9 Diet Changes That Could Cure Your Seborrheic Dermatitis

Hi Michael,
I was wondering what do you stand on digestive enzyme supplements. Actually, I live with 4 friends and It is very hard for me to avoid trigger foods every single time, it’s a pain in the arse. It always gives my skin few setbacks. What do you think of this “Top Secret Nutrition: Digestive Enzymes”". I found it on bodybuilding(dot)com with a very high rating. Highly appreciate your suggestion. Thanks

Hi Sultan,
Not sure to be honest. For me they didn’t really work. However, I didn’t try that specific one. These are the ones I tried:

Some actually felt like they made it worse.
In the end it felt like it was a waste of money. Still have most of these laying around somewhere.

Salted, vinegar based and fermented dishes are an excellent source of digestive enzymes. Many cultures make heavy use of them with food traditionally.
Some examples: Germans > Saurkraut, Japan > Miso, Korea > Kimchi. I’m sure these natural products have a significantly greater amount of enzymatic activity.

In terms of trigger foods. What I kind of found was that it wasn’t necessarily avoiding them all together.
It was much more about making sure to focus on the foods I should be eating. If I eat healthy food I enjoy most of the time, the in-between trigger foods don’t seem to be much of an issue.

Hope that helps.
How are things otherwise?

Hey Micheal,
hmmm. I have read that papaya and pineapple are also very good for digestion. what do you think ?
My improvements are very much visible now. Reduction in redness and rashes are smaller in size. It’s just that every now and then I eat something which cause redness or sometimes rashes. Burning feelings have almost gone but sometimes I get very slight itching (only due to trigger food). Otherwise, things are much better now.
Recently, I have noticed that my SD on chest is being irritated, any suggestions on this?
Just one question, before treating your SD, did your skin looked aged or any wrinkle problems, and is your facial skin looks normal now?

Hey Sultan,
Yeah, I heard they are good as well. However, I remember I hear something about most Papayas are GMO or something. Pineapples should be good though.
Funny enough, I’m actually currently writing the digestion chapter for the SD book. It’s not ready, but you can check my current chapter outline here: https://goo.gl/Jd3SC6

Regards to that weird feeling, it acted up quite significantly in the past couple days. Not sure exactly why it occurred.
Possible reasons:

  1. Currently writing a book about SD and thoughts alone might have triggered this.
  2. Haven’t been taking glutamine for past 4-5 months as I decided to take a break.
  3. Have been going out, drinking quite a bit of alcohol and eating lots of crap. Maybe went overboard?
  4. Have been in the sun quite a bit without any sun-screen. Probably not a good idea.

Even had a bit of irritation, similar to how it original started, but on the opposite nostril.
However, it has calmed drastically as I have reversed reasons 2-4 above (still writing the book:) )

In terms of the skin ageing and wrinkles, it was never really a problem for me.
However, I never used the hydro-cortisone for more than a week or two when first prescribed.
From much of my research, these seem to be possible side-effects.

You will likely see these issues diminish though. The Restoraderm Moisturiser contains Sodium PCA and Hyaluronic Hcid, which are used it many anti-wrinkle/anti-ageing creams.

For the chest, not sure. Maybe you can try a bit of Sudocrem there.
I’m currently working on my own cream similar to the Restoraderm, but it seems that having several variations is key.
A variation with a higher concentration of moisturising ingredients might be good for the chest as the skin is thicker there.
Will send you a sample if I manage to perfect it (still a bit too greasy).

All the best.

Hi Micheal,
I am really looking forward to your SD book. Digestion chapter looks awesome. I have also noticed that when I am having poor digestion and gas problems I tend to react to even non-trigger foods. Two days ago I eat spicy food and I got the trigger, but surprisingly yesterday I eat spicy food and nothing happened (my stomach was better yesterday and no gas issues).
It’s shocking how you got the trigger just by thinking. My friends sometimes tell me I think about my problems too much, let it go and things will be alright. Well they may be right. Mind over matter, maybe!
I still havent started the glutamine because my initial experience with glutamine wasn’t very good.
Junk food is the ultimate culprit whether it’s acne, SD or ezcema. They all promotes inflammation in the body. Anything heaty for the body is really bad. Do you think this is linked to whether poor digestion or weak immune system?
I hope your SD will go away.
Ahhh, well I stupidly used it for many months every 2 year. The problem is Restoraderm moisturizer caused redness. Do you have any other moisturizer with those ingredients, helpful for both wrinkles and SD? I am considering aveeno daily moisturising lotion, what do you think about this ?
That is so great, I hope you will be successful in creating your own version of restoraderm and I would love to receive a sample.
Best of luck.

Hey Micheal,
Most of my diet is cooked food. Which cooking oil would you prefer?

Hey Sultan,

Yeah, poor digestion, stress, weak immune system and seborrheic dermatitis are all interconnect and seem to be part of the same problem.
I’m not sure if it is necessarily all junk food. Pre-packaged food in general (even some of the healthy stuff) often makes us of fat for preservation. Much of this fat is heavily oxidized and there is a bit of research happening in this area.

