Grover's Disease
Risk factors for triggering Grover's Disease symptoms:
- sun-damaged skin
- sweating from sun and exercise
- wine consumption
- personal and family history of autoimmune-type symptoms
- consumption of non-Paleo foods like grains (especially gluten-containing grains like wheat, rye and barley; and also oats, which contain a protein that has a similar structure to gluten), bread, crackers, rice cakes, pizza, ice cream
- even semi-Paleo foods may contribute: gluten-free grain equivalents like GF ginger snaps, fruit juices (whole fruit provides less of a concentrated blast of fructose), almond milk
- other stressors
- harsh soaps
Therapies that patients have reported helped them:
- Strict Paleo diet (complete remission success story at http://paleohacks.com/questions/11611/guys-remission-of-grovers-disease#axzz1TN3gez8j)
- "Bland foods"
- Raw eggs (consuming raw yolks and other raw or low-heated animal fats is good for the skin)
- Low-carb diet
- Zinc oxide, such as from zinc oxide creams that also contain talc and glycerol
- Pure talcum powder
- Vitamin D (which can be obtained from sunlight and food sources like herring, salmon, tuna, catfish, sardines, mackerel, fish roe--aka caviar, poultry eggs and Green Pastures Blue Ice raw fermented cod liver oil)
Other potential therapies:
Antifungal drugs are sometimes prescribed, so antifungal foods like extra virgin coconut oil or
raw fermented honey might help (both internally and externally)
Zinc is also an antifungal, so zinc creams again make sense, as does a zinc supplement (taken with food to avoid stomach upset)
Grover's disease has been connected to "sun damage, heat stress, sweating and dry skin" http://www.livestrong.com/article/177853-grovers-disease-treatments. Also, the fact that steroids help suggests it may have an immune system element, and some people, particularly people with autoimmune disorders like lupus and celiac disease, report that their physicians have told them that there is an immune system component to Grover's Disease (as there is even with simple skin disorders like acne, according to Dr. Loren Cordain and others).
While some Paleo dieters can eat rice or oats once or twice a week without problems, others may need to be more strict to avoid triggering symptoms of Grover's disease and other diseases of civilization. If you don't wish to give up some non-Paleo foods, then I recommend trying restricting the frequency of their intake to no more than at one or two meals per week rather than eating little bits of modern foods every day, which chronically irritates the immune system and keeps inflammation up while keeping symptoms relatively controlled, thus encouraging more and more cheating and fooling oneself into thinking that there are no symptoms until they build up into a full-fledged immune-related disorder. It's a slippery slope best avoided.
Sources:
GROVERS DISEASE TREATMENTS, Mar 30, 2011, By Adam Scarano, http://www.livestrong.com/article/177853-grovers-disease-treatments
I Have Grover's Disease: First Steps In My Cure For Grovers Disease, By: annvictor, Written on April 29th, 2011, http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Have-Grovers-Disease/1534400
Grover's Disease Any gluten intolerant people diagnosis with this? forum topic, 29 December 2006, http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/28468-grovers-disease/
Grover's Disease forum topic, February 17, 2011, http://www.kidneyspace.com/index.php?topic=3336.0
Grover's Disease forum topic, January 30, 2003, http://www.skincell.org/community/index.php?topic=187.0
Skin Complaints and Skin Disorders: Grover's Disease forum topic, http://www.skincell.org/community/index.php?topic=187.560;wap2
http://paleohacks.com/questions/11611/guys-remission-of-grovers-disease#axzz1TN3gez8j
Cordain, Loren, PhD, Dietary Implications for the Development of Acne: A Shifting Paradigm, http://thepaleodiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Cordain_US_Dermatology_Reviews.pdf
- sun-damaged skin
- sweating from sun and exercise
- wine consumption
- personal and family history of autoimmune-type symptoms
- consumption of non-Paleo foods like grains (especially gluten-containing grains like wheat, rye and barley; and also oats, which contain a protein that has a similar structure to gluten), bread, crackers, rice cakes, pizza, ice cream
- even semi-Paleo foods may contribute: gluten-free grain equivalents like GF ginger snaps, fruit juices (whole fruit provides less of a concentrated blast of fructose), almond milk
- other stressors
- harsh soaps
Therapies that patients have reported helped them:
- Strict Paleo diet (complete remission success story at http://paleohacks.com/questions/11611/guys-remission-of-grovers-disease#axzz1TN3gez8j)
- "Bland foods"
- Raw eggs (consuming raw yolks and other raw or low-heated animal fats is good for the skin)
- Low-carb diet
- Zinc oxide, such as from zinc oxide creams that also contain talc and glycerol
- Pure talcum powder
- Vitamin D (which can be obtained from sunlight and food sources like herring, salmon, tuna, catfish, sardines, mackerel, fish roe--aka caviar, poultry eggs and Green Pastures Blue Ice raw fermented cod liver oil)
Other potential therapies:
Antifungal drugs are sometimes prescribed, so antifungal foods like extra virgin coconut oil or
raw fermented honey might help (both internally and externally)
Zinc is also an antifungal, so zinc creams again make sense, as does a zinc supplement (taken with food to avoid stomach upset)
Grover's disease has been connected to "sun damage, heat stress, sweating and dry skin" http://www.livestrong.com/article/177853-grovers-disease-treatments. Also, the fact that steroids help suggests it may have an immune system element, and some people, particularly people with autoimmune disorders like lupus and celiac disease, report that their physicians have told them that there is an immune system component to Grover's Disease (as there is even with simple skin disorders like acne, according to Dr. Loren Cordain and others).
While some Paleo dieters can eat rice or oats once or twice a week without problems, others may need to be more strict to avoid triggering symptoms of Grover's disease and other diseases of civilization. If you don't wish to give up some non-Paleo foods, then I recommend trying restricting the frequency of their intake to no more than at one or two meals per week rather than eating little bits of modern foods every day, which chronically irritates the immune system and keeps inflammation up while keeping symptoms relatively controlled, thus encouraging more and more cheating and fooling oneself into thinking that there are no symptoms until they build up into a full-fledged immune-related disorder. It's a slippery slope best avoided.
Sources:
GROVERS DISEASE TREATMENTS, Mar 30, 2011, By Adam Scarano, http://www.livestrong.com/article/177853-grovers-disease-treatments
I Have Grover's Disease: First Steps In My Cure For Grovers Disease, By: annvictor, Written on April 29th, 2011, http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Have-Grovers-Disease/1534400
Grover's Disease Any gluten intolerant people diagnosis with this? forum topic, 29 December 2006, http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/28468-grovers-disease/
Grover's Disease forum topic, February 17, 2011, http://www.kidneyspace.com/index.php?topic=3336.0
Grover's Disease forum topic, January 30, 2003, http://www.skincell.org/community/index.php?topic=187.0
Skin Complaints and Skin Disorders: Grover's Disease forum topic, http://www.skincell.org/community/index.php?topic=187.560;wap2
http://paleohacks.com/questions/11611/guys-remission-of-grovers-disease#axzz1TN3gez8j
Cordain, Loren, PhD, Dietary Implications for the Development of Acne: A Shifting Paradigm, http://thepaleodiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Cordain_US_Dermatology_Reviews.pdf