Overview of Seborrheic Dermatitis Face Treatments

Hi Michael,
Ive been to see 2 dermatologists and they both said hands down I have Seborrheic Dermatitis. The thing is I don’t get dry skin around my nose and ears or suffer from yellow scaly patches on my eyebrows or suffer from bad flaky dandruff like I’ve read some people do. If i use Head and Shoulders daily, my dry scalp is under control. What I do have is redness on my face, my two cheeks and my nose which bothers me a lot , I don’t have it on my forehead or ears or anywhere else. Ive been prescribed anti-fungal creams and even protopic gel ointment, none which have worked in any way. Ive heard all about yeast and fungus and my facial skin producing too much oil which is causing the redness etc. If yo ask me the Dermatologists haven’t a clue. Have you any routine or formula to combat the redness caused from SD?

Thanks, Padraig.

Hey Micheal,
I just found out your website today. It feels so good to know there are many people struggling with the same problem and finding solutions. Thanks for sharing this information with us, it’s really helpful. Trust me, my skin problems have ruined my life and it sometimes make me think why am I even alive. I have been suffering from SD and acne from my teenage (I’m 23 atm) on the cheeks. I also did got scalp itching and hair loss last year but it’s under control now and recovered thinning hairs as well. Dermatologist’s are the worst kind of doctors, they have always prescribed me with steroid creams (advantan). This ugly thing has caused premature aging, wrinkles, discoloration, post inflammatory hyper pigmentation, acne bumps and scars. 2 weeks ago dermatologist gave me retrieve cream(form of retin-a) for scaring,wrinkles and pigmentation ( and I was finally happy) but it rebounded my dermatitis. All hopes lost again. Even if I cure my dermatitis I still have to go through alot of pain in recovering my cheeks to normal.
Things that helped my condition:
Diary and diet:
When I was consuming milk and coffee/tea, my dermatitis was rebounding all the time. It caused me burning, itching, redness, rashes and bumps. I was continuously using steroid creams. From last 2 months I had stop consuming milk products and stopped drinking coffee and tea. This was the first time my dermatitis didn’t rebounded for almost like a month. My skin used to be extremely oily but not anymore. I am also not getting any whiteheads. But if I consume some junk food, milk product, very spicy food or random foods they trigger my dermatitis and pimples. I am still confused about my allergies. It’s like eating random stuff cause redness and rashes. Definitely I have a gut problem and I will immediately start with l-glutamine. I am consuming vegetables and fruits on daily basis.
Even if i am dermatitis free, my cheeks are never clear. They still have redness, red spots, tiny bumps, post-inflammation and pigmentation. I still have no idea how can I get clear cheeks. This looks like an impossible job for me. If you have any guide for these issues I would be very thankful to you :slight_smile:
Products:
ATM i am washing my face with cetaphil face wash with salicylic acid and sulphur cream 2%. It does helps with itchy bumps and rashes. If I get very bad rashes I use hydrozole cream (it’s a weak steroid). I don’t know of any other cream to calm them down, any suggestions?. I am currently in australia and restoradem here is called Skin Restoring Body Wash and they have the same ingredients. I will also start with this product and update you if this is helping me. I am not using any sunscreens, the one suggested by the doctors leaves a white cast on my face and tiny white particales on my beard. Do you have any suggestion for good sunscreen?
It’s a terrible journey for everyone. Again, thank you for helping people out.

Hi Padraig,

The Restoraderm has worked quite well for people who gave it a try. I’m still not 100% sure why it works so well, but I’ve recently been researching deeper into the area. Currently I’m under the impression that the Arginine in the moisturizer helps my normalize blood flow on the top layer of skin. However, with the tiny amount that I use I’m still left wondering how this could be so.

I’m currently trying to write a thorough analysis of what latest research has to say. For the most part the medical community has kind of agreed the best treatment option is an anti-fungal one. However, even with anti-fungals being the recommended treatment, they still say the cause remains unknown and widely disputed.

Will update as soon as the post is ready.
Hope that helps and feel free to join the community.

Hi Sultan,

Thanks for checking in and the kind comments.
Yeah, it’s mind blowing how many people suffer from this condition. Statistically in the USA alone is close to 5% of the population. I’m surprised there is not more information about it.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been hammering through all the medical research papers available. Most of the medical community is focused on the topical fungal aspect of the condition. However, most of the studies that try to pin-point the exact reason have been inconslusive. However, the biggest success overall is obtained through anti-fungal treatments (hence why head and shoulders is so popular in stores).

