Is it a fungus, bacteria or a curse?

Like everyone else with this dreaded curse, I research the hell out of it to the point of exhaustion. sometimes I’m sold on the idea that its bacterial, other times I’m pretty sure it is viral or an autoimmune deficiency. The big problem is that people online just call it eczema or something like that, and you don’t know if people are talking about dry skin or the oozing goo. But I see so much evidence of people who’ve fixed their ‘eczema’ or ‘dermatitis’ with apple cider vinegar- treating the issue as a fungal infection. I, myself have tried this but my face got very bad. I am considering taking a leave of absence from work to try it for many weeks to see if I have to get worse before I get better.

I think that might be my next move. If that doesn’t work, I may try Soolantra or absolutely ruin myself by taking Accutane. I just need the yellow crusts to stop before I blow my brains out. I’ve lost decades of my life to this curse. You never really let yourself be happy because you know the next outbreak is just around the corner.

Mine isn’t fungal, I think. I did have a period with a soapy taste on my lips and sebum that stinged the eyes, which made me belief that maybe a fungi was involved, but I don’t have this any more, somehow, unless I use topical treatments. I used itraconazole for 3 months, so if there was a fungi infection, it should be gone, but the yellow crusts aren’t.

It also doesn’t seem to be bacterial, due to the oral and topical antibiotic treatments (unless it’s resistant/mrsa) and the negative carrier/colonization swab tests. Also, based on the location (face only), also makes a staph infection less likely.

Demodex could explain it all, but I don’t think I have much mites (even before Soolantra), unless they were all inside the pores, hidden from my microscope. But if mites could cause problems, then they could explain everything.

Not sure if Accutane could help, maybe via drying skin that could cause the mites to die out (if that is the cause), but when my skin is dry, it often gets worse (but could be temporary).

I still have my hopes on Soolantra. If it doesn’t work, then maybe I’ll add oral metrodinazole or oral ivermectin, like the other two did. If that doesn’t work, then I want an expert to perform a full skin biopsy.

TSO, as usual you’re giving me good info. If three months of Itraconazole didn’t help you, it’s not going to help me. I’ve restricted me diet to basically vegetables, apples and nuts. Nothing else. No meat.
I’m going to see how this carries me, and I’m tempted to throw in caprylic acid to attack it as a yeast issue. Want to see how far I can get with it after 1 month.

Hard part is never knowing which enemy to attack. Are we attacking yeast? Are we attacking bacteria? Are we attacking microscopic mites?

Oh, something I wanted to ask. As a baby, I had cradle cap. Which is basically the yellow stuff covering your scalp. Then it goes away. I didn’t know if you suffered from that as an infant or not. But I guess if you have that as an infant, you’re likely to have asthma or other allergies when you’re older.

I don’t have asthma, but do have allergy for cats, some pollen and dustmites. Although it is less than I had when I was a kid. (At that time, I was able to detect cats without seeing them.)
I haven’t had cradle cap (neonatal seborrhoeic dermatitis) as far as I know.

Even though the antibiotics treatments and negative tests, I haven’t ruled out bacteria yet. Staph (staphylococcus aureus) is super bacteria that is capable of doing a lot of things, and is a major problem word wide.

If you are going for a new topical treatment, I would suggest to try Soolantra, a demodex treatment route. It’s easy to use, doesn’t smell bad, didn’t gave a big breakout in the success cases, isn’t very harsh for the skin, although for some people it may irritate the skin. The biggest problem maybe is trying to get Soolantra.

Mine looks exactly like the photos in the What does it look? section and it is not bacteria - I had a biopsy of my active lesion. I have started using acyclovir tablets(cold sore treatments) 4 months ago. I start taking the tablets as soon as feel I’m going to have a breakout. At the beginning my skin improved very much, but since 3 weeks ago I am getting severe breakouts again.

Have any of you ever tried cold sore/ herpes treatments?

Personally, I tried Valtrex for a while. Didn’t have an effect. I’ve also tried the natural methods of treating cold sores such as taking Lysine and Vitamin C on on empty stomach 2-3 times a day. Doesn’t work. I do get cold sores from time to time, but I can tell its very different than the dreaded yellow ooze. I get cold sores on my lips and if I use Lysine in high doses as the first sign, the blisters never break open and weep. A cold sore takes me a week or longer to heal as these yellow oozers go through the 1 day of ooze, 2-3 days of crusting over and diminishing before they flake off.

