ilovermont

Because I used to consume so much cow's milk, switching to almond milk has noticeably lessened (but not eliminated) my GI issues. I still eat a little cheese a couple of times a month, and have about 1/2 cup of yogurt 3-4 times a week, so I suspect I need to eliminate those in order to resolve my issues.

After giving up cow's milk, I switched to almond milk, which lets me still enjoy my breakfast cereal. It's good to hear you've conquered the entire daily thing - way to go!

Thanks for the tip about Witch Hazel - I'll give it a try. And I couldn't agree more about the tinnitus! By closely monitoring what I eat, I did discover that I needed to eliminate milk from my diet (I often had bowl of cereal for breakfast), and I've also minimized cheese and yogurt, which has helped.

As you pointed out, I also fear there could be unforeseen consequences of a diagnosis, with little benefit to obtaining one. Thank you for your input - it's a relief to hear that I'm not out in left field on my reasoning.

It's going back to eating gluten that has made me delay getting a formal diagnosis. As you may well know, the DH blisters are very difficult to live with. I've read that a dermatologist can diagnose DH by doing a "punch test", after you've been eating gluten for some period of time. The time ranges from 8-12 weeks, and I'm just not sure it's worth that...

No, insurance is not an issue. And you make a good point about other physicians not accepting a self-diagnosis, which I totally understand.

I apologize in advance for so much detail, but I hope it will explain why I feel confident in my self-diagnosis of dermatitis herpetiformis. But my ultimate question is this: is an official diagnosis necessary, and if so, why, i.e., what would be gained? Around 2010 I began to have serious scalp issues with sore spots that would often bleed when scratched...