Hi everyone, sorry for the disappearance, we went on vacation and then I got a minor surgery done....

I'm fascinated by your posts Darla, I've never heard of calcitriiol before and I'm very intrigued. Please let me know how it works out! Thanks for your posts hopefully together we can figure this out.

To everyone who tried vitamin D, I wish you the best of luck! I do agree that the 15 minutes thing is a bit silly sounding, and I wonder if the recommendation comes from the FDA, which has a much lower recommendation than doctors are starting to realize we need.

To be more specific, my redness did not clear up as immediately as the white bumps. Those were the first to go, and as they started to go away, the redness went too. I'm also taking care of the redness by salt scrubbing once or twice a week and careful moisturizing. I do have lots of old scars too, because I have a tendency to pick and poke at myself and my skin, so there are still some older brown spots where there were KP bumps I mangled. The biggest improvement is the little white lumps that you can squeeze out, and the redness that follows around them. My arms still have some slight redness but the sheer quantity of white bumps is...well to estimate, I'd say there's about 15% of what there was, and the number drops daily. I also notice that when I'm dehydrated the redness looks much worse. I tried to take some pictures but they came out poorly, I will post anyways...



before the D




and one week later...I wish I could get a better shot of the white bumps....


anyways, sorry for going away for a while! Good luck everyone!

USMC girl-

Yes, I live on an Army base, Hohenfels, in Germany. We're near two bigger bases, Grafenwoehr and Vilseck. I adore it here - everything is AMAZING and it's a gorgeous country. Good luck getting here! I hope you do

mg,

Thanks for the photos. They are pretty convincing. Please post periodically, letting us know if you see further improvement.

kebod

Wow, amazing photos, mousegirl!!!

Okay, so I went to the derm today to get a scrip for .003% topical calcitriol (maybe it's .0003%...whatever 3 micrograms per gram is...) and he wouldn't give it to me. : (

I explained to him the clinical studies showing the effectiveness of it on hyperkeratinization in psoriasis patients. There are other numerous anecdotal studies and smaller trials showing it can work for other hyperkeratinization disorders. And he said, "I don't think it's going to help because the mechanisms causing proliferation in psoriasis are different than the mechanisms that cause KP." I asked him how that could be if the issue causing both diseases - and many others - is the hyper proliferation of keratin cells. And he just said, "Well, it's more complicated than that..." And I do understand that I am not a dermatologist and don't understand ALL the mechanisms of how skin regenerates, proliferates, etc. But I have found clinical studies citing that calcitriol has helped other diseases that involve excess keratin production - other than psoriasis. I think that if there is something that inhibits excess keratin production, it could help any disease caused by that very factor. It only makes sense. Believe me, this doctor is no genius. He told me the dry, wrinkly patches of skin caused by daily use of glycolic acid was genetic (HA!) and had nothing to do with the use of glycolic......even though it showed up only in the last two months of using the stuff. This guy clearly just wanted to get me out of his office.

I didn't argue further because it is fruitless. He's incredibly busy and he's really too busy to care. He's not a research dermatologist. He doesn't have time to care.

He also said that dovonex, which is a widely used psoriasis topical med contains nearly the same thing as calcitriol and doesn't work very well anyways. But I disagree that dovonex is comparable to topicals containing calcitriol. You see, Dovonex contains 0.005% of the compound calcipotriene, which is a synthetic vitamin D3 derivative. Of course drug companies are going to try and develop a synthetic, patentable form of a naturally-occuring vitamin D3 analog. Dovonex has been reported on several psoriasis forums --- from what I've read --- as not being that effective. But it DOES NOT CONTAIN CALCITRIOL. It contains a synthetic form of it.

I guess the kind of good, okay thing that came out of this is that I got two small samples of vectical which JUST came out - contains .0003% calcitriol... but it also contains all this greasy **** like mineral oil and petrolatum. Uck. I think I'm going to try and order some calcitriol online somewhere -- don't even know if it's possible -- and make a solution myself. Sigh.

thanks for posting the pics mousegirl.

The pics seem to be different though. On first view the improvement seem great. But when I looked at them again I noticed that the second pic is a different angle than the first pic. The second pic shows more of the front of the arm, but the first pic shows just the back of the arm.

I've been taking 2,000 - 3,000 of Vit. D for almost a week, and zero improvement. But I coupled it with Vit. C and fish oil (I haven't taken any vitamins for yeaaars) and note my skin in general seems softer, at least the mild KP on my jawline doesn't seem as thick. Might not be related at all.

Bummed out the vitamins have done nothing for the redness though...

Is it Vitamin D3 though?

OMG

It worked for me! I knew it, i never drink milk and i rarely go out to the sun. I'm 13 so i'm eating half of a 1000 iu. pill daily. When i told my doctor that i wanted it for keratosis pilaris, she looked at me like i was crazy, and she said i rather buy centrium. I read somewhere it wasn't vitamin d strong enough. So i took the pills anyway, and yay!

All i'm using is carmol 20, vitamin d, and a marykay exfoliant or w/e.

Their all really helping, when i feel my arms i only feel like a tiny bump or two.
I'm also gonna get maderma to fade the scars from so many years of picking.

My legs are taking a while. But, i've noticed that the bumps are kinda fading =)

hey LoveHurts, congratulations.. i wish i had ur luck!!!
Can vitamin D pills be bought withoud doctor's prescription? i don't even know if it can be found here in Brazil...

Hey, I haven't noticed any improvement when taking Vitamin D. My improvements have come from Vitamin A.

However, I do agree that the redness of the bumps is much more pronounced when I'm not fully hydrated, or right after a carb spike (eating a pizza or a big meal).

hey guys.. i'm gonna buy vitamin D tomorrow, 1000 IUs, let's see how it goes.. wish me luck, please!

3rd day taking 1000ui vitamin D3, nothing different apparently.

Dan,

Whatever you try, give it at least 30 days to see if it makes a difference. We wish you luck with vit. d. I hope it helps. Please post again and give us results, positive or negative.

kebod

Thank you so much. I'll try it for sure. I bought 30 pills. The pharmaceutic said if it is gonna make some bad, before 30 pills I'll notice it. I also hope it works. I can't live it this anymore!

i used to take vitamin d too for medical reasons for some time, but cannot remember if it had improved my kp ... anyway, do you think taking vitamin d orally will help my scars??