I have been out of town and have received quite a few requests for the vitamins and supplements that I take. Instead of addressing each email one by one which will take too long, I will post all the info here.

Basic Preventative 5 (Plus D3) $30
Complete multi-vitamin
Dyna-Cal (Calcium, Vit C, Vit E, Calcium, Magnesium,
Manganese, and other ingredients that the body
needs for calcium) $11
Opti-DHA (Marine Lipids) $21.50
(basically this is fish oil)

Each bottle is approximately a 30 day supply

Divide the daily dose into two or three times a day. Don't overload your vitamins at one time. Your body will use them more efficiently if a constant steady stream of nutrution is available.

Vitamin D is necessary for utilization of calcium and phosphorus and in many ways acts as a hormone. The two most important forms of vitamin D are cholecalciferol (D3), which is derived from our own cholesterol and ergocalciferol (D2), a plant analogue derived from the diet.

A dietary deficiency of vitamin D inhibits the production of the protein that binds calcium in the intestines, so that calcium cannot be absorbed, even if there is adequate intake of calcium. Vitamin D is potent in minute quantities; one microgram of cholecalciferol has 40 IU of vitamin D activity. In the skin, cholesterol-like precursor is transformed by UV to a similar product called cholecalciferol, or vitamin D3. However, although they possess biological activity, neither vitamin D2 nor D3 is the most active form of vitamin D. The diet is very low in vitamin D, unless you're consuming fish liver. Fortified foods, primarily dairy, are our major sources and may be produced by irradiation or by addition of synthetic forms of the vitamin. I personally don't recommend that anyone over the age of 2 consume milk. That's why vitamin D3 is in vitamins, when you don't consume enough D3 in your diet or have it synthesized from sun exposure. Depending on the color of your skin, absorption becomes more difficult as melanin increases. Tanning actually prevents the absorption of UV rays to make D3 in your body. Most people are deficient in vitamin D. They now even recommend breastfeeding mothers to supplement their babies with Vit D3. Not enough is passed through to the milk.

The vitamins that I take have extra D3 and the calcium complex has D3. Also Pantothenic acid is necessary for the biological synthesis of vitamin D. Pantothenic acid is also in my vitamins. However there is no iron. But iron pills are inexpensive. It's all connected together in one way or another and nutritional balance is the key.

I take two vitamins with one calcium complex pill three times a day. Then I take two additional calcium pills in the evening...but my calcium needs are greater becuase I still have a little baby to feed. This gives me more than 3,000mg. I would advise anyone to take two vitamins w/one calcium pill 3x's/day and see the results after two weeks. If you see relief but it is still not cleared up, add another calcium pill to one of your vitamin doses, and then another every two weeks until you see what you balance is. Once you reach your balance and are eating healthy, you should maintain the dose for several months and then you can reduce your intake to maintain your levels. Make sure your water intake is adequate.

Soft/Hard Calcium - Calcium comes from many sources and thus comes in different forms. At some point calcium has to go from stone to a form that your body can use as in plants and animals. Dolomite or oyster shell is a hard form of calcium and can accumulate in your arteries and joints. Soft forms such as citrate or carbonate and green leafy plants are usable by the body and excess if harmlessly released. And absolutely stay away from any synthetic calcium forms - your body cannot use it.

Fish is oil is needed because it is required for the uptake of calcium and is anti-inflammatory

Calcium is required for good glandular function in the body. Your pores are basically glands (oil and sweat).

Toxins block calcium receptors in the body. If you have the following symptoms, you may need to detox:

irritable bowel
diarrhea
constiptation
a bowel movement every 2-3 days or less than 1 a day
gas, bloating
acne, rosacea
Overuse of antibiotics

Digestive enzymes work well for this type of situation, but adding an IV phosphoslipid exchange is the superior method of detox, however it is difficult to find a doctor who offers alternative treatments outside of a pill in the bottle. A good algae detox can work well ($44). Keep in mind that detoxing flushes minerals from your body which can aggravate KP. Supplementation is important if you are detoxing so your levels don't become too low.

