Diet change helps lichen sclerosis

well, no pasta at all - mostly made out of wheat.

Hi there, Look at Almond flour it is a super food, it is extremely low-carb and far more nutritious than most other flours you can find. Even Soy flour is low carb if you cant get Almond Flour.  For example for lunchtime you could make a quick and easy flour tortilla in minutes ready for chicken/beef/veggies/fish or salads and that would be a good lunchtime meal.  You could make it up roll it into four portions and put the rest in the fridge for the next day.  I roll out my tortillas with greaseproof paper between the top and bottom of the tortilla. You could tweak it slightly to make quesadillas or even use it as a pizza base by adding a little yogurt to the mix.  Look online for Almond flour recipes..this could be a staple for lunchtime.

For breakfasts, I eat puffed millet with Oat milk or porridge or hot quinoa with blueberries.

Evening meals are often chicken/fish with a portion of millett and veggies.  Sometimes I will have a small jacket potatoes if I have been very good throughout the day with sugars.

I have discovered I like vegetable stir frys..so easy to do and you dont need to put a lot of oil in the pan.  I use whatever I have in the fridge, your example I like a few slices of cabbage, small carrot chopped into 'sticks', half an onion, half a red pepper, mange tout...whatever you have left works. I cook it quickly and add some GF soy sauce and throw in cashew nuts which finished it off nicely.

I believe fruit is important, just dont go overboard on it.  I like papaya, banana, pineapple, pear and plantain.

These are just some ideas maybe some other people will chime in.

 

What do you normally eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner - that way we can see if a few changes for you would make a difference?

thank you for  your response...however when I say I don't know how to cook anything I mean anything...I know that's stupid but true...I have bad anxiety and my illnesses cause me to lose my appetite...Usually I drink tons of milk and ensure if I can't stomach anything...everything else is microwaved soup and sandwiches....rice and beans with veggies in it...my diet is horrible...I probably need to change everything but I need to probably think of one thing at a time....oh and potatoes and tuna...

Hi Jared, all you do is google Almond Flour tortillas...write down the recipe...go shopping and give it a go.  Its not that difficult, honestly.  Dont you want to eat nice yummy food  Tons of milk probably isnt great for you.  Its a drag learning new stuff sometimes but I think you have to try to motivate yourself to eat better if you can.  Look at a recipe online for chicken broth....so easy to make....Remember you dont have to even follow recipes, I dont. 

Actually, I'm going to give you my recipe now for chicken soup.  You will need...

4 chicken drumsticks/or 2 chicken thighs

2 carrots chopped

1 onion chopped

1 stick of celery

salt

2 potatoes/or sweet potatoes

bunch of spinach (washed)

half a cup of Red split lentils. 

1 clove of crushed garlic

2 pints of water (this is approximate, you can add as much or as little as you want)

Put two tablespoons of olive oil into a deep pan and add the chopped onion ..cook for 5 minutes stirring all the time.

Add your chicken..cook for 5 minutes, stirring all the time

Pour in water

Add everything now, salt, stick of celery, 2/3 peeled potatoes, half cup red lentils, small bunch spinach,carrots, garlic.

Bring to the boil and then turn it down to cook for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half depending on how big your chicken thighs are.  I dont eat the celery I throw that away but it is good for imparting flavour.

Thats it!  Once it has cooled down a bit you can put it in the fridge and it should keep for a few days.

 

ok thank you so much

 

So from what you eat already, good home made soup sounds like exactly the first move and Guppy's recipe sounds splendid.  Cut down hugely on the milk and bread and have more soup.  Rice or beans with veggies sounds a good basis but google recipes and add more flavour and anti inflammation stuff like garlic/turmeric, so that whatever you have becomes more delicious.  Just make a first step with the one recipe below.......then google ideas for cooking simple one-pot meals on a low budget.  Every best wish.   

Hi Jared,

  I know what you mean when I was first diagnosed I threw out my menu and had to start from scratch. It was very overwhelming!  I ended up just going through all of my cupboards one weekend and packing up all of the pasta, bread, candy, ice cream, and other processed foods and gave it to the family. Once I did that it made temptation so much easier to deal with. I then sat down and looked online at  Allrecipes and  Pinterest for paleo recipes and made a big folder of things that looked appealing. As I tried recipes I would make a list of the ones I liked and before I knew it I had a weekly menu that is healthy and delicious! If you don't want to make a list, you can also just take a picture of your plate, so you remember the meals you liked, delete the ones you don't.

