Skin blog 1 - topical steroid withdrawal aged 22

Blog entry 1

I've decided to keep a blog about the condition of my skin whilst experiencing topical steriod withdrawal (or topical steriod addiction) so that anyone experiencing similar dermatological problems can relate to the issue and so that I can track any progressions/regressions made. Hopefully this information will help other people get to the root of their skin woes a lot quicker than it took me!

When and Why TSW Started

I've always had excema growing up as a kid. I'm 99% sure that it was due to a couple of allergies that I have to egg, apples, cherries, horses. The excema itself was only in my elbow crease and behind my legs so nothing too serious but the doctors prescribed topical steroids which cleared the issue up temporarily, only to return after eating a food I didn't agree with and then the steriod cycle would begin.

I used heavy doses of antibiotics during a period when I was 8 years old which I believe may have damaged my gut lining making me more susceptive to allergies. I had a nasty reaction to using an antibiotic after a trip to the dentist around 2 years ago which gave me a whole body rash. The doctor prescribed prednisolone  (Correct spelling?) which cleared the rash. Prednisolone is a fairly potent oral steriod. From then on my skin has never really been right, with fluctuations between normal and poor depending on the use of topical and oral steroids. 

In hindsight, the cycle of using steroids on a rash, the rash clearing, then returning with a vengeance and appearing more widespread is an obvious pattern which led to topical steriod addiction and dependence. However, during the year that I suffered with this issue I attributed the cause to multiple areas including:

~Allergies

~Food intolerances

~Deficiencies in my diet

~Using detergents/shower gels/colognes that affected my skin

~Drinking too much

~Leaky gut

Due to these beliefs, I cut out dairy, gluten, sugar (mostly... bar fresh fruit), stopped using any shower gel, deodorant, shampoos etc, took multiple trips to the doctor and dermatologist who prescribed moisturiser, atarax (a skin antihistamine), oral and topical steroids and finally cleaned up my diet and reigned in the drinking. But none of this helped!

Over the first three to 6 months of the diet I lost a stone (@ 6ft 2 and 76kg I'm looking pretty skinny!) and still had a nasty rash on elbows, knees, neck and unusually on my wrists but stopped abruptly at the palm. Summer 2014 was coming around and I had plans to travel the world, yet still had no cure for my bloody skin and I was starting to get highly frustrated so took more trips to the doc for allergy testing and took food intolerance tests. The results came back with a wide spread list of foods to avoid so I then started an elimination diet as I believed I had a leaky gut. The rash still fluctuated between okay-ish skin to a widespread rash that would flare at any time with seemingly no correlation to a set food. 

Cruising ever closer to travelling, I forked out for some time with a nutritionist. This is where I first made my breakthrough. She once again tested for intolerances with a chaos set of results from coffee to pork and chicken (foods I had previously had no issues with!). She also believed I had a leaky gut, but gave me very useful advice regarding the use of prescribed steroids, atarax etc that I was using. She noted that my body was in a state of bad inflammation and encouraged me to stop using the drugs that are meant to clear a problem for good, instead of using them in cycles. She believed that the drugs were putting a big strain on my bodies immune system which was desperately trying to heal itself and has caused my system to become hyper sensitive. She advised a more natural route using probiotics and prebiotics as well as supplementing minerals, vitamins and omega 3. She also noted that the problem may get worse before it got better as the body will clear the toxins through any means necessary, and with the skin being the biggest organ, I expected it to take the brunt!

Discovering The Issue

In essence I believe she was 99% there. Later that week I discovered people online were having issues withdrawing from topical steriod use and looked into the problem further. Www.itsan.org provided me with information on the condition Topical Steriod Withdrawl (TSW) which I matched a lot of my symptoms too... Weird food intolerances, unexplained flare ups, red skin that stopped at the wrist. Despite the healing process taking a lot of time, I was very happy to have finally identified my issue!

Perfectly timed before I went away on holiday... At least I now know!

Check the next blog post for TSW info, and how I'm currently dealing with it whilst travelling!