My Seborrheic Dermatitis Skin Regimen

Hi Donna,
Great the hear the goods new. Really happy it worked out for you, as well as it did for me.
It’s crazy how much stuff people recommend can be ineffective and yet something as simple as some eczema wash can have such amazing results on the SD.
Another reader mentioned she improved with just l-glutamine, so that was interesting to hear as well. Maybe the combination approach really hit it off for me.
It’s been almost a year now and it’s been smooth sailing. A couple months ago I had some intense tingling and slight redness come back, but it went away quickly. Strangest thing was that it was in a spot on my face it was never present before.
Hope others stumble upon this post as well, I’m going to add a big link on the other pages as this approach seems to have the highest success rate.

Look forward to any updates and best of luck!

Thanks for the second update. :slight_smile:

This sounds fascinating. I will buy the Restoraderm and the shampoo. One thing though…As magical as they sound I want to know why they work. The shampoo makes sense because of the organic and fruit based ingredients. I’m just concerned about the Restoraderm in the long term. It does not seem any more natural than other synthetic/artificial/chemical based products out there. In any case it is fantastic that so many people testify to it clearing the skin and I will report my results soon.

Michael,

Thanks for all of your thorough posts. I have a quick question: you mentioned “protecting the affected area from the sun”. I was under the impression that the sun might be good for vitamin d and because the yeast wouldn’t want to grow in the uv environment. This is the first i have heard of staying away from sunlight as a part of a treatment. Can you please elaborate on that theory?

Hi There,

As for the Restoraderm, if you look at the ingredients it’s actually not that bad. Especially if you compare it with many of the other things people use.

The one issue I personally had was the preservative in the wash. However, I usually wash really quick and only with a tiny amount so I doubt it would have any negative effect.

My theory is the arginine and ceramides are responsible for much of the results. Medical papers suggest that topical application of arginine regulates skin responses, improves skin circulation, and help with hydration. Creams for arthritis frequently make use of arginine. I’m planning to put together a comprehensive post that looks into why it works.

Additionally my skin feels quite health using it. Can’t say the same for many other products I’ve tried.

Honestly though, I wouldn’t stress too much about the ingredients. Just do what feels right.

Hope that helps and best of luck. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Hi Marcel,

Thanks for the kind comment.

It is true that the sun is very good at destroying bacteria. However, it is also very good at drying out skin. This can be especially problematic if the skin is already damaged.

What I did, was found a gentle sun screen (used one meant for babies). This protected the skin form the sun keeping it from drying out. Yet, it allowed the sun to do it’s job in killing off the bacteria. Additionally the zinc used in most sun screens seems to help malassezia yeast.

Are you currently attempting any of the treatments?

Hope that helps. Best of luck.

Hello Everyone,

First i have to say how glad i am to have found this site. Michael, what you are doing here is awesome! I’m 29 and have been dealing with skin issues since my late teens. I had some face acne and persistent cystic acne on my back and when i was 27, after have tried a bunch of things, i went on accutane.

I was somehow scared about the drug, but after so many dermatologists telling me that with regular blood tests it would be safe and the best alternative i said what the hell. It did clear my cystic acne and during treatment no seb derm on my scalp. Some months after the treatment not only the seb derm on my scalp came back, but i had it on my face as well. There are also other side effects that came after the treatment, but this is other history.

I went to the dermatologist and the same bullshit, cortisone creams and palliative measures, symptoms management as always. Reading all of your testimonials and thinking about my history i’m convinced that we are somehow alike, but everyone is unique, therefore, the goal is to improve our “body awareness”. We must understand how our body words in order to heal ourselves. Some tips that i found here are helping me to control my seb derm, but i’m on my way to build my method, there is to say, the method that works for my and may work for others, but certainly not everyone. When i reach this goal i will share it here.

We learned that the scientific method with its universal claim it’s the key for solving our problems, well, it works for exact sciencies, building machines and shit, but not for us, human beings.

Thank you for your support and sorry for my English.

Would you put the raw honey mix on your scalp,if so what do you wash out with as it is in your hair and how many parts honey to water do you use? Do you have an example of a whole food shampoo? Do you know where to buy the Cetaphil Res cleanser and lotion?
I just used a dead sea salt water rinse after a mix of oil of oregano,tea tree,cocoanut,aloe mixture overnite and my scalp derm. seems to finally be a little better. I have been rinsing with a apple cider vinegar water mix as well as drinking apple cider vinegar,honey water mix and liquid aloe vera supplement. I added biotin to my vitamin intake. I just found a leave in conditioning spray that contains sea salt sea kelp and morrocan argon oil. I stopped coloring my hair except with an all natuaral henna . Do you think a henna color is still part of the problem? I had seb.dermititus onboth sides of my scalp .Only one side is back to normal. Do you think brewers yeast supplements would help? I tried mineral oil topically and scraped the crusting like i did with my baby’s cradle cap a long time ago but it did not seem to help. My only symptom is the crusty build up,no itching or flaking. Do you think scraping off the crust helps the condition? Tonite I an going to try a homeade garlic (7-8 cloves)juiced topically i read about. Ive also stared eating 1-2 cloves garlic a day.

iwrote lon email but sit wont accept

plz dont put my last name on posts

Hi Margie,

I’ve gone ahead and updated your name in the previous comments.