Take Probiotics ($28) and digestive enzymes ($34) This will also boost your immune system.

Last, but not least - eat healthy! McDonald's won't help you. Food Combining also helps (i.e. no carbs with meat). You can find info about this on the net.

Anyone wanting supplements - email me your phone number and I will call to get a credit card number. Ording two month's supply and shipping is free. I ship priority mail. If you are in Houston, TX you can schedule a consultation at no charge.

denise@spa-medical.com

I hope I have answered everyones' questions, if not feel free to email me.

Hi Denise

Thanks for all that info. I will print it out and digest it! When you mentioned about not eating carbs with meat I was wondering...I don't eat meat but I do eat fish and I was told because I have hypoglycemia (hence the no sugar diet) I have to balance carbs with protein so I tend to have carbs with the fish. Will this be making any difference to my skin as I find I have to eat regular amounts of protein with the carbs throughout the day in order to keep me stable.

Just wondered if you could offer any advice on this affecting my kp. Thanks in advance for your time!

Let me re-phrase my statement - you shouldn't mix carbs and proteins. So yes, since fish is a protein it shouldn't be eaten with carbs. For everyone else, healthy eating means hamburgers and sandwiches are a no no.

One thing to note with vitamins. If you have ever had a CMP blood test and have seen high calcium or potassium levels, discontinue all supplements, wait a couple of weeks and retest your blood to see if it corrects itself. Cheap vitamins are notorious for messing up your blood. We see it a lot at our practice. Once we put patients on quality pharmaceutical grade vitamins it doesn't happen. If your levels don't change when stopping your vitamins you should see a doctor and have it checked out further. Parathyroid can cause an elevation in calcium as well as other conditions.

Denise~ And you are sure this totally cured your K.P.? Have your patients had as much success as you? Sorry, i'm really broke and I want to know if spending all this money on vitamins is worth it...
Thanks in advance!
Shannon

Hello Denise, I too am a sufferer of KP. I agree with your treatment approach. When I was young I only had it on my upper arms. However once I turned 18, it started getting worse. It spread to my forearms, waist, buttocks, thighs, and neck around the hair line. After a couple of years of frustration I finally went to a dermatologist. He wasn't much help. He told me there was no cure and to just accept it. He also stated that it didn't matter what I ate or drank. My condition was treated first with antibiotics (no real benefit) then retin A (some success). But when I used retin A or topical creams it only slightly improved but it also seem to spread it to other areas of my body. After a few years of treatments I became frustrated and started looking into alternative health treatments. I also started reading up on as much as I could about skin diseases. I am now 49 and I can tell you that for the past 5 years I have been able to control 90% of my condition successfully. What have I been doing different? Well for starters, I watch what I eat. I don't drink milk anymore, I avoid beverages with sugar, I avoid alchohol, I don't eat red meat much, and avoid chocolate and candy. All of these foods have had noticeable effect on the condition of my skin. In addition I take vitamins 3 times a day. Believe it or not, by fluke, the Walmart multi vit had a noticable affect which made me explore other vitamin supplements. After doing more research, I tried vitamin A, C, D, and E. I also take 2000 mgs of niacin. I am convinced that the effects of niacin and the flushing of the skin has virtually cleared it up everywhere on my body as long as I watch what I eat and drink. Where my skin was red and bumpy, it is now smooth and unoticable. I believe that the reason they haven't found a cure for KP is because most researchers don't take it seriously. They also approach it from the surface and treat the symtoms. I believe that vits and herbs and internal medicine is the way to approach the root cause of this annoying disease. What do you think and have you heard of niacin working for others? rich

could it be your KP is disappearing with age?

also, I have started herbal tretament for KP (2 days ago so no results yet), Somthing call blupeurum. But I am interested to see what happens of anybody else goes on this niacin program.

Please report back . . .

Why not just avoid starchy carbs: white bread, pasta, white rice, white potatoes, etc. And eat good carbs like vegetables, a little fruit and a whole lot of whole grains with a moderate amount of protein. Makes a person feel healthier, energetic, satisfied and you'll lose weight if you eat sensible amounts.

