Diet, weight loss&remedies? HELP?!

Hello Alexandra! My name is Nicole. I've had HS for 5 years plus and I have not reached to stage 3 yet and hoping I never do...when I went to the dermatologist for an issue I was having with my armpit she told me that I had HS and that it is/can be hereditary. It's not just about being overweight. Anyone and any body type can have or get HS. As for remedies, I've learned from being part of this forum from a lot of different people suffering with HS about taking a Turmeric supplement. So I tried it myself and they were right. It helps with the inflammation that's caused by the HS which lessens my pain. Makes it way easier to deal with. But unlike you my body creates the "drain holes" naturally to release the pressure from the fluid. Which it does help releive the pain from the bumps but still a pain if you have to cover them up with a gauze pad and some sensitive tape. I always keep my HS "drain holes" covered with a gauze pad and sensitive skin tape and it seems to keep it from getting irritated any further and it heals faster. I let it breath at night for the most part. The Turmeric may not work for everyone obviously but it's worth a shot. You've got nothing to lose. Over time I've learned what HS foods and seasonings bother my HS to make it act up if you will and if they really bother it I try to just stay away. But there are some HS irritants (food...) that doesn't really bother it, if I eat it in moderation. Everybody's body is different and you'd just have to find which ones bother you. I have noticed for a while now that if I eat foods and/or ingest seasonings that really irritate my HS my face will break out too. Talk about annoying. If the HS wasn't bad enough as it is. Like, I LOVE mexican food but it's not nice to my HS at all and I'm very sad about that but I eat it anyway but only once or twice and then I take a break from it so that my HS doesn't go crazy on me. It's only because of the seasonings. I also really can't eat potato chips either, depends on the chip, the brand and how it's cooked/prepared. I CAN'T eat pringles! Those are absolute torture to my HS and then some. Just terrible. I found out the hard way, wow. I really liked those too. I hate HS! I have never really seen remission with my HS but I'm beyond thankful I'm not at stage 3. As for the working out I've heard different things. Some people said it helps and some people said it was awful. Oh, and as of the potato part, if you like eating potato and can't cuz of the HS sweet potato is the way to go. It comes in the classic, purple and white. There are other colors and I'm sure they all vary in sweetness too. We didn't even know that it came in other colors until we went to a different grocery store to get an item or two that we couldn't get at the grocery store we usually shop at and they had them. So we got a whole bunch of the white sweet potato and made homemade potato salad and oh yeah. The white is less sweet and is close to being as if you were eating regular potato. It has a slight sweetness to it but it was perfect. Our bodies aren't the only enemy. Food is too. All food has lectin in it and if you look that up you will see how bad it is for your body, how damaging it is. I make a homemade capecod salsa. It has white corn, black beans, black eyes peas, red onion, tomatoes and Italian dressing. Once I make it it doesn't last long cuz I love it but after a while I was noticing some weird things going on and I decided to look up stuff about all beans online and that's how I fell upon the lectin research. I ended up having to cut out just the beans all together. Sad. It was harming my body. So now and then I will put lentils in it which is better cuz it's less bean(lectin) intake but if I eat too much of it it starts harming me again. So there's no food out there that really doesn't harm the body in some way shape or form. Unfortunately. I have lots of research on a lot of things. As for a meal plan, I've learned from nutritionists that your plate should be half filled with vegetables, then a protein, a starch and it wouldn't hurt to throw in some fruit. And if you feel like you want something sweet they say to eat fruit. I also tend to go to a Tropical Smoothie Cafe near my house and get smoothies that have spinach and fruits or also with kale. Really good. Well hope I was able to help some. Good luck and I wish you the best.

I strongly believe that diet is a huge part of HS and that changes can make a massive improvement. What those changes need to be varies for each person, but a good starting point would be cutting out processed ‘food’ and just sticking to real foods. Maybe second stage after that could be cutting out wheat as it is quite a common trigger for a lot of problems (but in a real good way, not processed gluten free nonsense). And then trying specifics such as potatoes and other nightshades, or dairy or yeast.

Or you could go the whole hog to start with and give something like Keto a try, there’s plenty of info online and research about its safety and benefits.