Dh So Freaking Annoying

[GFreeMO]

So I am sitting here with lovely DH all over my knees and elbows, chin and lips. I can deal with the elbows and knees but this lip and chin stuff looks so ugly! I have scabs all over my chin and whenever I eat, it comes on crazy. The itch and the blisters are driving me nuts. Would this be a sals thing or the iodine thing.

I had soem strawberries and my arm went DH crazy..then for dinner I had a burger with salt and broccoli and green beans and then my knee started up. I have about 50 of the blisters on my lips and chin.

Help!

[squirmingitch]

Geez! I'm so sorry. But it's probably both sals & iodine. I know; I'm going through it. PITA!!!!!

Okay strawberries are both high iodine AND high sals.

Was the salt on your burger non iodized? It should have been.

Broccoli is higher on the sals list although it's not the highest but still I avoid it.

Between sals & iodine the hubs & I are basically eating:

Iceburg lettuce

leeks

cauliflower

cabbage

peeled white potatoes

rice

green beans

peas

white acre peas

red bell peppers (limited quantities & well cooked)

celery

saffron

snow peas & sugar snap peas

brussels sprouts --- we aren't really eating them as hubs despises them but they are allowed

garbanzo beans

bamboo shoots

chives -- fresh

carrots in moderation -- once a week

sweet potatoes in moderation --- once a week

peeled pears

golden delicious apples

mango -- in moderation --- I made mango jam w/o using pectin -- a little goes a long way

instant decaf coffee (Nescafe is pretty good)

sugars are zero sals but honey is high sals

limes

instant decaf iced tea

beef, pork, chicken

Lay's original gluten-free potato chips are low sals --- can you believe it? Hubs eats them but I won't

NO canned foods or frozen dinners (the bamboo shoots & chick peas are canned)

If you take any Tylenol, Aleve or any kind of pain reliever like that the dh goes crazy! MUCHO sals!

I tried chayote & tomatillos b/c they are no sals but they don't like me.

[squirmingitch]

Oh, I forgot --- add to the list:

cashews & cashew butter but NOT peanuts or peanut butter

sunflower seed butter

egg whites

I do make pancakes with gluten-free Bisquick using egg whites & low iodine milk (milk farmed locally & they hardly use any iodine when milking) but still I use 1/2 milk & 1/2 water.

Golden syrup is no sals

and I eat Lundsburg organic unsalted rice cakes.

[eatmeat4good]

I'm so sorry you are having it on your face.

I have a scarred chin and lip from DH.

Strawberries and any berries are very high in salicylates.

As Squirming says the canned goods are absolutely out if you have DH.

I had to do low salicylate and low iodine for months.

Now the salicylates don't bother me as much.

Since my DH healed, I have had a few outbreaks from eating something with no gluten ingredients that was made in a facility that also processes wheat. They are far less reaction than I had before. I wasn't sure if I was going to have to watch sals and iodine again or not. They last about 7 days then the blisters just vanished.

My "healing" meal is plain burgers with no salt or pepper or anything, green peas from frozen bags but only those that say peas...none that say peas and salt. I eat this for every meal until the blisters go away.

Too much work to keep changing up what I eat when I am miserable.

Hope this helps.

Squirming gave GREAT advice.

good luck

[squirmingitch]

LOL! One of these days I'm going to remember everything in ONE post!

You can't use any oils other than safflower & canola. Olive oil is high iodine ( & probably sals) & coconut oil is both high iodine & high sals.

You are allowed to have cocoa powder like Hershey's cocoa powder. You can put some in your coffee to zap it up & give you a nice sweet "fix".

The apples & pears have to be peeled --- the skins contain sals.

Tamarillo is a fruit which is allowed for low sals --- who knows it's iodine content???? as it is not on any iodine list -- good or bad. but they also would have to be peeled. I have not been able to find any Tamarillo where I live so I haven't been able to try them.