Another thing that I would invest in is a spiralizer, you can buy one at Walmart for $5. It turns zucchini, carrots, sweet potato, squash into "noodles". I make regular spaghetti and garlic "noodles" this way using zucchini. It is so delicious! Also, I eat mainly chicken now. If I eat pork or red meat it is only once or twice a month. 

I too hate eggs, here is an example of my breakfasts:

Whey Protein shake (this is expensive$35, but will last me a couple of months and keeps me full, so it is worth it)

1 scoop whey protein (make sure you buy the one that has no sugar)

1/2 cup mixed berries

1/2 banana

1 handful of spinach

1  cup unsweetened almond milk 

Blend and drink

Oatmeal

1 cup of gluten-free oatmeal mixed with raisins, nuts, and almond milk

Yogurt Parfait

1 cup of unsweetened yogurt mixed with berries, chia seeds, and flax seed. 

You can use stevia to sweeten up these breakfasts if you need.

You can also do leftovers for breakfast.

Here are a list of foods I eat for dinner that you can google to find recipes:

Southwest chicken salad

Chicken tikka masala

Egg Roll bowl

Rosemary chicken with steamed veggies

Chicken and Butternut squash soup

Stuffed peppers with basmati rice

Pork roast with potatoes and carrots

Chicken Pho with zucchini noodles

Chicken Jambalaya

Google slow cooker meals....there are a ton of dinner ideas that could help.

Make sure to cook enough of your dinner so you have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Hope this helps!

thank you so much...I'm still trying to figure out if I have vitiligo or ls or both...If you don't mind me asking....what has been your symptom reduction since you changed your diet...do you use steroid cream? nobody wants to do a biopsy on me yet to see exactly what this exactly is...it looks way more like ls to me than vitiligo but ive read they are hard to differentiate in the beginning or that you can have both...sorry for the rant...Main question....how has this diet helped you? I don't have sores has it taken away your white spots?

The diet helped with a myriad of symptoms I was having. I am premenopausal and was having hot flashes, night sweats, trouble sleeping, my vulva had fissures and swelling at times. I had intense itching on my clitoris and my butt had fissures as well. I didn't have white spots, just fusing on my labia minora, swelling, redness, intense itching, and fissures. This all went away a month after starting the diet except for my skin was still very delicate and would split and fissure after sex.  I must say things didn't start looking really good until I started taking a good multivitamin, Vitamin D3 and garlic. After taking Vitamin D3 for a couple of weeks I had sex and had no tearing or burning during or after. this was a miracle for me because I hadn't experienced normal feeling down there in over a year. I also have nursed to kids this month from the flu, I have not gotten sick at all since I started this whole lifestyle change. Before I did this, I was always the first in my family to get sick and the last to get well. I feel my immune system is stronger than ever now.  I would recommend you go to your doctor and get your vitamin levels checked to see if you have any deficiencies. Nothing but good can come from eating healthy. You also said you don't have much money, but I noticed since I only shop for fresh food now and have stopped buying processed food, my grocery bill has gone down. I also buy in bulk and buy a lot of produce that is on sale and freeze it.

In the beginning of my illness, I took Clobetasol as prescribed and it helped me heal and took the itching away. I went back to the doctor and asked for a weaker strength steroid and have been using it every 10 - 15 days because the doctor said if I didn't use the steroid I would be at an increased risk of getting cancer.  I have noticed everytime I use the steroid for maintenance, I end up with a yeast infection. Well, I did an experiment this week to see if it was the steroid and ended up getting a yeast infection the morning after I used the low-level steroid. So I am going to have to go back to the doctor to bring this up. I should not be getting yeast infections if my diet is controlled and everything looks good. It is only after I use the cream is when this happens to me.  I think I am going to stop using the steroid and only use this if I have signs of active Lichen Sclerosis. After you start healing keep an eye on how your body reacts to the steroid, if your body gets worse after the steroid, then I believe it is your bodies way of saying I don't need that but be sure to bring it up to your doctor for advice.

