Hello,
Need some serious help in regards to nystatin. To those that had success using Nystatin, is their a difference between the cream and paste form. The 50g tube that I purchased is in paste form. Would it still be ok to use?
Hi Marc,
there are a lot of comments in this thread by now, and not all of them apply to your questions, but some of them do. People have been asking questions and posting their experiences for a little more than year and a half now. If you want to, you can scroll through and get a glimpse of what people have been saying. Also, isn’t there a piece of paper in the container that describes possible side-effects and how to apply it and such?
I think I can honestly say that I have read every comment posted here. The large majority of people see either an improvement of their SD or no effect at all. A few people reported that they reacted to some of the stabilizing ingredients in the creme with acne as a result. If you want to read into this do a ctrl+f for the guy called Ian, who wrote about this in detail.
But I would expect that you either get rid of your SD, or reduce it by like 95%, or nothing much happens at all.
You can also read about it online to get a better idea, or ask your doctor if you are still unsure about it.
Apply a small about to the inflamed areas once every day. Just enough that it absorbs into the skin - don’t lather it on to leave a layer behind. Do it in the morning or evening or whatever fits into your schedule. I usually do it after I shower.
I think it’s good that you don’t take our advice for granted. We are, after all, just strangers on the internet. Probably not even a doctor among us! 
So if you have concerns, maybe consult a professional.
I wish you the best of luck!
Joakim
I’d just like to say that this website and especially the information on Nystatin has basically changed my life. I’ve suffered from Seb Derm for over 25 years, and have spent thousands on pretty much every “cure” you’ve mentioned on your site, along with some others I’d found elsewhere on the web.
I’d basically gotten to the point where I was using a strong (1%) steroid cream and Nizoral cream on my face twice daily, which I had done for around 5 years.
I live in Dubai, and have had trouble finding a Nystatin cream, but a Chemist recommended “Panderm” to me. It contains Nystatin, as well as a few other anti-fungal and anti-biotic ingredients. I was having a really bad flare up, but after 1 week of applying twice daily to my face, all my symptoms were gone! Even the constant “itchy” feeling on my face has disappeared. It’s now been a month, and I’m still using the cream daily as I’m a bit afraid to stop, but I will gradually try using it once every two days, then reduce further.
I wouldn’t have found this “cure” without the information on your site, and I hope my experience can help others who suffer from this horrible and (at times) embarrassing condition. It appears there’s also a “Panderm Plus”, but I just use the normal “Panderm” (cream, not the ointment). It’s in a white and yellow tube. It’s also very cheap, at AED 11 for a tube, so about £2 or $2.50.
Thanks again for your site. It’s a great source of information.
Hello,
I just want to chime in and say that Nystatin has been working quite nicely for me the past 4-5 days. It all started when I moved to the states from tropical country (Thailand) when my SD flared up. Back at home, I didn’t have to use any thing to control the SD and I would be fine. I noticed a bit of scaly buildup on my T-zone but it was invisible for the most part. I had been on steroid before and I am on 12 months withdrawal period at the moment. My routine back then was to not stressed and eat healthily, take supplements, all that good stuff. I only use cleanser by the way.
It was dandy until I had to take flight for 14 hours to US that my SD became uncontrollable. And for few days after, there it was, the biggest flare-up of my existence. It’s like SD lied dormant just to sprang out to mess with you personally. I believed it was the weather (LA may seems like a warm place for you people, but for SEA people, it is very chilling) that aggravate my skin, not to mention the stress that came with it. My face was, excuse my language, SO FUCKING RED. I thought it emited red light on its own, to be honest. The scale was so rough and the itch unbearable.
I have been reading this site for sometimes before so I knew of Nystatin, but wouldn’t use it for the sake of resting my skin from steroid. Besides there wasn’t any bad flare back in Thailand. I was not familiared with how pharmacy works in US, but I had to get something to alleviate my burning SD. So after meeting with a doctor (Surprise, surprise he asked whether I want him to precribe steroid cream instead. Dammit modern medicine! This is exactly why people resent you and become anti vaxxer and whatnot.) I told him to precribe Nystatin cream. And there I got it, the Nystatin ointment.
I didn’t know prior to that moment that ointment and cream are not the same. Ointment is oily and cream is less oil, more water hence creamy. When the pharmarcy gave me ointment I didn’t know better. It was Nystatin ointment 100 000 USP called actavis or whatever (I want to convince you that this is not an ad, any nystatin brand is okay in my book). Anyway, i used it regardless. It took three days, but my SD eventually subsided. Hooray! It is not yet gone mind you, but the redness is reduced to faint pinkish hue. And it is not itching or scaly anymore, albeit a bit flakey on eyebrows. Keep in mind this is 3 days result from the worst flare up of my life. The best thing is, I don’t feel my skin thinning, burn, or behave erratically aside from SD so that’s also a win.
