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bumps on head - possibly a form of folliculitis?


celiacinrecovery

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celiacinrecovery Apprentice

I've had my DH under control for a few months, after committing to a strict diet that includes no pre-packaged foods (even if they're certified gluten free). According to a scope, my villi look healthy. I'm feeling much better, and seem to be recovering, with a focus on eating well, getting back to exercising regularly, and getting healthy probiotics (supplements and homemade fermented foods).

The major issue I have now is recurring bumps on my scalp. These develop in places where I have hair (so not on my face). Sometimes they'll I'll have an inflamed hair follicle, suggesting folliculitis, but sometimes there's just little bumps. They can get a little sore, and are a nuisance when I go to shave my head (I have male pattern baldness and use the #1 clipper setting, rather than shaving to the skin).

A few observations:

  • It gets worse if I wear hats ... presumably the friction irritates the skin and causes them
  • For some reason if I let my hair grow a little longer it gets worse.
  • Washing my scalp in the morning and before bed helps keep it in check - I'm much more likely to get it if I don't  do this - but doesn't stop it completely.

I change my pillowcase each day, and avoid wearing hats whenever possible.

I'm trying to get a better understanding of what this may be, and whether it is related to my celiac. I do theorize that it is related, possibly due to the weakened immune system or gut flora.

Any insight would be appreciated. I've spoken to doctors about this in the past and didn't get much of anywhere. I started talking to them pre-celiac diagnosis, and then we put the focus on my DH. Now that that has been addressed I'd like to sort this one out.

 


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Scott Adams Grand Master

It sounds like this is a new development, as is dealing with your DH. I too wonder if it is related, and if it's possible that you might be getting small amounts of gluten in your diet, and that it could actually be DH. To me it seems strange that you would suddenly get folliculitis at around the same time that you are dealing with DH, but I'm sure that stranger coincidences have happened.

The big difference between the two seems to be that folliculitis would always be associated with a hair follicle. Perhaps you could have someone examine the blisters to see if this is the case, and to try to notice if they look more like DH blisters (usually tiny with clear heads). It also seems like DH would be more itchy than folliculitis, but I could be wrong about that.

celiacinrecovery Apprentice
1 hour ago, Scott Adams said:

It sounds like this is a new development, as is dealing with your DH. I too wonder if it is related, and if it's possible that you might be getting small amounts of gluten in your diet, and that it could actually be DH. To me it seems strange that you would suddenly get folliculitis at around the same time that you are dealing with DH, but I'm sure that stranger coincidences have happened.

The big difference between the two seems to be that folliculitis would always be associated with a hair follicle. Perhaps you could have someone examine the blisters to see if this is the case, and to try to notice if they look more like DH blisters (usually tiny with clear heads). It also seems like DH would be more itchy than folliculitis, but I could be wrong about that.

Hi Scott, thanks for the reply. Just to clarify, I think I might have worded things a bit poorly in my original post. The bumps on my head that I'm discussing have been an issue for many years -- they definitely predate resolving the DH. For a while I thought resolving the DH might resolve this, but that clearly isn't the case. So what I was trying to say is that I went to the doctors and had both these bumps on my head, and the DH. The doctors didn't know what either was, and we tried to treat them but ended up resolving the DH first. Now I have these odd bumps the reoccur, and I'm hoping to fix that problem now.

I'd love to have a dermatologist look at these, but where I live it takes a year to get an appointment, and I haven't gotten much help out of that.

 

Scott Adams Grand Master

Thanks for the additional info on the timeline. It does still sounds like it is possible that the bumps on your head could be DH, but only a visit to a dermatologist could tell for sure, and if you are 100% gluten-free those should go away as well. I would just be sure that my diet is 100% GF, and if the bumps on your head don't go away after a couple of months it's probably safe to assume that they might be folliculitis or something else that a dermatologist would need to diagnose.

Let us know what you find out.

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    • trents
      Welcome to the forum, @ABP! We can't comment on the test numbers you give as you didn't include the range for negative. Different labs use different units and different ranges. There are no industry standards for this so we need more information. If your daughter doesn't have celiac disease she still could have NCGS (Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity) which some experts believe can be a precursor to celiac disease and is 10x more common than celiac disease. However, there is no test for it yet but it does share many of the same symptoms with celiac disease. Both require complete abstinence from gluten.  It is seldom the case during testing where all tests are positive, even for those who do have celiac disease. This is no different than when diagnosing other medical conditions and that is why it is typical to run numbers of tests that come at things from different angles when seeking to arrive at a diagnosis. It seems like you are at the point, since you have had both blood antibody testing and endoscopy/biopsy done, that you need to trial the gluten free diet. If her symptoms improve then you know all you need to know, whatever you label you want to give it. But given that apparently at least one celiac antibody blood test is positive and she has classic celiac symptoms such as slow growth, constipation and bloating, my money would be on celiac disease as opposed to NCGS.
    • ABP
      My nine-year-old daughter has suffered with severe constipation and bloating for years as well as frequent mouth sores, and keratosis Polaris on her arms. She also has recently decreased on her growth curve her % going down gradually.  After seeing a gastroenterologist, her IgG GLIADIN (DEAMIDATED) AB (IGG) was 22.4 while her IGA was normal. Her TISSUE TRANSGLUTAMINASE AB, IGA was 11.9.  Most recently her genetic test for celiac was positive.  After an endoscopy her tissue showed inflammation of the tissue as well as , increased intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) but there was no blunting of the change in the villi.    It seems that every result that we get one out of two things positive rather than all leading to an inconclusive diagnosis. While we do have another appointment with the doctor to go over the results. I'm curious based on this information what others think.    I would hate to have her eliminate gluten if not necessary- but also don't want to not remove if it is necessary.    Signed Confused and Concerned Mama
    • Scott Adams
      I guess using "GF" instead of "PL" would have been too easy! 😉
    • trents
      I was wrong, however, about there being no particular health concerns associated with high total IGA: https://www.inspire.com/resources/chronic-disease/understanding-high-iga-levels-causes-impacts/ So maybe the physician's "borderline" remark is relevant to that.
    • trents
      Sometimes that is the case but what is curious to me is the remark by your physician about being "borderline". I assume he was referring to the total IGA score but it just seems like an irrelevant remark when it is on the high side rather than being deficient.
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