Sorry for the long post, this has been a long process for me and hope that if I can give you some advice, you won't have to go through the long process either.

That was so helpful of you to share the whole process and thinking you nave been through Ann Starlight.  I know that Jared said he couldn't even afford the clob any more than me...but you have given me even more reason to trust my instincts that a steroid is not the solution to begin with. 

I've never been prone to yeast infections but I sure wouldn't want to start.  

I'm SO glad that the vitamin D3 has made such a obvious difference for you, like me. I hope others her give it a try. 

Hi, I dont believe for a second that not using the steroid cream will increase your risk of cancer...I think that's nonsense.  It is very rare to get cancer from LS.  I only use the Clob cream when in a flare which was well over a year ago.  Because doctors dont really know much about LS they will advise people to use it regularly.  I think if you are in a serious flare with many symptoms then you should use the clob , but once things have settled down I dont see the point of applying steriod cream to an area that is good.   Re the yeast infection, are you certain its not LS, because many women get a white milk like discharge when they are flaring and often confuse it (as do the doctors) with thrush.  If it is a yeast infection then thats going to be tricky for you because I'm pretty certain yeast infections cause flare LS flare ups.

 

Nancy, for people like myself that have problems with our clitoris....there is nothing out there apart from the clob to halt it in its tracks and give us relief.  There is nothing worse than an itchy, sore, painful clitoris and so the steroid cream does do its job...and so it IS the only solution we have unfortunately.  I am sorry you are unable to get hold of it, but remember it does work for people in pain.

thank you for telling me all that...super helpful...I will get my vitamin levels checked at my GP for sure

Hello,

This disease has been so aggravating trying to find out what my triggers are and what works for my body. It definitely is a yeast infection and not the LS milk. The past 3 months I was in a yeast infection/ LS flare cycle and could not figure out what kept causing all these yeast infections. I changed my diet to paleo, started managing my anxiety with meditation and CBD oil, started Vitamins...basically everything I listed on the protocol I posted but I still couldn't get out of the cycle!

A month ago after I cured a yeast infection I decided to take a break from the steroids. 4 weeks later, my vagina was strong enough to have sex. Nothing out of my regimen had changed but adding Vitamin D3, Garlic vitamin and stopped using the steroid. It was only after putting on a half a pea size amount of steroid on is when my problems have started again. So I think I have cracked the code for what is going on with my body. 

Now I know to listen to my body! If it isn't broke, continue what I am doing and skip the steroid. 

I must say to those who read this and think they should not use a steroid, Listen to your body, if you are having issues after changing your diet and trying the different protocols that are on here then you probably need to use the steroid. 

 When I was first diagnosed with LS, the steroid was the only thing that healed my fissures and stopped the awful itching and burning that I was experiencing. It also helped my the skin on my vagina to stop fusing. I now look at the steroid as a medicine to use only when needed.

As I changed my lifestyle, diet and stopped using all the chemicals, my body has now healed enough to take over the healing process and does not need the steroid as it did before.

Hi,

 I would listen to your body, only you know what is best for you and can monitor what works. I was part of another LS group and had a woman keep preaching about how if people didn't keep on the Clobetasol, then we were going to get Cancer. It freaked me out!

What is happening with my body might not happen to yours though and Clobetasol might be what your body needs so I would keep that in mind. When I first got diagnosed, Clobetasol was a miracle for me. It helped my body heal and I believe it helped stop the signals for my body to attack itself. I think as I have changed my lifestyle to a healthier one, my body keeps giving me yeast infections as its way of saying,"stop giving me something that I can do on my own now!"

Our body speaks to us, it is just a pain to decipher what it is trying to tell us, LOL!

Hi, It sounds like your on track. Good for you. It takes time to figure out what works for you as we are all different. 

The worse thing that happened to me with regard to the Clob was when I applied it to an open sore..it had the reverse effect! the next day I had a very red spotty rash running all the way up the crack of my butt.  I never used it for open sores/lesions again, only for white plaques of skin and for a sore/painful clitoris.