The thing is, Nystatin ointment, while great, is hard to wash off since it is petroleum based. So I will be calling the pharmacy to change it to cream. I believe that when it is in cream, it will heal even faster, no? I don’t know whether this site admin is still active but I just want to share my result.
Oh and by the way, ointment is pure nystatin while cream has other ingredients like glycerin and water. Both have same USP of 100 000.
tl;dr I calmed the worst flare up of my life using Nystatin oinment. But I rather get the cream one. I hope it will work for me as well as it is for Joakim.
Hi JM,
great to hear that you recovered after such a long time with SD! I’m very happy for you, and that this post, made more than 1½ years ago, continue to help people.
In my experience, once I became symptom-free for a while, it took the SD longer to come back. I think that by allowing your skin to get back into a normal state by using the cream, it gets more difficult for the yeast to disrupt it again.
So hopefully you will be able to dial down on the administration of drugs.
All the best to you in the future!
Joakim
Hi Nye,
in my experience it took more than 4-5 days for the symptoms to completely disappear. I think that took something like 1-2 weeks in my case. But it sounds like you are at least back to a bearable level. Hopefully, your progress has continued the last few days.
There should be no problem for you using the nystatin ointment in relation to your steroid resting period. At least the one I got has no steroids whatsoever, so if that is not the case for you, maybe try a different brand. Maybe I just misunderstood your concern
I haven’t tried the ointment, but intuitively I think I also prefer the cream. I have bad experience with thick ointments and petroleum-based products, but maybe it doesn’t matter if it contains and active ingredient that kills the yeast. I think you should be fine, but yeah, maybe change it up in the future.
I have my fingers crossed for your continue progress and SD-free face!
Best regards,
Joakim
This is a report on my symptom after week 2 of using nystatin ointment.
So the first 9 days were great! My skin was back to normal and I didn’t have to carefully monitor what I eat, just not binge on junk foods and I would be fine. However, after day 10 til now, I have found that SD is creeping up back on my face, albeit way less severe than before. It is still at an acceptable level and I can still socialize with people, but it is just plain annoying to see inflamed nose creases all the time. Luckily still yet any bad breakout. I suppose it’s the petroleum based gel nature of it (since I use ointment instead of cream) that aggravate the symptom and feed the fungi. And because I panicked for a bit, I lathered layers of the ointment several times in the last few days which may further attributed to the symptom.
So, I’m going to get the cream one instead after I finish typing this comment, wish me luck!
Anyway, Joakim, is nystatin still working for you? And how’s the effectiveness of it overtime? From a nystatin ointment user perspective I feel like it may be just another ketoconazole that the fungi will eventually adapt (Please god no) and lose it effectiveness. But I willing to bet nystatin cream, with its water based texture would be better. Oh and please tell me how you are using it in details, like do you apply it immediately after shower or do you wait for fifteen minutes, something like that.
Personally, I use it after shower, in the morning and before bed. If I feel itchy on certain places I will apply it regardless. I think the excessive applications made my SD came back so I gonna try applying a thin layer of it after shower in the morning after my face has dried off instead.
PS. mine has no steroid ingredient although this same brand (actavis) also have nystatin with steroid one, so I’m going to be very precise when I order another tube.
Wishing you people who are suffering with SD all the best,
Nye
I’m sorry to hear about the upset. My only consolation is that nystatin continues to work for me.
I think initially, I would apply the cream after showering in the morning, probably only once everyday, but my dermatologist told me that two times were fine as well. However, if you feel like you are clogging up the skin, then I’d suggest dialing it down to just once a day. Then just be patient with the results. It took something like two weeks for my symptoms to disappear completely, but I say improvements after just one week.
As for the effectiveness, I am still using it now more than 1½ years after trying it for the first time, so I’m surprised that you see a recurrence after just 9 days. Maybe it’s the ointment, I wish you the best.
And the details: I tried to be patient in the beginning and not lather my face with the creme, so that my skin could still breathe. I applied it once every day after showering, carefully padding my face with a towel, so as to not disrupt my skin - which was still very sensitive back then - and then applying a small amount, but enough to cover everything: Nose, forehead, eyebrows, and patches on my cheeks and chin. I didn’t wait a certain amount of time - I just tried to keep my showers as short and cool as possible. Hot water would always make my nose peel like crazy.