Basically, my belief is that something in the body is at the very front lines is poor quality sebum production and excessive turn-over of skin cells. The rapid turn-over requires our system to be capable of producing healthy skin cells quickly, however, a healthy cell depends on lipids (fats) for proper formation. So if the lipids in our bodies are either not being broken down properly or poor quality it makes it hard for these healthy cells to form. Thus our body tries to fix things by cranking up immune activity. Short term this is likely no problem, but if the body is consistently challenged with defending our skin mainly through immune activity rather than it’s physical barrier (which mainly depends on healthy cells and lipids) issues are likely to occur. These issues include skin which is more susceptible to bacteria infection.

Personally the Aveeno wasn’t good for me. This cream was the closest thing I could find to what I’m working on. However, I have not tried it myself. Perhaps I’ll order a bottle myself to see what if it is similar.

Also, here’s the working copy of the antioxidant chapter.

Hope I answered everything…
All the best.

Personally I started to use butter more often for cooking. A part from this, olive oil for lower temperatures.
If you want really go into detail here is a good article.

Lot’s of people recommend coconut oil or peanut oil, but I find they change the taste of the food.

Main things to look for in a good cooking oil:

  • high oxidative stability
  • high smoke point (low level of free fatty acid)
  • minimum colour darkening

Another interesting point:
In France and Belgium, it is actually forbidden by law to use frying oils with more than 2% of linolenic acid.

Also one oil I really liked was Macadamia Nut Oi. But it’s quite expensive at the local stores for some reason.
Last time I ordered it from US Amaozon and it was around ~$8 for about 500ml. Was actually going to order more, but this is the cheapest one at the moment on there.

Hi Micheal,
I can’t use butter. I am allergic to casein protein. I’ll give it a try to coconut oil.
Also, I am unable to login, it says “You are temporarily locked out”.

Hi Sultan,

Sorry for the troubles. The website get’s bombarded with bots, so the login security is fairly strict. I’ve gone ahead and manually unblocked you.
Let me know if you still have issues.

As for the oil, see if you have macadamia nut oil in your area. I liked it more than coconut.

So what cooking oils do you recommend?

Hi Betty,

This exact question was actually asked my another commenter. You can find the discussion here. Hopefully that helps. Let me know if you need any more details.

All the best.

Thank you for this guide! I’ve read both your outlines you linked to in your comments. I love what you’re doing here. I’m a long time sufferer and use acv and coconut oil topically, along with totally changing my diet (I follow the Specific Carbohydrate Diet). I’m also trying infusing acv with sage rosemary and basil, and making my own rosemary oil for topical use.

Hi Ruth,

Thanks for the positive feedback, it’s like comments like this that have been driving my research.
A new chapter is currently in the makings and I’m hoping to basically bring together everything I’ve learnt so far and attempt to provide a comprehensive treatment approach.

Will send out an update to everyone once it is ready.

All the best.

PS. How is your current approach going so far?

Nioxin shampoo plus Nioxin conditioner scalp therapy. Use this on face and scalp for two weeks. Your itch and flakes will go away work better than prescription shampoos or any other hair products. You will be normal and it does not stink like t-gel or prescription shampoos.

After a week of Caribbean sunshine, I finally recognized how important Vitamin D can be for my SD. My SD was 95% better after returning home. Now I take 2500IU of D3 and use an OTC 3% salicylic acid shampoo (apply 2x, rinse very well) plus a high quality conditioner. Have stayed at 95% for 2 months with a hope to gain even more ground over the course of 2016. It works and is not an expensive treatment.

Hi Peter,

Thank you for sharing your experience.
My experience with Vitamin D supplementation was never as favourable.

Hope things continue.
Best of luck and look forward to any updates.

I’ve been dealing with the SD on my face for about 3 years. My scalp is fine, not sure how i contracted this. Anyway I’ve googled and tried SO many things. What I’ve learned is that most “cures” do work at least for a while. I remember using ACV when I first attempted to treat this. It was great, cured it right up! I was so excited. Well, I quit using the ACV eventually and the redness/peeling flareup came back. So now the ACV wouldn’t work anymore, on to the next thing, always to have it work for awhile and get all excited thinking its finally cured only to have it come back again. I’ve been revolving solutions for a good couple of years now and like I said most do work but only for a limited amount of time. I’m hoping to delve into internal solutions because this yeast or whatever is HARD TO KILL. HOpefully I’ll figure something out. I’ve already been taking Vit.D and probiotics for many months. I plan to heavily increase my intake of fruits/veggies due to their antioxidant and immunity-boosting effects. Its thought that providing your body with perfect nutrition gives it the ability to cure itself.

Which cooking oil do you use ? Coconut oil is low in Omega 6 but very high in saturated fat (lauric acid). Is it bad for our Seborrheic Dermatitis or our heart health ?

I stopped eating all grains over a year ago. The SD on my face cleared up in about 10 ten days. No more creams, itching, and flaking.