Did you know Hidradenitis Suppuritiva is connected with metabolic syndrome?

Depositphotos_5735625_xsEmbarrassing? Maybe. Common? Perhaps more than you think. 

Hidradenitis Suppuritiva is an acne related condition involving recurrent boils and cysts in the apocrine areas. These especially include under the arms around the breasts, in the groin and buttock areas. It may be confined to just to just a few small cysts, or develop into large cysts with multiple training points. At its worst, they can be painful and make it difficult to carry out ordinary activities.

This condition is sometimes treated with injected steroids, topical or oral antibiotics, and surgical drainage. More radical treatment includes cutting out the entire affected area into the deeper fat or down to the fascia. That kind of surgery can require a long recovery time.

More recently, powerful immunosuppressants known as Biologics have been used with some success. Unfortunately, these carry a very large price tag both an actual dollar cost, and in the possibility of leading to development of infections like tuberculosis, or cancers like lymphoma.

I’ve been successful in improving the condition the patients with Hidradenitis using a similar approach to that which I use in acne. That involves correcting digestive and hormonal imbalances, and removing toxins from the skin. My report of success met with considerable resistance at the Second International Meeting of the Hidradenitis Suppuritiva Foundation in San Francisco some years ago.  

Consequently, I was very happy to see an article that was published last year linking Hidradenitis Suppuritiva  to metabolic syndrome. One of the most important inclusions of the article was that Hidradenitis Suppuritiva  appears to be a systemic condition rather than just to localized skin condition. This further supports my approach and results in treating this condition as a systemic inflammatory disorder with supplements and nutritional changes.

If you need help with this condition, please contact my office. I work in New York and also via Skype, so if you live far away, I can still be of help.

To your health,

Dr. Alan M. Dattner, MD

Holistic Dermatology & Integrative Medicine

 


Celebrity Dermatologist Passes Away

Sad news: fellow dermatologist Dr. Fredric Brandt just passed away yesterday.

Humor is a wonderful opportunity for release, but when a specific human person bears the brunt of the joke in the public world they exist in, it can be devastating. As a physician who chose the path of Holistic Dermatology decades ago, I am sensitive to how ridicule can affect a person. My heart goes out to the soul of Dr. Brandt, to those who loved him, and to all those whose lives were better from his touch.

I'm reminded how important it is to be caring, continually return our efforts to cultivate beauty from the inside out.

Dr. Alan M Dattner, MD

Holistic Dermatology


The problem with quick-fixes for acne. Part 4

Another unintended consequence of acne blogs and information you may find on the Internet on acne related sharing sites, is that you will not have enough information about the individuals who report either success or failure with various treatments they suggest to understand whether those treatments will be successful for you.  

Although there are many common features of various illnesses such as acne, there are also many individual variations in both genetics and exposure history. As a result, Even if the report of the success after a particular novel acne treatment is accurate, it still may be impossible to know whether you have the same conditions are such that the same remedy will work for you.  As a result of this individual variation, what will work for another person may not be effective for you.

Furthermore, it may take a lot more depth of understanding of the physiology of the acne to be able to even ask the right questions of the person who benefited from a new remedy, to know if that remedy would be of any use to you. This is why it's worth seeing a holistic doctor who can really ferret out your particular issue and finally help you get to the bottom of it.

To your health,

Dr. Alan M. Dattner, MD

Holistic Dermatology & Integrative Medicine