Dermatitis Herpetiformis and Iodine

[tmoxon]

I am just wondering whether anyone officially diagnosed with DH who still had the rash after going on a strict GF diet has tried cutting out foods with Iodine in them.

Luckily I don't like shellfish but do drink a lot of milk in tea and coffee and like eggs and potatoes and I am just wondering whether trying to cut these things out of my diet would make a difference. Has anyone tried this, I cant say that I look forward to cutting these things out as I do enjoy them.

Thanks for any advice anyone can provide

[Hidden]

I get flare ups now if I get glutened......but it's nowhere near as bad as it was........still have red patches on my face.......but they are gettin smaller........but I'm only 15 mth glutenfree...

[barny]

hiya when i am glutened i have a little ichy rash on my back side lol but leaves a red rash wondered wat it was been gf 18months now good luck

[tmoxon]

Hi Janie and Barny

Thank you both for your comments, I have been totally GF for over two years now, I only started to feel better in myself last month. The rash has never gone completely unfortunately, hence the reason I am looking for other things which could be an issue

[cuxton38]

Diag CD 21yrs ago diag DH about 3 yrs ago. Had another Biopsy nothing untowards. However I put DH down to cheese.Could also be Lactose intolerance. I get red itchy rash in the same places use a steroid cream which is excellent. You could just cut out some other foods and see if like me it could be cheese. Good luck

[tmoxon]

Hi Cuxton38, thank you for responding.

I have downloaded an Ipad app and am tracking everything I eat, so far nothing is glaringly obvious. I think that the problem I am finding is that I don't always present the same symptoms every time. For instance about 14 months ago as an experiment I ate half of a full gluten scone, only symptoms I had were bloating stomach, no rash. However on a trip to IKEA decided to try a piece of their GF cake, and by the time I was driving home blisters were forming on my knees.

I will certainly bear the cheese in mind, thanks again

[spider]

to tmoxon, i have been gf for like over a decade and recently got a BAD facial flare up. so after doctor visits steriods and months of frustration i realized about a year before i switched my salt to iodied salt ( i cant even remember why cause i shouldv known better and researched it first. but i have not had a reason to fear salt) so i found some shit on the computer linking iodine to flares and had my light bulb moment. i immediately took it out and within a few weeks i was in full remission. so take out as much as you possibly can. and for the love of god NEVER BUY EGGLANDS BEST EGGS CAUSE THEY FORTIFY THEM WITH IODINE AND DONT LIST IT ON THE PACKAGE. THEY HAVE 3X THE IODINE PER EGG AS REGULAR EGGS!

[tmoxon]

Hi Spider I had forgotten all about this post I made so many months ago, I have just this week looked up more evidence on this and I have gone on a juice diet (still been eating veg but everything plain and not had any dairy) and can say that there isn't any possibility that I am getting gluten as no one in the house has had anything with gluten in but still have a bit of a rash although it is better than normal.

The week before I had steak, broccoli, jacket potatoes and brussel sprouts and 2 glasses of red wine and the rash on my back was terrible, not much sleep that night and I ended up taking some Dapsone. When I looked up the foods I had eaten they contained iodine and a further google search revealed that red wine helps you absorb it, so I think that it is iodine that is causing my rash to keep flaring up. I have felt absolutely awful this last few days as I am missing my tea and milk as I enjoy a cuppa but today I feel better, I don't know the brand of eggs you have mentioned ( I am in the UK ) but do love eggs ( again not had any this week though) and often had these on a lunchtime as it was a quick meal which didn't contain gluten) I am just hoping I can keep off the dairy as I love all of those things and will find it much harder to give this up than the gluten foods.

The iodine connection has never been mentioned when I have gone to my specialist and I think its important for others to know that it can be an issue, I had someone categorically tell me on this forum when I first joined that if I had DH I was still eating gluten but I knew I had been vigilant with the diet. So its important to remember that we are all different. Thanks for the update and the advice on the eggs. Hope you manage to get your flareups under control.

[cejay]

I had the same problem after my diagnosis of DH. But I knew I was not getting "glutenized". But I realized I was overloading on iodine. I was taking a multivitamin with 100% RDA of iodine, a nutrition drink with 25% RDA of iodine. Besides that, once I went GF my sense of taste improved and I started salting my food! Obviously we can't cut iodine out of our diet. So, I started using "plain" salt for cooking and iodized at the table, and found another multivitamin with contained only 50% RDA of iodine. That cleared it up. But the other caveat is this--skin contact with iodine will flare up DH (that's actually how they used to diagnose it). So check personal products, foot soaks, OTC meds for any ingredient ending in iodine or iodide. I just re-discovered this site, and found your post.

[tmoxon in reply to cejay]

Hi Cejay thanks for the response, glad to hear that you have managed to clear up the dreaded DH, I think that mine is linked to alcohol as well. I didn't think that alcohol in general was a problem as we are told so many times that it is all gluten free and I was thrown off track by drinking red wine on holiday to Egypt and not having any ill effects either with the rash or feeling unwell so I therefore thought that red wine or alcohol couldn't be the issue. I have now found that when I have a drink my rash can flare, a glass of port last night has left me itchy and generally not feeling very good this morning. I didn't realise that skin contact with Iodine will make us react, thank you for bringing this to my attention I will watch out for it in the ingredients list. Glad to you have rediscovered this site, it really is very useful to have others help and advice.