In terms of diet, there are defiently links and I noticed them myself. However, a year later without SD I can say that everything that I thought caused it was wrong.

There are still products that I typically stay away from though. These are mainly low quality meat, most dairy, and tomatoe paste. When I eat these I can still at times feel hot flahes in the areas where my SD used to be. However, I do consume a bit of them here and there. My focus is not too completly avoid, but to minimize overall. This seems to have worked well.

In terms of redness, I think the Restoraderm helps really well. Lot’s of people have had good results with as well. The regular cetaphil products were good, but never really made my SD go away.

I’ve been reallly digging through research papers lately. I’m determined to build a comprehensive review simple for regular people to understand. The parts current research that have intersted me the most are connections to the immune system. Here is an old article, but it’s often cited by more recent ones. It seems that for some of us our immune system is just out of whack. Research has shown that healthy subjects with the same mallazia yeast can have no signs of SD (1, 2).

Will update you once the post is ready. I’m determined find a more conlusive answer as to why I had seborrheic dermatitis.

Hope that helps. Feel free to join the community, if you feel like it.

I have the same problem as you. Certain food cause hot flashes in my effected areas. Like spicy food will cause redness and sometimes I will get some tingling and itching as well. Another weird thing happens to me is certain food will sometime cause flashes/irritation and sometimes nothing will happen (like apple). 2 days ago I eat apple in the evening and after 30 minutes I noticed reduction in my redness. But Today I eat an apple and my cheeks got slightly red and minor tingling, bloody confusing! Clearly their is something wrong from inside maybe that’s why doctors haven’t found the root cause of SD because of too many variables involved. Next week I am getting some allergy tests done, hope it will help.
I will be eagerly waiting for you update and will love to join this community.

And how long did glutamine took for you to notice that big meals weren’t affecting your skin?

Hi Sultan,

The whole food part of it is extremely confusing. Reading medical research papers on the subject, even more so.
There just seems to be so much conflicting information out there.

So far everything I’ve read has been pointing in the direction of a complex hormonal (part of this could be directly related to our own thoughts), immune, and digestive interaction. There are still many aspects that remain unclear. Will update as I have a more concrete hypothesis.

As far as the apple okay today and not okay another day.
This may have been any of the following:

  • food combination was not appropriate (eating fruit after a slow digesting meal increases chance of fermentation in the digestive tract)
  • the flare could have been a result of something else (the apple may be simple reasoning your mind used to explain what occurred)

Not much of an answer, but the issues is so complex that having a clear cut answer is very difficult.
Consider sharing a bit about your own story in the community section. The more information that can be accumulated, the more value it may potentially hold.

All the best.

Hard to say as it was about a year ago. From what I can recall it was about a week or two before I started noticing changes.
However, there are many factors which I changed about my approach at the same time.

Another reader here (Sarah) wasn’t able to obtain the same results as me from her attempt.
However, several other readers have confirmed great results from the Restoraderm alone.

Look forward to any updates.

Hi Sultan,

Seems that I didn’t answer the sun screen question.
The one I was using last year was Ombrelle Kids.
Not sure if it was the best choice, but it worked well.

One thing I noticed was that the seborrheic dermatitis actually improved from using the sun screen.
However, I’ve heard this report from other people using other sun screens as well.
The effect is likely due to the titanium dioxide or zinc oxide that sunscreens contain. As they act as antimicrobial agents (source).
All the best.

I agree about the relation with our thoughts. My friends always taunt me that it’s all in your head and you think too much. Because stress exaggerates inflammation in your body.
Hmm maybe your right about the apple, I should keep track of my food intake.
Yes, the answer is very complex. But it’s for sure that if you’ve got such problems your body is not functioning properly.

I started Restoraderm 4 days ago along with sunscreen. Atm I am washing it in the morning and before sleeping, and I can see the improvements already. My inflammation is reduced and skin tone is better. I start l-glutamine yesterday but after starting glutamine I have noticed a slight tiny red bumps/redness on upper cheeks. I am not sure whether it’s glutamine or something else.

Thanks. And yes, sunscreen does help with the inflammation and irritation.
I should also tell you that my skin is also prone to acne. Will the restoradem affect the acne? what if I want to use some acne face wash?
And did you suffered from any post inflammatory pigmentation and wrinkles on cheeks?

