Seb Derm Treatment Questions

[lostintheforest]

I have a treatment question. Maybe another sufferer of this condition can give me some guidance.

History: Mid march 2005 - Dermatologist told me I have Seb Derm. on my face. Put me on nizoral prescription shampoo and cortisone. My face seemed to clear up after three weeks or so, so I stopped using it. Got worse, so I went back. He then told me it is chronic and this is going to be a long term program. He put me on nizoral 2x week with head and shoulders or Tgel extra strength on the other days. Started getting deep acne along beard line on my face. Prescription ben. peroxide seems to be handling this for the most part. I am 35. Derm says this is due to stress.

Here are my questions:

1. Shampoo seems to burn my face a little, especially just below my eyes at top of my cheekbones. This is more noticeable with the Tgel and head and shoulders than with prescription nizoral. Is this normal? Does burning suggest it is too strong or not strong enough? Any insight.

2. I am trying to find a workable regimen for switching off shampoos. I started 4 days nizoral, 4 days Tgel or H&S, etc. When I use Tgel and H&S, after a day or so, I have more noticeable redness right out of shower (lasts about 30 minutes) on top and sides of nose, eyebrow area and forehead. Less redness when I use the nizoral. Again, does this seem normal? Thoughts?

[Froggirl]

I put t-gel on my face, because it works really well for my scalp, but it was not a good idea...it stung badly for days. I think a lot of these things are just trail and error, if it doesn't sting or seem to irriate your skin than i imagine it would be okay. I now use nizoral which so far isn't too irrating but when my skin gets really inflammed i have to use a mild hyodocortisone just to get it under control.

[cmburn22]

You many want to give Loprox a try (topical antifungal) or consider some of the sodium sulfacetamide cleansers as they might not be as harsh as the shampoos on the face.

[Jordan]

Seb derm is really all about your diet. I, like you, started off using anti-fungal shampoos and topicals. But today all I use is a very mild soap and a good diet. Search around on these forums for topics on diet and seb derm, there's alot of them and they are very helpful.

[Froggirl]

I've been searching for my info myself lately and i found a article that i found really helpful. It covers all the convetional treatment options as well as a lot of other theories, like diet etc. .

http://www.geocities.com/mall_lago/html/sebderm1.html

I stopped using Nizoral cream (ketoconazole) for a while on my face because I thought it was causing irritation to my skin and i stopped using hydrocortisone (1%), but if i don't treat it it just gets worse. Now i use hydocortisone about once every two weeks on the worse area, where i don't get rosacea and Nizoral cream daily. My doctor had said the key was to find a maintance routine which keeps it from coming back rather than stopping treatment and then treating when it returns...i'm still trying to figure this out but the worse it ever gets now is flakey skin, rather than scales and patches of red or pink skin.