Issues with wound

Many thanks for your reply. Appreciate it. 

Thank you for your reply. I'm on a massive learning curve. Up until November of last year I'd never heard of HS.

Exactly the same.  I've been treating myself over the years with occasional visits to the doctors for antibiotics which never seemed to work. November 2014 got admitted to hospital with groin and armpit abscess. That was the first time someone actually said what was wrong with me. Now I've got another. I'm seeing the dermatologist end of April, and hopefully I'll get some answers. Once again thank you for your reply 

You're welcome and best of luck to you at your appointment. let us all know how it goes

I am horrified by your advice!   No one should ever cut out whole food groups as that is very dangerious and will cause major health problems.  Better advice is to cut down or eliminate one at a time to see if that helps.  If it's fine then reinstate it.  Never cut out all dairy.  Nor all fish as that provides essential vitamins and minerals. 

Has cutting surgar and dairy eased your symptoms? I know my OBGYN encouraged me to cut a lot of lactose products and pretty much all sugar for my PCOS which had mixed success, but it didn't do anything for my HS breakouts.

HS can certainly be triggered by food, at least in my case anyway. But lactose products seem to be a pretty rare trigger for HS, and I've never heard of sugar or fish being a culprit. Nightshades and Gluten seem to be the most common, and nuts aren't unheard of, but not those three food groups. I'm curious about who told you to stay away from them.

I have read many times that sugar is a problem for the immune system because it contributes to inflammation and lactose is a sugar. BUT, cutting dairy completely is most likely not a idea because your body does need some. Cutting sugary foods out of your diet though is a good thing for anyone at any time.

I actually stopped drinking milk because of the hormoens that are fed to the cows. I switched to almond milk, also because I like the taste better. BUT I still eat yogurt and cheese which gives me the nutrients my body needs.

An interesting thing though, is that when I stopped drinking milk, my acne did clear up a little bit, but that was probably coincidental because it did come back after a few weeks even though I still don't drink milk.

So, sugar, refined sugar, yes cut it, even if you dont have HS because sugar has absolutely no benifit to your body at all. Natural sugars from fruit and other foods is what the body needs.

Dairy, is not needed as much as most people think, but do have some and cut it completely, maybe just moderate better.

Nightshades as the culprit is probably a whole lot of smoke. I read about that and I started eatign them like crazy to see if things got really bad and I didn't notice anything. So if that was the issue, in theory I should have blown up everywhere and I didn't.

Finallly gluten, is just like sugar in that it does absolutely nothing for your body. it has no nutirents and doesnt benefit you in any way, It simply helps foods stick together or it helps achiece a certain texture in breads and things like that. But the body doesn't need it. So, ya go ahead and cut it if you want, but I doubt it alone would cure anyone of HS.

 

One thing I've noticed about HS is that everyone has different triggers. Obviously nightshades aren't a trigger for you, maybe gluten and dairy are?

I can time my breakouts down to the hour after eating nightshades. On the other hand I can eat copious amounts of bread and sugar and it doesn't bother my HS monster one bit. I tend to watch my sugar intake because it does aggravate my PCOS, but I don't bother avoiding gluten. That had no impact on my Hashimotos, PCOS or HS after I came off my elimination diet.

Everyone's body reacts differently. That's why I always encourage people with HS to try an elimination diet to determine if they do in fact have a food trigger. Not everyone does, but a fairly large percentage of us do. Sometimes people have only one trigger, sometimes it's more. I even talked to someone who reacts to gluten, nightshades and nuts.

And it's really not a good idea to cut out an entire food group permanently unless you know for a fact you have a sensitivity to it. Gluten by itself is not nutritious, but gluten products actually contain a lot of vitamins and minerals, like iron and folate, that you can't get in gluten-free products. Nightshades also have a lot of health benefits like zinc and b vitamins, and if you can eat them without experiencing detrimental side-effects, you definitely should.

 

I agree. Of course everyone should try all these things. I just worry about people who come on here and throw out some advice and get peoples hopes up. They post links to a website that directs you to another website, and before you know it, there you are looking at some product to buy or someone who gets ads on their page and they want the traffic, to boost their ad price and make money.

The person who I saw claiming that nightshades "cured" them of HS had a website like this and to me it seemed like they were clearly trying to boost traffic and they also had a link to som 'natural' herbs and vitamins to buy. So, anyone can make their own conclusions about that. Are they just trying to be helpful? Maybe.

Anyway I agree with you and that is what I said in my other answer, sorry for the typos, but no one should completely cut out food groups, but if they want, sugar and gluten are NOT food groups and they do nothing for your body. All foods that have gluten can be found without gluten and those versions have all the same other ingredients as their gluten loaded conterparts.

You can completely cut out gluten if you want and still get all the vitamins you need from other foods. In fact, most gluten free products end up having more nutritious value because they have other ingredients added to mimic gluten, and these are natural things like a little more egg to help bread, for example, stick together or molasses which is very good for you.

Gluten free products are also better for you because they are usually also organic and transfat free. Not all, but most. So, like I said, anyone who wants to go ahead and cut those thigns out should do so.  Refined sugar and gluten are nothing, lile eating paper. They should also try cutting out nighshades if they want, but (in my opinion) something else is at work if people claim that they were cured form cutting them out. But by all means, everyone should try, because you never know, no one knows and that is why HS is so horrible in the first place,because there are no clear answers. Doctors around the world have no clue, so be wary when someone comes along and says "hey, its this simple, stop eating this and you will be cured!!" It's a false hope that can get people really down on themselves, I know because I've been there many times.

