. I'm only on my 2nd week of low iodine, 5th week of gluten-free.

It's not completely cleared up yet, but it very rarely itches now, though there is still a bit of ringing in my ears. I am so glad I found the answer, though it is a bit of a challenge. Sorry for the long reply... you asked.

[squirmingitch]

Never apologize for long posts. More information is more information. We are all learning, trying to learn here. Searching for what works & what others have experienced.

But to find out you had it IN your ears --- OMG!!!! I'm terrified!

[YoloGx]

I don't have DH in my ears, however I do have psoriasis/eczema in my ears and it does itch horribly. It seems to be very much related to whether or not I have been exposed to too much salicylates or not. Detox herbs that have berberine in them as well as nettles really seem to help, plus staying off the salicylates and taking MSM and epsom salt baths.

Bea

[Di2011]

Back in May/June when I was ignorant of my gluten problem and working in a bakery I had a terrible time with what I would now call DH in my nostrils. It tends to be another moist/wet area so it is pretty horrible. It took weeks to clear those lesions in my nostrils but they did fortunately clear soon after my (mistake-riddled) weeks of gluten free. It was pretty ugly too. At about the same time I had the first of my canker sores and fortunately they soon disappeared in a similar timeframe.

[salexander421]

Thanks for all your replies! It is getting better, I'm very strict about the gluten free diet...I don't eat any grains, very few processed foods (just applesauce, mayo, etc.), nothing that comes from a box except for maybe raisins , just mainly wholefoods. I'm very sensitive so even with this type of diet I still get into CC from time to time This recent time was from coconut and coconut flour, will try tropical traditions as soon as I get the extra cash.

I'm very good about making sure my bath and body products are gluten-free. I was "no poo" for about 5 months and that cleared up my itchy head, I just started using Hugo Naturals which is gluten free and vegan and I really like it.

I don't think I eat a lot of iodine rich foods but I will double check that. I think I may have a thyroid issue so I need to get that figured out first and see how I could juggle the two.

ciamarie~don't apologize! The long replies are great, the more info the better!

That's interesting about the xanthan gum, I do try to avoid it as much as possible though since I have issues with corn as well.

diandliam~In the nose!? That sounds horrible! So glad you figured it out and got that cleared up! I get canker sores too, no fun!

I need to look into salycilates, that's something I've never really paid attention to before...

Thanks everyone!

[YoloGx]

I just started another topic you may be interested in: Similarity Between Dh And Psoriatic Arthritis

In it I talk about using herbs to help with these skin and inflammatory conditions.

Meanwhile, be careful about getting bulk foods at Whole Foods. They are a source of possible cross contamination due to their cleaning practices (same duster for all the bins...).

I avoid coconut products now due to their high salicylates.

Am not suggesting those with DH have a salicylate problem. Just that there is some similarity between DH and psoriasis, especially in how one can treat it using detox herbs. And for me a big cause for my psoriasis is this salicylate sensitivity.

Bea