Peeled fresh eggplant is on the low sal allowed list.

Lyle's Golden Syrup is zero sals.

No margarine, catsup, BBQ sauce, mustard & such. Remember ALL processed foods are high sals!

[nikaboli]

Oh you poor thing! While I'm not diagnosed to have DH, I'm pretty I do and have also had it on my chin area...and it was the worst. Lots of great info in this thread...you are all such a wealth of knowledge! I'm so glad I found this site!!

[squirmingitch]

Oh you poor thing! While I'm not diagnosed to have DH, I'm pretty I do and have also had it on my chin area...and it was the worst. Lots of great info in this thread...you are all such a wealth of knowledge! I'm so glad I found this site!!

nicaboli, you may have to go this way in your diet too. I truly hope you do not but it's entirely possible. When we have dh, anything that irritates our skin, even if it's things we had zero problems with before, can make the dh kinda go crazy or keep "burning" you see. I did not go low salicylates (sals) at first. At first I just went gluten-free & my rash improved but then it wasn't getting enough improvement so I went low iodine & things went much, much better. And I was in hog heaven eating fresh fruits as they are like manna from heaven to me & I thought, "Oh, how healthy I'm eating!" & I was! But what I didn't realize was that I was loading massive sals into my body & sals are cumulative. I had noticed ppl talking about sals on here but of course I thought I would not have to worry about sals. Well, let's just say I ran as fast as I could into a brick wall of sals. My rash was coming back & I posted on here. These great & good ppl went through every single thing I was eating, ingesting or using to get to the root of the problem. It was sals.

Now, the odds are totally in our favor that we will be able to add sals back into our diet & not worry about them anymore. BUT that will be when we have gotten enough IgA out of our skin. Eatmeatforgood did it & she's now "on the other side" & can eat sals as well as iodine. So we just have to do what we have to do until we get better.

[eatmeat4good]

Wow is that ever a beautiful sentence...she is on the other side...

It took 14 months. I was one who took longer than most and I could never figure out why. People would come on saying they stopped gluten and they were healed after a month or two. I could NOT figure it out. I thought I was totally gluten free so what else? I found an article that said some with DH have to avoid eggs and peanuts. I knew the eggs would be iodine...but peanuts? Snicker's definitely effected my DH badly. They say they are gluten free, but maybe not gluten free enough for those with DH? They are made on shared lines with Milky Way which has Barley Malt, so it may have been that. Or was it the sals in peanuts? Then M&M's and diet coke caused a huge reaction. I realized it was salicylates then. And those with salicylate sensitivity are also sensitive to preservatives like benzoates and food colorings too so that explained the diet coke and the M&M's.

It is extremely hard to avoid gluten, iodine and sals at the same time. At some point I went Paleo with low sals and low iodine and that did the trick. I have only had minor reactions like maybe 5 to 10 blisters that heal fairly quickly once I figure out the culprit. I haven't had to limit iodine or sals since I healed. Knocking on wood here.

[squirmingitch]

Wow is that ever a beautiful sentence...she is on the other side...

And one day I as well as my hubs will be able to say that beautiful sentence! Eatmeat.... YOU give us strength & hope.

[GFreeMO]

Thank you so much for the help and the food list! I appreciate it so much!!!

[squirmingitch]

YVW! Hope you get better real quick!

OH! Add bananas to your "can have" list.

[GFreeMO]

YVW! Hope you get better real quick!

OH! Add bananas to your "can have" list.

I'm allergic to those but thank you!!!

I appreciate the help.

[squirmingitch]

Man! Gluten-Free! You just can't catch a break can you? I've heard of lots of allergies but this is the first time I ever heard of a banana allergy. So sorry. Well, if it helps any --- they are sulfurous, meaning gassy. So you're better off w/o them.

If you are taking probiotics make sure to check them for preservatives --- they can really get the dh going --- I suspect they are sals. Culturelle has the fewest irritants in it that I can find.