hey ppl ive had kp for like ever and i noticed my arms look shapeless. well, actually theyve improved a good deal because i try lifting weights but still, they dont really have the normal arm shape that nonkp sufferers have. ive noticed many kp sufferers have this lack of tonage to the arm.

does anyone know why this is so? is it because the skin thickens due to keratin buildup.

also, i noticed too that i have this weird extra underarm fat that wont go away with diet and exercise and weight lifting and i noticed too that other kp sufferers have this. it looks squishy or somthing, like flabby, hard to explain but it seems to be a common symptom that goes along with kp (from what ive seen at least).

i wonder what the relationship is.like, why would the arm pit area fat be altered in its contour by kp if theres not even kp there? so i was thinking maybe kp doesnt cause this, maybe It causes kp. maybe theres like glands in the underarm fat producing hormones which are indirectly causing overproduction of keratin.

ah who knows, there seems to be so many causes for kp, and nothing seems to work. these days anything seems the likely culprit.

anyways i was wondering if anyone has made these same observations?

sincerely,
oh so desperate 21 yr old kp sufferer holding herself back from the world

oh yeah and p.s. my cousin also had kp for yrs and she started taking betamide lotion (nonprescription) and hers cleared up really fast. she told me about it but i havent bothered trying it cuz ive tried so many other things im so skeptical about using just any old lotion. it seemed too good to be true. well just letting you guys know.

hi nangirl...

i just found this site and yours is the first post i read, mostly because ive been wondering the same exact thing for years. im 40, and have had keratosis pilaris since i was about 12. i never bothered to read anything about it until now (i was never very self concious about it – i only just found out the name of it after looking it up online out of curiosity). but the one thing i always noticed was that everyone i've ever seen with keratosis pilaris did not have very toned arms (including myself). i was really surprised when i read several articles about it online and no one mentioned any connection between the two...there's no doubt in my mind that there's a connection. i've been aware of this for as long as ive been aware that i had keratosis pilaris, so I read your post hoping that you had some idea why. its pretty strange, huh?

i'll say one thing though...there's no reason at all to be self concious because you have it...i dont think other people really notice or care. Actually i was kinda surprised to see people take it so seriously that they created this message board. The only person who ever seemed to notice was a girl i once dated who said that she us used to have the same thing on her arms, and got rid of it by scrubbing it every day with a lufa sponge (or however its spelled).

so smile

My arms are definitely out of shape, but I think that's mostly because I have been lazy with the exercise thing. Come to think of it though, it does seem like you don't see Keratosis Pilaris on people with really toned arms. Everyone in my family (except my dad) has KP, and we all have pretty un-defined arms. I don't know. I do feel that my skin is better when I'm in good shape and eating healthy foods. KP is an inside-out skin disease. The more we take care of our general health, the better our skin will behave.

OMG! I can't believe I just read this. Another link to the cause of KP? I don't know. I'm definitely eager to see what more people say.

I am thin and consider myself to be in shape. I work out on average one hour per day, 5-6 days a week (cardio, weights, yoga.) I believe I am pretty well educated in exercise physiology, so I do a variety of proven effective exercises on different muscle groups all over my body. But my arms are the hardest to shape up!! My KP is mostly only on the lower half of my upper arms, and it's really ugly and severe. My friend, who is more exercise obsessed than I am and has a degree in it, has commented on how I seem to have a problem getting good tone to my arms. My legs, butt, abs,... they firm up with no problem. And my arms look okay now because I have been so diligent about working them out for years! But they are still my weakest area and are definitely the hardest part to keep toned looking. Sometimes I think why do I even bother working out my arms when I NEVER wear sleeveless anything.

yeah thats where i have problems with toning, the lower half of my upper arm. when i where like fitted tees, it looks like i have pretty toned arms but only because the sleeve covers the flabby part and thats the part where most of my kp is. my friends tell me that i might as welll where sleeveless if i practically where very short sleeves sometimes. but they dont know that i dont like the shape of my arm in that area. yeah and i work out a but load too but my upper arms are just so stubborn. i can feel the muscle there i just cant see it too much. like if i extend my arms out in fron of me it looks like i have normal shaped arms but lets say if i wore sleeveless and i let my arms just hang relaxed to the sides of me, they dont have the nicest toned shape to them.


anyways, keep working out and keep working at your arms even if you dont wear sleeveless. i just do it for those special days where i cant go with sleeves. like recently i had to stand in a wedding and wear a tube top dress. and every year before easter, when fiesta is going on, theres this one party scene downtown and everyone is dressed up all fashionable wearing sleevless tops and all and i hate not doing the same so i wear sleeveless too. but i cant wear just any top though. certain ones are less flattering for already unflattering arms.