Patchouli- your post about eating well is insightful, but it doesn't really address KP or Rich's very interesting experience.

Exercise is also good, but it has no impact on KP.

Hey nancy, i'm interested to know what happened when you saw the herbalist, did they have any idea of what keratosis pilaris is and did they explain to you about the herb burpleurum? Its interesting the choice of herb that was chosen...i know it improves liver function and is effective for problems such as depression, moodiness etc. so was just wondering if she told you the reason for choosing the herb. Thanks
Chloe

Hey Rachel- you know your herbs! Well, it’s a long story- to begin with, my KP has recently spread to my hips (not red, just rough, which I actually prefer!) and this has landed me into a quite a deep depression. Now, I have a history of depression since I was 16, not KP related, but I suppose this aggravates it. So by the time I got down to Chinatown, I was in tears and this is how my session with the herbalist began. Fortunately for me , she is a kind wise woman who saw right away that I suffer from this kind of sadness. We spoke a bit about the hardships of life (she is a Buddhist; I am Jewish, and she was very respectful of that, wanting to know about my spiritual life as well). Now, the therapy she prescribed me is one she hopes will target the depression which she believes is connected to the liver. She gave a mystical explanation of the KP which makes me skeptical, but here it is: She said that this disease if genetic but that certain environmental factors trigger it. She says the blood is not flowing the way it should so the balance is off (I do actually have very irregular periods and am always cold and tired). She also recommended (doesn’t everybody?) that I cut out milk products as well as sugar, chocolate, alcohol and bread and pasta (I can have soups with vegetables, fish, eggs, chicken). The idea behind this is that these foods are light and depression feels heavy (on a side note, Prozac has been a wonder drug for me in the past, and I am giving the herbalist 2 weeks until I run back into the arms of my psychiatrist). I am seeing her again tonight and I will ask her how this will all ultimately help my KP.
I believe it can’t hurt since western medicine can obviously do nothing for this.

The woman I went to explained how Chinese medicine doesn’t look at the name of the condition as much as the symptoms. So it doesn’t matter to her whether I have KP or applesauce. She sees it as a blood problems and is treating it as such- I will keep you posted.

Nancy, I was addressing Denise. She said not to mix carbs and protein. I just wanted to specify that there are good carbs and bad carbs because not many people know the difference. I know quite a few people eating platefuls of carbs saying, "There are no carbs in this!"

Wow nancy that is really interesting! Yes traditional chinese medicine can sound a bit unbelievable but their philosophies are quite similar to naturopathy as they still do treat the cause. Liver stagnation is the main cause of a whole variety of diseases as it metabolises almost anything that enters your body and a lot of people in todays society with diets that have a lot of refined carbs/drugs/junk food etc will put immense strain on the liver to try and metabolise foods that aren't very natural resulting in stagnation and underfunctioning of the liver due to continued strain that it has been put through. ( Just another way of looking at it)

But please don't give up, i must admit that herbal medicine will not work as fast as a drug but the ultimate benefits of herbal medicine far outweigh those of prescribed medications. I'm really excited to see the benefits, thanks for sharing and goodluck! Keep us posted
Chloe

Yes, reasonably sure Nancy. I'm carefull of everything I eat, vitamins I've taken, and monitor for cause and effect. I'm not saying niacin is the only reason, it's an overall wellness regiment. If I would drink alchohol, sugar, or caffine I would get a few outbreaks but nothing as bad as before. If I'm careful, I have very few outbreaks. I'm certain if I were to go back to my old ways it would return so I don't believe my age has anything to do with the positive results. Also, tanning has helped me. My sister has a mild case of KP and she tans to control hers with positive results. Unfortunately, my niece has it pretty bad. She is 16 and has had it all her life. I suggested my treatment ideas to her, but it does take a bit of discipline to have any success.

Also Nancy I forgot to add that when I started taking niacin, I noticed a profound difference in a matter of weeks. I don't believe aging would have had that dramatic of a change.