Pursuing Relief through Diet has Calmed the Roller Coaster
from Ani C.

Dear Ed, I love your site and I always make sure that I check it regularly for the latest mail and articles, especially about the various treatments that everyone has tried and tested. So I’ll tell you about mine.

My treatment for P involves modified diet, baths and olive oil. I’ve had P for about 15 years and I’m only 26.  I used steroid creams and had one course of UV light treatment — all without success. Then one day I just got fed up and decided I’d had enough. I had P all over my body, face and scalp (over  90%). That was over 18 months ago.  Since then I’ve tried various ways of dealing with this and the following has proved the most successful.  I got Dr. Pagano’s book and it sounded like a lot of hard work so decided to try and modify his regimen to suit my needs.

I have cut out wheat, red meat, all nightshade vegetables, citrus fruits, alcohol, cigarettes, potatoes, dairy, caffeine and fizzy drinks from my regular diet.  So I eat rice, vegetables, gluten-free pasta, chicken and fish.  However, I had steak, fries, beer and cigarettes last weekend so I do venture off the diet once in a while (about once every 6 weeks if I’m honest). I have a bath at night before bed in just water — no soap or bubble bath — for at least 30 mins.  I then use a flannel to gently exfoliate the skin cells off my skin.  After my bath I use olive oil on my skin (I buy this at the chemists and it doesn’t smell very strong) and then put on my pajamas and it’s off to bed.

I don’t have to wash off the olive oil in the morning, except for my hair.  For my scalp, I use olive oil at night and then wash it out in the morning (I don’t use conditioner). 

Well, my skin has actually gotten better in some respects. My P is clearing very very slowly. I can now see that the steroids have thinned my skin.  The biggest benefit of my new regimen is that I’m no longer on the emotional roller coaster that comes with trying a new treatment which works for a while and then fails.

I live in England and the weather is changeable so sometimes my skin is very dry and sore if it’s cold. But I prefer things the way they are now to when I was using my creams. I hope that this regimen will make my P better.   

Hope this will be useful for some people and I would like to get in touch with people in UK who have tried this sort of thing.

Kind Regards, -Ani

*****

Ed’s Response:  Just reading your description of your “customized” regimen makes me think there is an unlisted ingredient in your recipe — and probably a very active one.  Call it “determination.”  Or perhaps it is hope.

You’ve studied the diet and approached it realistically, managing to eat regularly what you can, but you also understand that in our cultures lapses are to be tolerated if we are to be gregarious beings.

You have accepted that this approach takes time.  As Dr. Connolly (another diet promoter) said so effectively, We did not contract this disease in a day.  It isn’t going to go away in a day, either.

I think it’s your determination that has — for now, at least — ceased that roller coaster ride “that comes with trying a new treatment which works for a while and then fails.”  Enjoy that while it lasts.

Meanwhile, any UK-ers interested in direct contact with Ani, drop me an email and I’ll see that it gets delivered.

Thanks, Ani.  -Ed

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