I really hope that there is a link between the two. I have pretty bad KP on my arms and I can't seem to get my triceps toned up.

I work out with weights 3 times a week and my triceps too are still flabby. I wonder if there is a connection. I also have it on my thighs and notice that that area too carries more flab as well.

I don't know if this will be a disappointment to anyone, but I have KP on my whole arms and yet I find that they are the easiest pert of my body to tone. I have been doing lots of exercises to try to tone my thighs and waist and get rid of the flab, but the only part of my body that seems to be repsonding to any exercise is my arms. I have noticed that my arms have always seemed sort of flabby but I blame that on the fact that I've never been a real athlete and in my teenage years I got really lazy. I do think that KP is linked to what we eat but I don't think that we necessarily have weird arms shapes or that exercise has anything to do with it. Maybe it's just a coincidence that we KP sufferers happen to be a little less health concious than others.

nah, i happen to be very health concious, and i work out all the time but my arms are the hardest to tone. i have muscle there from lifting weights its just really hard to see and its mainly the upper bicep and tricep area. like if i wear a fitted tee, my arms look great and all but if i was to wear a completely sleeveless top my upper arms just look soft and flabby.

and i HAVE noticed other kp sufferers seems to lack arm shape. ive seen ppl who never work out, even some fat ppls arms and even though they may have extra meat on them, their arms still pretty much take on normal contours.

im not saying all kp sufferers have this but i have noticed it seems to be a trend. you must be like my brother than because he has kp all over his arms top to bottom and he has great looking arms. hes only 13 but his build is very stocky, hes just thick all over, he doesnt even lift weights. it also helps if your a guy to have better arm tone because guys build muscle better and bigger than a girl can. were a little stuck in that department.

I work out 4-5 days a week doing both weights and cardio. I have always been an athlete but have never had really toned arms. There's a lot of talk about KP being genetic and I believe the same about muscle tone. I know people who never work out and have natural, unbelievable shape. I have a hard time believing that KP effects tone. Perhaps we all need to lift a little heavier and more efficiently to get that look! Sorry to burst bubbles.

Meg

I also think that this is a silly topic. Why would K.P. ever affect the shape of your arm? It doesn't really make any sense to me. My arms are shapely! And I dont even work out, really... I know guys with huge muscles who totally work out their arms AND have K.P.

I guess cuz we're all so desperate to find a cure for our KP, that when we hear of something coincidental, we think "This is it!" and hope that it's true. I think it's a good idea to explore anything that could be a possibility, but at the same time not to get our hopes up too much. KP just sucks. And it sucks that it's so complicated to control it.

We can't blame everything wrong with our bodies on KP although it would make my life easier. KP does suck and finding remedies to help it is what we're all here for, right? Let's not read into something that is simply a skin irritation. I know it effects our self-esteems and whatever else but the truth of the matter is, we could have it a lot worse! Sorry , I like to believe the glass is half full rather than half empty. Let's help eachother out and find something that may eliminate it. I'm already looking into 100% Shea Butter and Sea Salt if y'all are interested. Perhaps these ingredients will finally give me tone! Just kidding.

not a silly topic at all. im not saying EVERYONE who has kp is going to have unshapely arms, but it does commonly go hand in hand. and of course its easier for guys to build muscle and add shape because well, theyre guys they have more testosterone to build the muscle.

some of you may not even undestand becaues you may have never seen a person with kp who has shapeless arms so you might think this is silly. ive seen it plenty of times, and i even have this problem. a friend of mine even agreed. she told me she saw this girl with kp wearing a sleeveless shirt and that this girl didnt seem to care and no one around her seeemed to care. i asked if she had weird shaped arms. she was like yeah, it looks like a cone. we both started laughing because i thought it was so true. thats the typical kp arm shape.

so yeah, i know there IS a connection, its not silly. and im going to keep looking into it until i find out if it can be helped or not. for now though i will continue to keep lifting weights.

I find that the parts of my body that have keratosis pelaris are the parts that are the fattiest, like the backs of my thighs, my butt, my cheeks, and of course my upper arms. Maybe there's just a link there, like it tends to be in places that are fattier?