Hi Margie,

For the hair it’s likely easier to use a more diluted concentration (8:2 or 7:3). However, I do not have much experience with this. Only made one attempt and it was too difficult to sustain.

The Cetaphil Restoraderm is available on Amazon. Here in Canada it is widely available in stores as well (cheapest at Wal-Mart).

Brewers yeast did not provide any benefit for me.

Minimizing the number of products I was trying to use and removing all additional topicals helped the most. Do not have any experience with henna oil, but anything that has the ability to impact the lipid composition of the skin can potentially aggravate SD.

The crusting is the result of lipid break down by bacteria on the skin. Removal of the crusting isn’t the most productive approach as it can sometimes speed up the cycle. It seems the best results are achieved by either removal of bacteria with a proven topical anti-fungal (nystatin, ketocanazole, pyrithione zinc) or through regulation of sebum production and composition (an extremely mild washing routine and proper nutrition).

When removing the crust it is essential to do it as gently as possible. If you are forceful you may be forcing the bacteria and irritants further into the skin. This leads to more issues.

Garlic was personally of no use to me. Let me know if it helps.

All the best.

Hi Brazillian Guy,

Thanks for the positive comment and glad to hear that the site is helping people. :)

Yeah, it definitely seems that everyones issues are different, but there are some common items between us.

In terms of the scientific method, I do thing it still hold a huge amount of value for us human beings as well. Even if science dones't yet have an answer to SD, we can still use the principles of the scientific method to find and solve our own issues. Hypothesis -> Testing -> Analysis -> Results.

I've been looking at a ton of medical literature lately. I think I've read atleast 70-80% of all the studies you can find regarding SD. The biggest issue seems to be that there is little innovation in most of the studies around SD. Much of the same topics are still being examined as back in the 50s.

The topics are typically related to trying to control the bacteria through topical approaches. The overall consensus is that cortisone creams should not be used for treatment as treatment is typically ongoing and side effects of cortisone use are often unavoidable.

In essence what is happening with our skin is that the sebum being produced is unprotected from consumption by yeasts and bacteria. This allows of proliferation (spreading) of the yeast and an increase in by-products of their feeding process ( The role of sebaceous gland activity and scalp microfloral metabolism in the etiology of seborrheic dermatitis and dandruff). The results of this are the irritation and scale formation that we experience.

It is interesting to note that the yeast and bacteria that cause issue for us are found on the skin of health individual as well. So it seems our sebum is lacking in something that protects it from consumption by foreign bacteria. And everything I've seen points to antimicrobial peptides and antimicrobial fatty acids. Luckily there seems to be more research in this area since about 2008.

Hoping to write a comprehensive post on all this in the near future.

All the best and look forward to any updates. PS. Your English is great and better than many native speakers. :)

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your clear science based explanation

I guess i wrongly addressed my critic to the scientific method. I agree with you, scientific method holds a huge amount of value for us as well. When i wrote my post i was thinking about all the crap i have heard from doctors i recently went. When i asked about alternative methods that i found on the web (honey, apple side vinegar, changing diet, etc…) they were likely to discredit it based on its lack of scientific results. Thinking about theirs answers i realized that they were likely to take in account only what works for everyone, or most people, i mean, treatments that work only for some aren’t worth for further studies, they are then forgotten and, therefore, most doctors don’t even read it. For instance, there is a study about honey masks as a treatment for SD with good results, we can easily find it online (i guess you even mentioned somewhere), nevertheless, no doctor said anything about that when i mentioned honey.

Actually the problem is not with the scientific method, but the commercial logic that guides researches. In this perspective a treatment that works for some is probably not commercially viable and, therefore, not taking into account as “good enough science”. It seems that the scientific value subordinates to commercial value, in other words, “good enough science” is “good enough product”

I’m not saying that commercial value is worthless, it’s not, simply because is the reason why so many treatments are available for so many people. But it’s not absolute and it shouldn’t misguide doctors approach on alternative treatments.