These days I am more care-free. I try to remember to apply it daily, but if I miss a few, then there’s no upset at all. And I don’t watch my diet or coffee or alcohol or anything. At the moment I have a small amount of redness around my nose, but I think I have forgotten to use nystatin for a week and I have been stressed out, not sleeping enough, and winter is coming. But I am certain that I will have it under control in a few days of more careful attention. I hope it will be the same for you after you get the creme
Hi Joakim. Reporting back,
I got my nystatin cream from the pharmarcy this afternoon. This time the brand name is Qualitest (last time it’s Actavis). I applied it sparsely on inflamed areas in the afternoon and later after evening shower.
It’s currently 11pm and my face is now back to normal! Within one day!
Redness around nose creases reduced significantly and on other parts it’s practically invisible. I hardly could believe it since I just had a pizza and 5-6 pieces of chocolate chip cookie for dinner, with chinese foods for breakfast and lunch. Normally redness would reduce after I take a nap or sleep, but this time it is just slowly fading on it’s own as the day progress.
This simply strengthens the hypothesis; nystatin ointment is not a good alternative to nystatin cream. I will try it for another week or two to see how effective it will be in the long run but for now I’m pretty confident in it. So for any SD sufferers reading this wanting to try nystatin, tell your doctor to prescribe nystatin CREAM not OINTMENT and definitely one without steroid ingredient.
Thanks for all the information Joakim. One question though, are you taking holistic approach like Michael as well? I personally don’t believe that SD is “uncurable”. But will take a lot of effort to change your health and gene expressions (as in epigenetics) to the point that it eliminate your SD altogether which may require radical change of your life. Since the truth of SD being uncurable came from the same people that would eagerly prescribe you hydrocortisone, I’m willing to hold onto my belief that it could be cured.
Have a good one and thanks again,
Nye
Great news! I hope it’s not just a fluke.
No, Michael and I have different approaches at the moment. But I did learn a lot of good stuff from his site before I found nystatin. I just never got my SD to a controllable level without nystatin on a reliable basis. I mean, sometimes it would be fine, but I would always worry about what my face would look like in the morning. I think Michael has developed his regimen in the meantime, so that might have changed, but for me it is just such a relief that I don’t have to worry about tomorrow - and I don’t have to worry about today either: you know, if I have pizza and a coffee today, will my face blow up tomorrow.
So Michaels solution works out for him - and probably a lot of other people as well, but I wouldn’t know, since I just monitor this page - and mine works for me. I don’t think that any of us claim that our solutions will work for everybody, but we both offer alternatives that we hope will work for some. It amazes me how many people seem to have found a way to manage their SD through my post on Michaels site.
But I like to think that SD is curable. And if you want to go down that road and find a balance without the medicine, then best of luck! Either way, I think that nystatin will help you get back on track. Knock the symptoms down for 2 weeks or a month or so and allow the skin to regenerate a little. I think it will be easier to keep the SD down with proper food/exercise/cleanses then.
I developed SD on my face two years ago at age 61. After four dermatologist I have learned I have both slight Rosacea and SD. It started on my eyelids horrible flaky red skin they called Blephartis. I had to stop wearing my contacts. Then it briegly moved to forehead and disappeated moving to side of nose, eyelids & later around my mouth area. I have read about 30% have both and the effect each other.
I have had SD, eczemea conditions all my life with long periods of normal skin but never the face. It was confirmed my extreme stress, moving to a very hot area were the main culprits. I also have had it under my arm pits and breasts for twenty years. I have learned it is genetic, no real cure. But, I will certainly try this Nystatin cream.
Well, it’s a few months since my initial post, and I’m still SD free!
Last week, I had 2 little red patches on my chest, but an application of the Panderm cream made this go away overnight.
I thought I’d share a few other things I’ve changed in my lifestyle, which might help others still looking for that elusive “cure”.
After a discussion with a Bioderma specialist in a Boots Pharmacy, I was recommended to use their Sensibio DS+ Gel to wash my face. You can use it all over your body too. Prior to that, I was using some Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit Acne wash, but I think this was too drying.
I still use Head & Shoulders to wash my hair.
I never put my head/face under a hot shower. I tend to shower in lukewarm water because it’s so hot over here.
I use a Bioderma moisturiser twice daily.
About 7 weeks ago I started following aspects of the Paleo lifestyle in my diet. I cook all food from scratch, and now use Coconut Oil for all cooking. Don’t be put off if you don’t like the taste of coconuts, as the brand I use doesn’t taste of coconut at all, so just find a brand you are happy with. Another bonus of this lifestyle change is that I have lost almost 7 kilos (just over a stone).