One last thing to consider is that people who cut a food out of their lives and have that initiative and will to really do it, are probably also doing other healthy things like excercising or eating other food that they did not normally eat. And that could actually be what is causing the 'cure'. But they may not amke that connection, and they think it was the food they cut, as opposed to the food (and nutrient) they added to replace it. Or maybe it was the alleviation of stress that was a side effect of taking initiative in their life, etc..etc

Anyway that is enough rant for me, please understand I am not sayign that this or the other thign is a lie, maybe it worked for a few people, but a person has to understand just waht you said, that everyone is different, and so people should not come one here and say 'here is the cure".

Dairy is a breeding ground for bacteria and should avoided after a course of antibiotics to fight infection. Excess sugar is very problematic for skin.

- BSc Biomedical Science student.

I'd also liike to add that a little advice was needed, so i gave what i could from my personal experience and my backgrond in studying Microbiology and Immunology.

Fish is inflammatory despite having many beneficial qualities. I have never ate much dairy to begin with. Cutting out sugar certainly has. I myself did, I've studied Biology for years now and many doctors and herbalists agree, some do not.

This thread wasn't really about the causes of HS. It was about a wound, so applied my knowledge of microbiology. Dairy provides ideal conditions for bacteria to multiply,

I'm interested to read your point on sugar, as the abscesses I had in November and March both grew when I was consuming masses of fruit and eating lots of carbs. Both times I joined slimming world where they advocate free eating of both these foods. Each time I had raised sugar levels, when admitted into hospital and yet subsequent blood tests came back slightly raised when home and follow up bloods were taken to check for diabetes. I wonder is my diet affecting my HS. 

Yes, that is why I stopped drinking milk and switched to almond milk among other reasons. As I take antibiotics several times a year, I know that you are not supposed to take your antibiotics with milk. And that is because it will interfere with how it works and also because it can cause other bacteria to flourish. But again, cutting out dairy products completely is probably not a good idea, cutting down is best, or swithching to another food source that gives you those nutrients. And I agree also, like I mentioned before, that suagr is bad all around. It is a inflammatory aswell. I leanred about it while I was studying psychology at McGill university.

Sorry Louise we hijacked your thread lol

Hi Louise,

That's very possible. I'd reduce your sugar intake for 28 days and record any differences in your symptoms. Sometimes people can't tell whether they're ingesting too much sugar or not, a glucose monitor comes in very handy.

Cutting out dairy as a whole for a while whilst still drinking milk/soy milk is fine to determine whether it has an effect on infection/wound or not. Ah, the social sciences, don't really offer much on this particular topic.

Yes I agree with you there Martian.   Cutting out a whole food group for a very limited time is fine and then introducing the items back in one at a time is a good idea then it would be possible to see what triggers it the most.  x

 

Well of course social sciences offer tons of insight, the medical courses overlap the feild and almost all of my electives were in the sciences as McGill requires you to also minor in Behavioural sciences. So, as you may or may not know, that is a very science oriented feild and is also required by MD's. So that statement really holds no ground. I only said I that because I wanted people to know that I am not speaking out of opinion. I have actually learned about these things in an approiate place and am not just speaking about things I read in a google search. This is not a battle of who knows more anyways, so sorry if  anyone took my saying that as a "I'm right and you're wrong" because that is not the case.

Anyways, I feel like this has turned into an argument somehow and I'm sorry if I stepped on anyones toes, that was not my intention. It is very hard to convey tone on here and I think mine may have come across wrong. I'm not really sure where my explanation went wrong because I agree with you, if you read my answer, I simply clarified a few details. It was stated that people should cut out a food, it was not said temporaily, and therefore I replied that it is not good to completely cut out a food. Yes, it is great to try for a while and then reintroduce it, but that is not what the discussion was about. The discussion was about cutting it from your diet, indefinitely.

 

You say that it's not a battle of who knows more but you then retaliate. I was just saying the social sciences offer nothing in this particular thread. That's like myself pointing out that's I've studied Biology, Chemistry, Statistics and Physics when Statistics and Physics don't really matter here. Of course Social sciences may come in handy in life, I'm not saying they don't, I'm interested in Psychology myself. I'm just saying it's not an actual science and that the Biomedical Sciences which includes biochemistry, microbiology, immunology etc actually offer insight into medicine.

My whole degree is two years out of an MD, hence if I wanted to do Medicine, I can fast track the degree so it wouldn't take long at all.

Anyway, now that's out the way, I apologise Louise and hope you get well soon. Make sure you see the doctor and don't worry. Smile :-)

Hi had a swab done and it appears I do have an infection going on. Hence the odour and oozing (lovely). What's made the pain worse, apparently I have an allergy to the dressing the nurses have been using as my skin has broken down around the wound. So new dressing have been used

Bless you! Once the infection has its best to wear loose fitting clothing. I never show my armpits because they look.....no words. I've found that batwing/angel sleeve tops work well. They won't stick to you so you won't sweat and build up moisture :-)