More over, it’s also the easiest way, i mean, if you are a doctor you would rather give a prescription that works for everyone than one that works for some and if you don’t have this prescription for everyone the best is to assume that there is no cure for the case. Treatments that work only for some raise questions, it means more work, more research to find answers that would only help some, a minority. It’s just easier to ignore that minority when you are profiting well enough with the majority. Sadly for us that’s the big picture.

Happily not every doctor is like that and there are some thinking out of the box. But i guess that for sufferers of diseases that are not that commom the best is to follow the “do it yourself” motto. We must read every study about SD to figure out what are the causes, because i’m convinced that it’s not a simple cause and probably individual differences raise different causes for different groups of people. It’s is a tough work, i saved some studies and information from forums that i judge relevant, we could create a “SEB DERM LIBRARY”. In fact, you are already doing it and i highly encourage you to keep up the good work.

By the way, i’m using the Restoraderm for a week now, good results, i woke up today with my face almost 100% cleared, but now, 20:00, it’s a bit red.

Longing to read the near future post about the studies that you have mentioned.

All the best!

Hi Brazilian Guy,

Definitely agree with you, as there does appear to be lot's of doctors who don't really have a deep understanding of SD. For general doctors this makes sense as they need to deal with such a wide variety of conditions and topics. However, I have been a little shocked with the lack of detailed understanding dermatologists have in this regard. I wish they provided more information as to what is really going on with the skin, then simply relying on medical textbooks which are lacking any concrete information regarding SD.

It becomes somewhat hard for people to spend so much time and money on something so mysterious as SD without any social gain. Thus, commercially viable solutions to the issue will always make it to the top. For example, doctors typically prescribe ulcer treatment drugs for ulcers (examples). However, it has long been documented that fresh cabbage juice is powerful enough to heal practically all ulcers (source). And this is one of the most perfect examples for commercial interests taking precedence over effective non-commercial approaches.

I've actually got quite a large library of SD related research papers and associated topics. Will try to find a way to share this. However, I'm not sure what the legal aspects of sharing scientific papers is (as they cost money). Hopefully there is a way around this.

Will update you when I have more concrete information. However, if you like for now I would highly recommend trying fresh cabbage juice and drastically increasing consumption of cruciferous vegetables. As they have been documented to increase peptide production, improve cell health, contain potent anti-inflammatory ability, natural source of l-glutamine (cabbage juice specifically) and many other benefits.

Also I'm thinking of buying a good variety of different products that have worked for others and putting together a sample pack. Perhaps this can help people find the right product for their skin. What do you think of this idea?

All the best and hope things keep improving. Glad to hear the Restoraderm is helping.

Hey Michael,
Is this still your current routine and also are you still SD free? (Hopefully)?

Today I’ve brought some products to hopefully clear up my SD,

A bit of background on it is that I’ve had it for around 8 long months and being a 17 year old in year 12 it can take its toll but my SD is weird because I’ve never actually had any of the redness symptons all I get is the yellow greasy skin look.

I’m going to start using L glutamine in the morning 1 teaspoon
Range of tablets, eg vitamin C, K2
Have been gluten free since 7 months ago but going to try dairy free as well now
Trying to reduce the amount of sugar intake
Drink 1 tea spoon of ACV
And hopefully not applying anything to the skin and see if I see any reactions in the next 2 weeks,
Have you got any tips or suggestions?

Thanks Connor

BTW it’s amazing that people witu the condition are able to find out research and information from websites like this. So thank you for creating this website it has benefited me a lot.

Hey Michael,

Good to know about cruciferous vegetables, this a motivation to keep eating lots of broccoli as i already do. I read somewhere that some vegetables, such as spinach, were bad for SD, but due to poor information about it i found this really controversial and just ignored it. Do you know something about vegetables that are contraindicated for SD sufferers? About the cabbage juice, i didn’t know that, but makes a lot of sense, i was doing some research about sauerkraut and its benefits to gut issues, have you ever tried?

I didn’t mention, but i’m facing some weird symptoms since last year and SD came along with them. I’m going to share a bit of my history, i spent last year taking accutane and eating lots of junk, this year was also very stressful - due to professional problems and a disease that is affecting my mother and has bad prognosis. I think the symptoms are related to either stress or accutane/bad food side effects, or (most likely) all of it.

Since march i have developed joint pain (specially finger joints), an itchy throat, cold sores inside the mouth, genital candidiasis and - in the same weekend that candidiasis appeared - SD came along. I also noticed that my sinus area, specially nose, would get inflamed pretty easy, along with my throat that was constantly itching.

