What worked for my SD.
Hey guys, I have Accutane induced rosacea so it was almost inevitable I was going to develop SD at some point as this seems to happen frequently from what I've seen.
Anyway I somehow managed to make it through the harsh British winter without getting it and it was only in early Spring of this year that I was truly afflicted by it.
At its worst I had it both sideburns, in and above both eyebrows, a patch to the left of my mouth and a large patch that almost covered my entire left cheek.
I had the classic symptoms and could distinguish it easily for my usual rosacea. The patches were a mixture of red/brown/yellow in colour, were rough to the touch and had large amounts of flaking which stopped abruptly at the borders of the patches.
After trying all of the usual treatments with little to no success and the patch on my left cheek spreading by the day, I found a post on here started by kkent about a clinical trial testing petroleum jelly for Seb Derm and one line in particular sparked my interest:
"Petrolatum is considered a skin protectant and has a strong ability to hold moisture in skin. Along with restricting water from leaving skin, it also decreases most air from contacting the skin. This may slow the growth and activity of skin yeast that are typically considered facultative anaerobes."
It interested me because this was a different method of treatment than the usual ones that used chemicals to kill the yeast, many of which are also quite irritating to skin. It also does not allow for the yeast to become 'resistant' to the treatment unless they somehow adapt to live without oxygen. It was also a single ingredient.
My method was to apply diluted ACV (1:3) to the patches. Leave for around 10 minutes then wash my face. I would then apply petroleum jelly to the patches (Vaseline). All of this was done at night. I would not recommend during the day as the Vaseline is extremely sticky and greasy-looking and it does not absorb into the skin.
Note: I had tried ACV for a few weeks on its own before this and while I feel it worked to some degree ( it got rid of flakes) at harming the yeast, it only made it look more red/irritated. It does not help that some people say you need to experience this increased irritation before results will show, they did not for me.
Being acne-prone (hence the Accutane) I was worried that such a heavy product would block my pores and cause me to break out. There is not a lot of information online about this, but I found a fair few websites that said the particles of petroleum jelly are too large for it to be considered comedogenic. There were warnings though to not ingest this or inhale its fumes which is strange as I have heard of many people applying it to the inside of the nostrils to relieve dryness.
Anyways, I would say this method started working straight away. I noticed the patches to be calmer-looking in the morning and I would say it was very noticeably better after a week and pretty much gone in 2 weeks. I then stopped applying ACV to my face and continued the Vaseline. I would say after another two further weeks I stopped applying Vaseline and it has not returned.
I still apply Vaseline occasionally at night because I feel it may help calm my rosacea too. This may be just the effect of the SD clearing though.
Previous treatments I have tried included Head and Shoulders applied to the patches, manuka honey, coconut oil, clotrimazole cream, Sudocreme and ACV. They all had varying degrees of success (from zero to minor), most left me with relief for a few hours afterwords but nothing long-lasting.
I will also mention that I follow a fairly strict Paleoish diet (no dairy, no wheat/grains, low-sugar) which seems to really benefit my acne and while it did not prevent me from getting SD I think that if I ate many carbs/sugars it would definitely adversely affect my rosacea and acne and most likely SD too. There is a definite diet-skin connection for me.
Now I'm not here to push this treatment. This forum has been incredibly helpful to me even just as a passive reader. I am all too aware that what works for one will not for another (first-hand experience) and your results may not match mine. I will say it is worth a try though as it is a single ingredient, single application at night (no complicated protocol) and seems to have some scientific-backing in the form of the clinical trial (for what its worth).
Good-luck.
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Originally Posted by Pez
I'm really hoping this works and I will keep you posted.