I take a probiotic and digestive enzyme supplement daily. The first brand I tried, you had to take one capsule before every big meal, which was sometimes inconvenient.
I now use a brand called Maxxiprob, which you only take once daily. Each capsule contains 4 billion cultures. I’ve suffered from heart burn/reflux all my life, especially after I’ve been drinking alcohol or eating unhealthily for a day or two. I was taking a 150mg Zantac pretty much every other day because of this, but since taking the Maxxiprob I don’t get heartburn, and I also don’t get the stomach cramps I used to get a few hours after eating spicy food.
I used to get flare-ups after drinking red wine, but that doesn’t seem to happen anymore either.
Incidentally, the Panderm cream seems to be made here in the UAE. I don’t know if there are similar alternatives where you live, but here are the ingredients in Panderm (cream, don’t use the ointment):
Nystatin: 100,000 units
Neomycin Sulphate equivalent to 2.5mg
Neomycin base
Gramicidin 0.25mg
Triamcinolone acetonide 1mg
I hope the above is useful to anyone still looking to conquer this terrible condition.
Guys please somebody tell the result of nystatin being applied to scalp.I have only SD in my scalp.In previous posts it is said that when we applied our face chest and scalp SD gone too.Sİnce I have no SD in my face I don’t want to apply to face.What is the new opinions about applying to Nystatin to scalp?
Hi Jack,
I am pretty sure you can use it, but it’s just difficult to apply for me. I have fairly long hair, which makes it difficult to apply nystatin to my scalp in a controlled fashion. So I prefer the zinc pyrithione and climbazole shampoo.
But if are able to apply small amounts to the areas where you have symptoms, I think you should be fine. Ask your doctor or at the pharmacy for professional advice. It might induce hairloss or something I am not aware about.
Best, Joakim
I would like to see a shampoo made with Nystatin. It works well for me too and I’d use it on my scalp if my hair didn’t get in the way.
Anyone up for making a shampoo with it?
Hi
After over 10 years of facial SD I found a water based spray with glycerol and formic acid, that clears my skin. Just three ingredients.
Formic acid is the natural acid that ants spray when they get attacked.
The spray doesn’t dry the skin and the smell goes away after a few seconds. Don’t use it in mouth or eyes.
I by it at myracid.com.
Håkan
Sweden
Hey man i had went to my doctor about 3 and half years ago for an itch and white spot on my scalp that wouldnt go away right away he prescribes me this nystatin cream USP 100,000 nystatin units by perrigo apperently its mainly used for like vaginal infection and baby rashes and fungus cause he said i had a fungus infection . So i apply a small amount everyday and the first week the itching stops and i didnt even have to use it a full month cause i got lazy and it had all went away . 3 years later pass and it came back hard ! I think it was because i started to use a dandruff shampoo everyday thaat i didnt really need . And it was so itchy so i went to a different doctor because mines had moved , this one tells me i have seborrheic dermatitis and that it was chronic and prescribed me some shampoo that was 25 bucks ! Didnt work in fact i have been using fresh aloe vera leaf cutting them and applying the gel directky to the scalp once or twice a week every other week of the month and it works for the itch ,hair growth and with dandruff .BUT sd is still there and i finally found my tube of nystatin that worked for me years ago behind my bathroom sink ! Im excited to try and see if it will renew my sd free scalp for some more years will keep yall updated wish me luck i have been looking for this tube since sd came back !btw its easy for me to apply because i cut my hair machine bald as i notice long hair makes your hair snow lol and itchy af.
Jeg glæder mig til at skrive min læge en forespørgsel på nystatin creme i dag. Jeg holder dig underrettet Fedt at det virker for dig! Det er da verdens tarveligste sygdom.
Google Translate:
I am looking to write my doctor a query on Nystatin cream today. I will keep you informed ? fat that it works for you! It’s the world’s meanest disease.
Dermatologen jeg snakkede med sørger vist for at få cremen specialimporteret til apoteket ved Rundetårn i København. Jeg ved ikke, hvordan man skal bære sig ad, hvis du er et andet sted i landet, men det kan være din læge har en ide det bliver spændende at høre resultatet, Lasse! Held og lykke.
Hey Joakim,
I was just wondering did you end up trying out Brentan and did it work for you? I’m currently trying out a miconazole cream and have a tube of nystatin on its way to me. Hoping it will work for me as I have tried everything. The miconazole cream so far has reduced itching and redness on my nose but not fully healed yet but it’s early days and seems to be quite promising. If anyone is based in U.K I am using Dakarin (athletes foot cream) and ordered the Nystatin from pharmasana.co.uk