What I did. Warning, this is a long message that covers a couple of months from my log. Hopefully it is useful. Please note I'm not a doctor and some of the things I tried here might not help you and ma even make things worse. This is just my story and is not intended as advice.

On Saturday, 5/14/11, in the afternoon I read a post on
//www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=1595873#i
about SD and baking soda. It was suggested that SD is, or can be, a result of candida infection and that baking soda can kill it by creating an alkaline environment. This is not an unreasonable assumption as many fungi cannot live in a PH above 9

People expressed that they were able to get good results by using baking soda both internally and externally. I began to apply a solution of about 1/2 tsp on a spot on the lower right side of my face. I applied it roughly every 3-4 hours. no additional irritation noted. I also began drinking a solution of roughly 2 1/2 tablespoons
to one small water bottle. The first application internally was about 1/4 of the bottle. Some giddiness was noted. After that I was taking a swallow about every 2 hours. As of now (Sunday, 5/15/11) I have drunk about 7/8ths of a small water bottle of this solution.

On Sunday I continued applying the solution to that spot and taking a swallow of the solution described above. At roughly 2pm I washed all of my bedding and most of my clothes in a washer with a solution of 4 1/2 teaspoons dissolved in a small water bottle, per machine. The clothing was thoroughly dried. Concurrent to this I sprayed down my pillows and bed with a light misting of the same solution i had been using on my face. When I reassembled my bed I put another light
misting.

Before lying down on any of this I took a shower. In the shower I wet myself down and then washed with a solution of 4 1/2 teaspoons in one small water bottle. I rubbed the solution in mostly on my head but
also all over my body. I let it soak in for just a few minutes before rinsing thoroughly. Then I shaved with a new blade. Before shaving I sprayed the blade down with the mist bottle. After shaving I sprayed that same spot on my face mentioned above. It is now 4pm Sunday 5/15/11.

Impressions as of right now. Indeterminate. I have noted that the spot that I have been applying the mist to (on my face) has shrunken but the shrunken spot is very red and tender to the touch. Overall the SD on my face seems less inflamed despite the fact that i had been in the middle of a pretty bad flare up. Also, I stopped using the steroid cream early on Saturday 5/14/11. At that time I had an active spot on my forehead, between my eyebrows, on both sides of my nose, my upper lip, my lower chin and the lower right side of my face. As of right now all of those spots still appear active but they do look less
inflamed.

Update: 6/14/11

I can't believe a month went by. I have been drinking up to 1.5 teaspoons a day of baking soda (dissolved in water, 3 divided doses). I have also begun to apply (maybe staring two weeks ago) a paste of baking soda to my face, once a day, a couple times a week, letting it sit for about 45 minutes and then rinsing. On occasion I've been
using 2-4 teaspoons of baking soda dissolved in a water bottle, then applied to my body, letting it sit for a few minutes, then rinsed during a shower.

Impression today is that my SD is better than it has been in months. In fact, right at this moment there is only one spot on my face that I'd consider "active" (a very stubborn spot between my eyebrows). I'm not ready to credit the baking soda but frankly I haven't made any other significant changes I DID try to cut back my refined Sugar intake and failed, miserably). Prior to starting the regime I outlined above I was using a steroid cream almost daily just to keep
the worst symptoms at bay. Now I'm not using the steroid cream at all and my skin is almost clear. I look at the mirror and, frankly I'm amazed at how good my skin looks given that for months I was in a daily battle with redness, scaling and steroid cream. Also, I noticed that my skin got noticeably better about 2 weeks in when I ramped up
the dose to 1.5 teaspoons of baking soda a day.

Having said all that I'd had spontaneous remissions before. Also, even if the baking soda is helping it is tough to know if the external or internal dosing is doing most of the work (or both are working together). Since there are some risks associated with long term internal baking soda use I'll probably stop sometime this week and see what happens.