After all that i got pretty worried, specially after reading about candidiasis, SD and it’s relation to AIDS. I haven’t engaged in risky sexual intercourse for a long time and the HIV test was negative. Solving that i went to many insurance covered doctors that prescribed usual blood tests - that came normal - and tests for many autoimmune diseases - that came negative. Then i decided that i wasn’t going to loose anymore time with these ordinary doctors.

I remembered that a school friend, after many disappointments, went to a well respected General practitioner that successfully treated him after diagnosing a rare syndrome. I schedule an appointment with this doctor, insurances don’t him and It was expensive, but worth it. The appointment took about an hour, i showed all the recent tests and said everything i could remember. He was really interested in all health problems i ever had and based on my symptoms and my vitamin d low levels he guessed that i was maybe suffering from a magnesium deficiency. In the end he prescribed me a detailed immunological test and some magnesium chloride supplement.

For some time now i have been eating really healthy and found partial relief in some symptoms, but after taking magnesium for 1 week the joint pain got almost nonexistent and i didn’t face inflammation issues easy as before. After this week My Cd4, Cd8, Cd 19 (and another bunch of cds that i can’t recall) test came back and i went to another appointment. The result was that my immune system is really out of balance, the GP said that based on its current configuration it seems that it’s really a magnesium deficiency which cause we are investigating.

Well, my magnesium supplement is helping me with my joint pain and chronic inflamation, but, till now, does nothing for my SD (which is also a sort of chronic inflammation?) Anyway, since SD is a symptom of immune deficiency and many SD sufferers usually have other issues related to immune deficiencies i thing this test is worth it. I’m obsessed to balance my immune system, probably this will solve my SD. I just finished a liver flush and plan to start glutamine tomorrow. I also started taking pau d’arco tea, which is known as a great plant for gut issues and fungal infections. It seems to be a long battle, i see some improvements, but the goal is getting back on track,how it used to be.

The sample pack idea is great, most SD products/approaches aren’t for everyone, but if one tries a bunch of them one is very likely to get good results from at least a few.

About the library, you could share all the free stuff and point the papers that requires payment for whom might be interest. If one is interest one goes to the website and pays for it.

Another maybe interesting thing would be to develop a questionnaire with SD related questions. Example: How was your diet before SD? Did you take many antibiotics? Stressful life when SD came? Everyone that visit this page could contribute and increase our knowledge. What you think about that?

Al the best.

Also does gluten free bread contain any yeast? And what foods contain yeast? Thanks

Hey Connor,

The routine was working great for about a year. About a month ago it started being not as effective, but this was mainly due to my lack of consistency. Additionally, I've been doing lots of research again to really delve deep into the issue. Particularly, I was after why the routine was working and what other factors played a role. Currently, I've actually stopped washing my face and use the Restoraderm. Instead I have been testing my own concoction and only washing my face with water.

Also, I've slowly started bringing a bit of dairy back. In terms of gluten, I personally still think that it is not really an issue for SD. However, everyone is different.

Stopped supplementing with l-glutamine, but still have some left. Instead, I've replaced it with fresh cabbage juice (intermittently) which is an excellent whole food source of l-glutamine and other healing agents. Some more of the stuff I have been testing can be found here. Overall this strategy is focused on jump starting the body. Unfortunately I haven't covered everything in full detail there, but I've been working on a book with all the details.

Thanks for the positive comment. Yeah, the internet can be both great and punishing at the same time. There's so much information out there that it can be overwhelming. This website was a means of trying to organize and make sense of it all. :)

Will update you once the book is ready. Here is a preview of the chapters:

  • Introduction
  • What is Seborrheic Dermatitis
  • Current Medical Understanding
  • Holistic Explanations for Seborrheic Dermatitis
  • Your Immune System
  • Your Digestion
  • The Omegas and Your Health
  • Supplements to Know
  • Reducing Topical Yeast and Bacteria
  • Dysbiosis or Synbiosis
  • Yeast and Fungus
  • Exercise, Sleep and Your Health
  • Understanding Stress
  • Immunotherapy and Vaccination
  • Understanding the Skin
  • Finding the Right Products
  • Long Term Management

Some gluten free bread does contain yeast, however you can always check the ingredients list. However, I don't think that total avoidance is the path to success. Especially long term, instead I think focus must be shifted on the enhancement.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Hi Michael

Thank you very much for having created this website. I have a SD since last May and I’m really stressed and depressed about it. I’m french so sorry for my english. Could you give me more information about Restoraderm ? It is a moisturer or a cream that washes the face ? Is it this one http://www.beaute-test.com/nettoyant_hydratant_-_restoraderm_cetaphil.php ?

One more thing: have you heard anything on thermal waters and if it can help us ?

Once again thank you for what you are doing !