Hi everyone, I have posted this word for word under the 'body brushing' thread so sorry if you have read this! I just wanted to start a new thread on it to make sure it was seen and to see if it yielded any new discoveries....

I have only just discovered this post and my theory for KP rubra, and even the other KPs, is pure toxicity. I am very excited that someone has brought this up as I feel very strongly that this is a significant cause. A few things have led me to this conclusion:

I am 24 and for 10 years have suffered from KP rubra on my arms and also from hyperhidrosis (extremely excessive perspiration) under the arms. So both conditions started in puberty, when i was 14. I am getting married in 4 months, and very recently started researching on what i could do about my problems - and discovered a information from a young man who had suffered hyperhidrosis for a long time and had recently done a great deal of research and formulated his own plan to stop it - simply stopping the use of soaps or body washes or ANYTHING, EXFOLIATING the armpits with a loofah under running water only, and using a completely natural deodorant with no aluminium and NOT an anti-perspirant. There were hundreds of testimonials from people who said their chronic sweating had stopped completely after two weeks.

This theory made complete sense to me. I would say that i have always had sensitive skin, and for 10 years every day, sometimes twice a day , i was spraying on extremely harsh chemicals that my body obviously considered toxic, on a very porous and sensitive area. So what happened? My sweat glands went into overdrive to pump out and wash away as much of the toxins as possible. Thus making me sweat bucketloads, thus making me spray on MORE chemicals. And the more i sweat, the stronger anti perspirant i would apply. I'm talking hardcore men's 24 hour sports antiperspirants. All i was doing was making my problem so much worse. Such a vicious cycle, and i had no idea.

I have been using this deodorising method for just under a week and while it hasn't stopped yet, it has markedly decreased. I wouldn't expect it to stop straight away, that's 10 years of chemicals in that area that i need to help remove by using the loofah every night.

I'm going to rewind to 3 years ago when i went to Singapore and visited an amazing doctor there with every qualification under the sun, who could look at you and tell you what your problem was without asking a single question. I went for an unrelated issue, and turned out i had extreme lymphatic blockage caused by an overload of oestrogen (my pill had too mcuh and had obviously built up in my system for 3 years). He also said to me to stop using any chemicals on my skin like spray antiperspirants and perfumes - they were making my body toxic. I completely forgot about this until my sister mentioned it the other day when i told her about my sweating breakthrough. It's funny, as kp has also been linked to both lymphatic and hormonal issues.

I really feel now, especially in this last week, that our bodies are extremely sensitive to such chemicals and perhaps other things and hence the redness. It's an inflammatory response which is basically caused by a sensitivity to something. I am sure these two issues of mine are related, especially as they are in such close proximity (i am yet to have the kp on other parts of my body) I am stopping the use of any chemical product on my body, instead i am washing with EVCO and using only the natural deodorant. I am also trying the oil pulling, i started it yesterday. So it's all still new and haven't noticed any improvements with the KP but like i said, that is years worth of toxins my body has to get rid of so i don't expect miracles overnight. I will definitely try the brushing now, as i am sure my lymphatic drainage has never been the best, esp since my 'blockage' 3 years ago. This is all really starting to make sense to me. I am also going to take a whole bunch of supplements and while my diet is more or less sugar and gluten free i will be more regimented about it.

As someone mentioned, this rubra is definitely an INTERNAL problem. Our skin is like a window into our body - something here is out of balance, something is making our body upset and our skin is showing this.

In saying that, i feel that this is the answer for MY body as all the pieces of this bizarre puzzle are starting to fit together for me. KP seems to be such an individual thing, which is why all these different things are working for different people. But if you have similar issues to mine, ESPECIALLY the hyperhidrosis, please consider the chemical factor - this could be the cause of kp for YOU, and it seems that by eliminating the above factors, perhaps it might eliminate KP also.

Let me know what you all think of this, especially if anyone has a perspiration problem ASWELL... i am really interested to know if there is a correlation here.

Cheers everyone

Hi I was really interested to read your post I have KP, Hyperhidrosis and Rosecea. I have noticed a few people on here who have rosecea but you are the first to say sweating. I have sweating on armpits, hands and sometimes feet. But then again I didn't mention it is my thread either. After talking about my KP especially bad on my bum, my red nose from Rosecea, Dyslexia and stretchmarks from childbirth I guess I was too embarassed to metion the sweating too. As this all makes me sound like such a state, but luckerly my husband thinks I'm beautiful LOL

Would be interesting to know whether any others have this in common with us. I to came to the conclusion to stop using chemical preparations on my body. My husband never liked me using the strong antipersperant the doctor perscribed as he thinks it is dangerous to stop your body cleasing itself. And to be honest they never really worked for me anyway. Then when I became pregnant I nolonger considered my body my own to do what I wanted with, it now had to support another life so rubbing myself with chemicals was not acceptable. Also found out that synthetic musk in perfume and other cosmetics can be found in high consentration in breastmilk. My conclusion was if you wouldn't add it to your own food to eat then why would you add it to your baby's? So I switched to all natural products, even making my own creams, as with kp I go through to much to afford the often expensive natural products. Don't think that my sweating has really reduced with the lack of chemicals, but it has in no way got worse so that is good enogh for now.

KP is really improving at the moment with the oil pulling which of course is natural, cheap and pregnancy / breastfeeding safe. And I also think that rosecea has improved some more with oil pulling. So think this may be for life now. I would love to see a homeopath / herbalist for all these issues as I do believe in complementary medicines but can't really make that monetary commitment at the moment.

If I have missed out any other information check my thread in the womens issues board. Just click on my name then scroll down to threads started by this person. If you have any other questions or comparasons to make just reply to me and I will get back to you.

Thanks and hope your changes start to work for you too.