I’m glad you found the site. A few of us are taking different approaches at beating this thing. 6 years is a long time, but we’re all learning things from each other.

I have also wondered whether it may be herpes related. Reasons why I belief it is not herpes simplex (HSV) in my case:

  • It’s never on my lips. It may occur on the border of my lips, while HSV usually targets the lips. I have never seen a cold sore on my lips.
  • HSV may occur wide spread over the face (not sure if this is really true), but is probably rare, while in my case it is wide spread. And HSV lesions are usually clustered together, while my lesions don’t seem to be that clustered.
  • In people that carry herpes, it usually only occurs a few times per year, while in my case it occurs on daily basis.
  • HSV blood serum tests were negative. (Tested for Herpes Simplex IgG and IgM. Not sure if this fully rules out herpes.)
  • HSV shouldn’t ooze like this.

Although there may be other viruses that I haven’t ruled out yet: herpes zoster (shingles) and Human papillomavirus (HPV).

I always thought it’s just me alone struggling with this unknown disease. So happy to find this forum today and hopefully we’ll be able to share a lot and learn from each other.

I do very much agree with you and Tso that this doesn’t seem to be a herpes, but I am trying everything these days to find a treatment - as this disease has seriously affected my life. for the last 6 years I always been told I have acne and I tried all the acne treatments except Accutane. Until recently one dermatologist told me it might be herpes so I started taking the cold sore tablets.

I also get cold sore once or twice a year just on the border of my lips, but I get these breakouts at least 5/6 times a month. And I can say they look different and I never had my cold sores oozing.

You could try Soolantra (topical ivermectin). It’s a new medicine (not widely available yet) that has the following properties:

  • Kills demodex mites (the primary property)
  • Anti inflammatory
  • moisturizer

The mechanism of action of Soolantra is not fully clear yet, but it does seem to help people with this yellow crusts problem. About 4 people have reported using it (of which I am one), and those have mentioned a clear reduction in symptoms.

The basic idea is that demodex mites somehow irritate the skin, possibly indirectly by carrying bacteria, and cause these lesions. These bacteria are released when the mites die. Note that almost everybody has demodex mites, even those without any skin problems. Usually the older people are, the more likely it is that they carry demodex.

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mz66, you’re not alone. I’ve had it since 1995! and forever I felt isolated and alone because I thought I had some rare disease only affecting me.

Can you tell a little about what age you were when you first had your symptoms start six years ago? If there were any changes or events in your life. Stress, exposure to chemicals at that time, etc?

I first had it when I was 21. Before then my skin was all clear and didn’t have any blemish or spot on my face. Not really. I was having my normal life until I felt itchiness on my forehead followed by couple of breakouts. The only thing might have caused this, could be sun exposure for long times (I’m not quite sure though as it was long ago).

I have always tried to find out what triggers my breakouts, but it’s really difficult to say as I get them a lot. Sometimes I think stress, tiredness or menstrual cycle causes this, but I also have breakouts without the presence of any of them.

There are a lot of different theories. How yours started sounds like mine. I felt a tingle, then one day got a big, raised bump in the center of my forehead that started to ooze.
I don’t think sun exposure was the culprit though. Some people think its diet (gluten, wheat, dairy or citrus fruit allergies). There are theories of MRSA and demodex mites. The good thing is that many of us are attacking it from different angles. TSO is using soolantra, which is used to treat demodex mites. I am pursuing holisitc ways of trying to treat it and in the next month will have my metal fillings removed, and then heavy detox and heavy metal cleansing.

I recommend searching earthclinic.com for some ideas. It’s always hard to tell if people have the same thing as us because people either call it eczema or impetigo. But people find relief from eczema and impetigo by using apple cider vinegar topically and internally, plus a variety of other methods like grapefruit seed extract and drinking food-grade hydrogen peroxide. People also try elimination diets. You’ll see these on earthclinic

When I tried the apple cider vinegar, my skin exploded into an all out war. But I don’t know… this might be a sign that things are working and I need to stick with it for a month to get better. Problem is I’m married and supporting a family. Don’t have a month to nuke my face.