7/17/11 update

At some point shortly after the last update I stopped taking the baking soda internally. About a week to two weeks ago I stopped using baking soda externally also. For the last few applications I had also added peroxide to the paste. And I washed my whole body down twice, I don't recall the dates, with about 1 part bleach to ~20 parts water. At the time I stopped I had stopped the worst of the SD and my skin
looked "OK" most days. There was still some scaling and I did need the steroid cream on occasion. Overall I felt like I should back off that treatment and try something else because it had not fully resolved my issues. I also had a minor outbreak on the back of my scalp that appeared to be due to a sunburn (it was temporary and went away quickly).

So about the same time I stopped using the baking soda externally I switched over to apple cider vinegar. Initially I was using about 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water and was washing my entire head with the solution in the shower. It seemed to me that this initially had some
pretty impressive results. I switched over from that to simply applying a 50/50 solution of ACV and water to my face about 3 times a week. that last part has been ongoing for about a week now. I'm impressed with the results. One very stubborn patch of SD has completely resolved. Two other less stubborn but persistent patched have also completely resolved. My most hardcore patches (the sides of my nose and upper lip) are much improved. At a reasonable distance they are barely noticeable.

This is a pretty good result so far. As I look back over what I've tried I think a layered approach may be best. I have read that various different microbes can cause SD. They can live on the skin as well as in the general environment. To try to control the issue in my bed I wash my bedding frequently. Before I put everything back
together I vacuum it and apply a mist of baking soda and water. For the body I think there are a few things that can be rotated in the lineup. Baking soda paste is easy to apply and leave in place. That helps it to soak into the skin and will kill anything that can't stand an alkaline environment. Bleach can be good for whole body cleaning and you can soak in it in a tub to get it into your skin (though this should probably be used sparingly and very diluted). Peroxide is tough to apply and it will turn hair yellowish so it is troublesome to use...but it can kill lots of kinds of bacteria. ACV is obviously smelly and difficult to apply but it does seem to have had a really strong impact on my SD as a the sort of last thing I've tried sort of way. I would not credit the ACV exclusively because I did all the other things first. Maybe I had knocked down the microbe levels in my skin quite a bit and an acid was the missing part. I don't know. But right now I'm more happy with the way my skin looks than I have been...in probably years. I also feel like I have a toolkit I can reach into that doesn't just include steroid creams (which are really just stupid, all they do is cover up the damage while doing nothing to
stop the damage). Steroid creams, used consistently, will actually make your skin weaker over time and help SD spread to other areas.

As fate would have it I have an appointment with a dermatologist next week who is supposed to be really good. I've waited like 2 months for the appointment and now my skin hardly looks inflamed at all!

If I had to do this over it would go like this, in this order. I think I'd leave out drinking the baking soda solution and see how it goes.

1) Wash all my bedding, replace all pillows, vacuum everything and spray a fine mist of a baking soda and water solution on the pillows and mattress. Repeat as often as possible but at least every week.

2) Night 1 Soak in a tub with water and about 1 cup of bleach. Making sure to keep my face and hair wet.

3) Night 2, wash my entire body with a solution of water and baking soda (I used small water bottle with about 4 teaspoons of baking soda). Make sure to stand in the shower and let it soak in as much as is practical before rinsing.

4) Night 3, wash my entire body with a solution of water and ACV (I used a small water bottle with about 1 part ACV 10 parts water). Make sure to stand in the shower and let it soak in as much as is practical before rinsing.

5) Night 4-14, apply the baking soda paste as described above (with the peroxide added), 1 to 3 times a week

6) Night 15-28, apply ACV as described above.

7) Evaluate

I think this would have reduced the load of microbes on my skin a lot faster than what I did. Obviously the time-frame may need to be changed if any irritation develops. Any of the above substances can irritate the skin and potentially make SD worse. From a germ theory perspective I think
this protocol would tend to be effective for SD in my case. Between bleach, a strong acid, a strong base, and peroxide that will kill almost every bacteria known (as well as lots of viruses, spores and fungus). Of course a lot depends on concentration and application. It is difficult to get these substances in the skin where they would do the most good. But it seems, at least for me so far, that persistence
counts.

I'd love to hear suggestions and/or answer questions.