I am so glad that I found your blog. Finally something which is actually helping without the use of steriods. Thank you so much Michael :slight_smile:

Hi Sultan,

Yeah personally I think stress and the associated hormonal release actually plays a bigger role then most of the other things. In a way, it kind of closes up the cycle on itself (stress -> skin issue -> stress). However, there is surprisingly little research in this area. One study tried to link it to daylight and melatonine levels (source). While, another clearly states that emotion plays a large role in disorders of the skin (source).

This one is rather easy reading, but mainly it's just full of general observations. Interesting ideas are presented though.

One thing that really stood out to amongst the stuff I've been reading was that seborrhoea is actually not feature of seborrheic dermatitis (source). Might sound confusing, but basically the study demonstrates that seborrheic dermatitis is not the result of excess sebum production. In a significant amount of the patients, sebum production was actually reduced.

As for your questions. Not sure if the restoraderm would have any negative effect on acne. To be honest, never really had issues with acne. However, I don't think it should as they make lot's of cleansers that are suppose to help with acne.

Yeah, not sure in terms of the l-glutamine. Didn't have this issue myself. Let me know how it plays out.

Great to hear that your seeing improvements overall though. Hope it resolves completely for you.

All the best and look forward to any updates.

Well I remember I started PMO, but my highest streak was 10 days. During those days, I stopped thinking about my skin issues, stayed happy, worked out and eat healthy. I didn’t had any flare up and my redness reduced alot. But poor food choices made me relapse again. It works, but it’s very hard.
I only took glutamine for 2 days and I will introduce it again in 2,3 days and see if it’s helping me or not.
I hope I can get rid of this problem once and for all. It’s interferring in every aspect of my life.
And Thanks again Michael for giving us a resonable hope :slight_smile:

Hello Michael,

I noticed that you said you dosed L-Glutamine 1000g in your final attempt. My question is, did you mean to say 1000mg? Or did you really go from 500mg to 1000g? 100g seems quite high haha. Also exactly how much did 1/2 teaspoon correlate to? Would you mind sharing the brand of powder you used?

I’ve been suffering from SD for four years now and soon I will be giving the restoderm path a try. I also want to try to supplement with the L-glutamine as well. I would appreciate the information.

Thank you.

Hi There,
The whole container was 1000g in total. My biggest doses where single teaspoons to a glass of water.
1 teaspoon is about 5g and half a teaspoon is about 2.5g, but this would depend on your teaspoon :).

Here is the exact one I used: Jarrow’s Formula L-Glutamine Powder.
Not sure if the brand really makes too much different, as long as it’s good quality. This one had the highest reviews on Amazon, which is why I bought it.

Hope that helps and best of luck.

Hi,
Could you please share your experiences about homeopathy treatment of face seborrheic dermatitis

Hi, I just wanted to say your website is great and very informative! I have had mild SD when I was younger dealing with this for around 10 years, but more recently have had severe flares on my face and dry scalp. I’ve also done most treatments I could find and realized that the dermatogists are not helping. I’ve come across the most helpful and wanted to share in case it might help others. Derm-Essentials is a great website to order all natural washes and cream from for skin problems, look into that if you’ve tried everything. Also candida freedom is a very good probiotic soap bar that is gentle enough for the face to help with SD.

Amazing study you have done regarding SD.
I discovered i have SD 3-4 years ago , first on face , then on chest .
I have also tried to find best natural ways to cure( control it)
For me i get total cure from changing Climate where i am. How?
I have been last 10 years living mostky in sub saharn africa, and last 3-4 years i have visited and stayed in Euroep more and more. In Africa the SD clears up almost immediatley , and each time i come back europe he story starts.
so i guess it has to do with sun radiation and ocean salty water
Raw honey is also prettu calming
all topical medications make skin damage and roughen the skin , but take redness away fast
i belive the conditions is needed to be treated from inside rather than from outside- means immune system , allergies, etc

Hi Anil,

To be honest I don’t have much experience with trying to treat it with homoeopathy.
Personally, I’m not a big believer in homoeopathic treatments. The principles just don’t make sense to me.
However, there where a few items like the AZO Yeast Tablets which I have tried. However, I purchased them because of the fractioned coconut oil and pro-biotics they contained (not so much the homoeopathic ingredients).

Hope that helps.