Thank you misfit108. I will def do some research on these. I think mine can’t be Impetigo or MRSA though as I had my active lesion tested for bacteria and it was negative. I should have my skin tested this time for Herpes virus to narrow the possible causes down.

This is a natural remedy for herpes that has been on the market over 20 years. If you read some of the reviews on Amazon, it seems some people have really cured some bad skin issues. When people say general terms like ‘acne’ and ‘eczema’, you always wonder if its anything like what we’ve got.

The product is called Herpanacine. Worth having a look at.

http://smile.amazon.com/Herpanacine-Skin-Antioxidants-Wayne-Diamond/dp/B0001TJIYO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1445821360&sr=8-2&keywords=Herpanacine

Herpanacine For Skin With Antioxidants Dr. Wayne Diamond 200 Caps:

[quote]
Ingredients
Calories (5), Vitamin A (12500 IU, 250%), Vitamin E (100 IU, 333%), Selenium (50 mcg, 71%), Proprietary Blend (1400 mcg)

Ingredients
In Herpanacine Proprietary Blend:L-Lysine (as L-lysine HCl), L-tyrosine, astragalus root, dandelion root, arsaparilla root, echinacea (aerial arts), ligustrum berry

Ingredients
Gelatin, calcium sulfate, cellulose, magnesium stearate, silica, calcium silicate and titanium dioxide

Directions
To be taken daily as a food supplement in the support and maintenance of good overall skin health. One to three capsules in the morning and in the afternoon. Take a maximum of six daily. Note: 4 capsules daily maximum when pregnant or nursing.[/quote]
Looks like an extreme dose of vitamine A, which has a daily upper limit of 10,000 IU. (Note that accutane/roaccutane also is a high dose form of vitamine A, synthetic. There may be risks associated with reaching these limits.)

I’ve had this for 10 years now, It’s amazing find a group of people suffering from the same thing and understand how annoying these things really are! I’ve tried so many things none of which ever worked for me… Im very interested in the Soolantra route and have often thought it could be some sort of allergy/irritation, as they sometimes come up looking like a mosquito bite or a hive (the really bad ones) the speed in which they appear aswell… Mine went away for a year once not sure why, but the oozing came back… They also seem to migrate around the face. Mine started in my beard area, then moved to my cheeks and under my eyes, Im currently getting them on my nose pretty badly. Not round the nostril more in the middle and sides and they seem to ooze for longer. I’ve also had them in my ears before, even on my ear lobes… As you all are Im really sick of this now. It ruins your life!

There’s more oil on your face than in other areas, especially in the T zone and earlobes. there are going theories of demodex or yeast overgrowth. Either way, your body gets a signal that something bad is on your face. It inflames the area and pumps yellow lymphatic fluid to heal the site. Definitely, you’re not alone. No doctor on earth seems to know what this is, but Soolantra works. It either kills the demodex, or stops the yeast and/or inflamatory response. It’s a pricey answer, but you can get your life back. If you use the coupon from the soolantra website, your first tube will cost $25. You just have to work it out with your pharmacy. Walgreens kept telling me it was going to be $300, until I got someone there who knew what they were doing.

So I’ve been using the Soolantra for 5 days now. I had a really bad outbreak the week leading up to my using Soolantra on either side of my nose (If I get one on one side of the face I seem to get one in a similar place on the other side a few days later) All has been going well apart from last night before I went to bed I noticed a potential oozer coming up in my beard area… Low and behold this morning there it was… Im hoping it just takes a few weeks to work properly, could this be the demodex dying off?

It stopped for me right away when I started using it. I put it on at night, and then applied extra virgin coconut oil as my only moisturizer afterwards. Over the next month, I’d sometimes get a raised bump like an outbreak was going to happen, but they never oozed. I’d say give it some time. It could be die off. I don’t get any bumps at all anymore, but if I eat anything with vinegar (especially apple cider vinegar), my skin will raise up in some areas (but no oozing). Good luck.

Hi misfit108. I am glad to hear your skin is improving. I have finally found a derm whom agreed to prescribe me Soolantra. My question is whether you are using the topical ivermectin alone? Or plus oral ivermectin as some others do?