Here is my story-
General information: I am a 46 year old woman. I have had depression my entire life and my father has psoriasis, so perhaps both the depression and genetics play some role in my developing seborrheic dermatitis on my scalp roughly one month ago. Until then, I had never had it. Interestingly, for the past two months I have been following a low carb diet that is rich in the correct balance of omega fats and vegetables and I also eat a fair amount of coconut oil (rich in MCT), no wheat whatsoever and somewhat limited dairy. In fact, at first, and contrary to what I believe is true about a low carb diet, I though my dietary changes might have caused the seborrheic dermatitis until research informed me that I am actually eating the prescribed diet for someone with this condition. Additionally, I have more or less followed a low carb diet for the last three years, but two months ago I became more “strict” about it, so this was not necessarily a big change in my eating. I get regular exercise and sleep and my stress levels did not appear to be any different from what is normal for me. In short, after doing the research, it would appear that I am doing all the right things to keep this condition at bay and yet I developed it instead. I should also mention that I am self diagnosed: after reading as much information as I could, I felt that a doctor couldn’t do much more in the way of treating this condition than I could do on my own except, perhaps, confirm that it is indeed seborrheic dermatitis. I am not opposed to doctors and I do see one regularly, but it seems that the current treatments that they can offer are temporary and perhaps not terribly effective. I do, furthermore, believe that employing natural methods to address a physical (or psychological) problem as well as treating the body as a whole unit rather than sectioning it off into specific areas, i.e., the skin on my scalp, can be helpful. Indeed, perhaps using both natural and western medical methods can be very helpful in many cases of disease or distress. That said, again, it would seem that traditional western medicine, presently, has little to offer in the way of a concrete and permanent treatment for seborrheic dermatitis.
What happened: roughly one month ago I noticed what appeared to be a break out on my scalp in a small area above and around my left ear. It felt like a small patch of pimples, but they wouldn’t clear up and go away. Then the area got bigger and the pimples morphed into patches that developed a yellowy scale on top of them. At this point, the patches felt both itchy and sore and I started picking at the scale. I continued to think I was experiencing a particularly persistent acne-type of break out until these symptoms started spreading on my scalp. First, the patch around my left ear got bigger. Then I developed the same thing around my right ear, on the crown of my head and above the hairline of my forehead on one side. In all, probably 40-50% of my scalp was affected two weeks into it. I started spending hours on the internet reading everything possible. I doused my head with apple cider vinegar, I purchased Neutrogena T/Sal and T/Gel shampoos and used each several times. While I got a little relief from the T/Sal, it was not much and I kept reading that depending on these types of shampoos was only a temporary fix at best as one develops resistance to them. I also tried coconut oil with drops of tea tree and lavender oils rubbed into my scalp and left on for the entire day. These felt good on my scalp, but I didn’t notice any improvement. Ah, lest I forget, I also rubbed clobetesol on the areas for several days to no effect whatsoever.
What I have tried during the past week: this past week, week four since it all started, I decided to try honey in combination with apple cider vinegar. As of this writing, I have done three treatments as follows: I apply a 50/50 solution of apple cider vinegar and filtered water and let it sit for 30 minutes after which, without rinsing out the apple cider vinegar solution, I apply a 90% mixture of raw honey (10% filtered water) and let that sit for at least three hours. These proportions, products and methods follow pretty much what you will find everywhere about how to use these treatments. I have noticed that my scalp is somewhere between 60-80% improved. I have very few “pimples,” the patches are shrinking and less swollen and itchy, there is hardly any scale, and there is no more spreading. Today I am doing another treatment and I intend to try to do one every other day following the trial study that is cited everywhere including this website and will then do the once a month follow up care as done in said study. In addition, I have purchased the biom8 product from this site as I believe in what its developer and the author of this site has found and I will add that to my routine as soon as I have it.
Conclusions: I do not know, and have no way of knowing, whether the apple cider vinegar and raw honey treatments are responsible for making my seborrheic dermatitis significantly improve or whether it’s simply running its natural course. It would appear that the treatments are doing quite a bit to improve it, but as this is my first experience with sebnorheic dermatitis, I have no way of knowing what a typical outbreak is or how long one would last. Based on pure observation and a fair amount of gut instinct as well as knowing my body, it is my opinion that it is working. Again, I have no way of truly knowing this right now. It is my fervent hope that somehow I am an anomaly and this will be a one time thing, but I’m prepared for the unlikelihood of this as it seems once you have sebnorheic dermatitis you have it for life. Should I have more evidence in the future, I will come back and update this post.