Shrinking A Flare Early

So normally I follow a pretty strict diet that includes whole foods and avoiding my trigger foods like nightshades, but I recently moved and went on a week long hibachi binge.

With that hibachi, I found that I really loved Yum Yum sauce. It wasn't until I had already scarfed it down 3 to 4 times that I looked at the ingredients and saw that it had tomatoes in it. Which I should've known, because it's a freaking reddish color! Silly me definitely wanted to ignore what I already knew. I even ate it one more time after finding this out, but this time, I couldn't fully commit to the experience because I knew I was going to regret it.

And what do you know! A day later and there's a flare forming deep below my skin on my pubic bone/fat and at stage 3, that's a scary feeling. I don't have much skin left!

What I do to help my flares

So in these times, I usually try a few things to stop it in its tracks.

I fast for 24 hours minimum

Fasting for periods of time between 24 and 48 hours triggers something called autophagy. This allows my body to eat some of its damaged parts and in hour 72, it's even said to replace these with healthier substitutes. I haven't been able to get past 24 hours because I like to eat, but there are amazing videos on YouTube and personal accounts on Reddit if you're interested. I'm actually working my way up to be able to do a 30 day fast for Ramadan because I want to see what the effects may be.¹

I eat basic foods, cooked at home

If I ate an offending food, have let it work its way through my system by giving my body a break, I don't want to rev it up with any more offenses, so I find that it's best to stick to lean meats and green cruciferous non starchy vegetables.

I season my foods with only 4 things: garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, and pink salt. I avoid starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes and grains because I notice that my HS is influenced by my blood sugar levels.

I drink lots of lemon water

Water is the what our bodies need to do anything and everything. In traditional Chinese medicine, it's also said that lemons help with things such as dampness, which is said to be the cause of many skin afflictions. Also, using the bathroom helps with dampness. In western medicine they'd say you're flushing out toxins.

Find what works best for you!

Although these 3 things help me a ton when I find a new flare, especially if it is still under the skin, it is not a quick remedy. I must follow clean eating for a minimum of a week for the pain to subside to nothing. Usually it decreases A LOT by day 2 or 3. Days 5 to 7 is when I notice the flare isn't there anymore just by movements.

In the end, I still monitor the flare for changes, whether good or bad, and if I notice that there is no improvement or it gets worse in that week, I go to urgent care to receive doxycycline which is the only antibiotic that works for my flares.

Please remember to take care of yourself and find what works best for you!