Raised Small Red Bumps around Eyes

[Tammy1998]

My husband has been having skin rashes around his eyes, raised small red bumps, for several months and just won

[lyricallyspeaking]

i am not sure about what the dots are, but i do suggest you be very careful with the cortaid.  hydrocortisone can cause eye damage if it gets in the eye because it is a steroid.  though i doubt it would happen, getting hydrocortisone in your eyes may cause blindness.  so, please tell him to be careful!

[marguerites]

I have the same red bumps around my eyes...it all started in November and it NEVER completely goes away!! Many days are worse then others. I've been to an eye doctor and he said I have bad allergies - no prescription. MY dermatologist told me it may be my make-up and prescribed me a Hydrocortisone cream that I nearly put on three times a day when its bad....then my eyes swelled up so bad one morning I was rushed to a emergency care station and they said the same thing..."ALLERGIES" and now I have eye drops that don't work! I was also taking Claritin for a while and nooooooooothing!!

I've changed my make-up, tried three different prescriptions, and found useless information from Doctors! I have now...seven month later...accepted my cluster of red bumps around my eyes!!

[kramericus]

See my post below

[danielnoel]

i have been going to the dodtor for two years with this now but he keeps on tellin me i do not have scabis and gives me creams and lotions but t never seems to go away.  i get red rash arund the eyes . he told me t will go away do not worry but it comes back every month . i have blisters on my chest he did nothing i have itchy neck he says its also nothing my neck has spots on but look lke blisters . i have fungus on my head around the sides manily and also on top  he gives me shampoo but it never goes away  i also have ezema on my leg i have cream for it but been useing for two years now ?  i also get spots on my penis . ? how do i get my doctor to change his miind i also been to other doctors and they tell me its not scabis but i know it is .

[TEB1020]

My boyfriend has the same exact thing. we went to the doctor and they perscribed valtrex as well. It still comes back he has had it now for 2 years and sometimes worse then others.We have tried everything. One doctor told him to use eye wipes that take away an oil residue. i found the wipes in the eyecare section in a pharmacy. i hope this will help it atleast alittle bit.

[TEB1020]

Ohh and yes it is a form of herpes. One doctor said it is like clamidia of the eye. Its so weird. thats why the valtrex works cause it some what kills the germ that causes it.

[loula]

Hi can anyone help?

My son is 11 months old and has had an ear infection and cold for 2 weeks now, with his runny nose thick with green cattarh and appearing to get no better.

i have also noticed a small cluster of pinprick sized lumps around the outer corner of each of his eyes, can anyone tell me what these could be?

Louise

[monzaria]

I've had the exact same thing for almost 4 years now. I tend to get the bumps after crying or if my eyes tear up enough to water the skin around my eyes. I've been trying to see a Dermatologist buy they refuse to see me because it's around my eyes. I went to EVERY type of eye doctor and they know that it's not herpes, but they don't know what it is. It got soo bad I started using my Son's cream for eczema (fluticasone prop 0.05% cream) and as long as I use it once every day it keeps it away. If I skip a couple of days it comes back. I'm waiting to financially be able to go to a Dermatologist (of course lying to him stating it's on my cheeks) and just saying "look, this WORKS. But it's not strong enough to stop whatever this is".

[Veckles]

My 2 year old son developed similar small red bumps around one eye. I asked a pharmacist who advised to put antiseptic cream around the eye but I was worried about it getting in his actual eye so he said to try 'golden eye' which is usually for use in the eye itself. After a few days the bumps lessened and then disappeared however when I stopped using the "golden eye" it came back and is now affecting both eyes. As it had been over a month I asked the Dr who said he wasn't sure what it was but to try aqueous cream. I haven't tried this yet as i didn't think it'd be a good idea to get this in the eye itself. Recently he has been rubbing his eyes and saying "sore" . I was considering taking him to an optician to make sure that it is not causing any problems to the eye itself.

[klk71]

I have the same bumps and heavy lines that accompany them. They seem to happen (and this is embarrassing) as a result from crying. Always happens and lasts for days. I did go to the dermatologist and he said to immediately STOP USING CORTISONE CREAMS OR OINTMENTS.  Although they give immediate relief, the symptoms come right back once you stop using it. Which is exactly what happens. In sense, the cortisone, feeds the fungus, which is what he believes it is. I'm supposed to go back when it flares up again so he can actually see the bumps. But for now, that's all the info I can give. Hope that helps some what.

[jagesh50]

The above all conditions represent variants of ABCD.Air  Borne Contact Dermatitis.Pollen,parthenium sensitiztion-rubbing eyes while crying might instill the allergen at site to cause burning,itching etc.Treat with oral antihstamine.

[a1f2]

I just got these red bumps around My eyes and I'm not sure what it is. I thought it was maybe a rash but its not going away can anyone help?

[RVr2]

I have had those red bumps for probably 6-9 months  now too. I went to the Derm and he RX'd an antibiotic and OTC Hydrocortizone ointment. It seems to work as long as I use the ointment. If I stop it comes back. Sometimes it itches real bad or gets sore. I have noticed that the eye that first had this issue waters a real lot. I am going to reschdule a visit to MD since it hasn't gone away.

[TapD]

I recently got the red bumps around my eyes (in October).  My eyes were swollen shut and the bridge of my nose between my eyes was swollen so badly that I looked like a monster (could not wear my eye glasses because my face was too swollen).  I was sent to a Endocrinologist and a Rheumotologist.  They ran a battery of tests, perscribed a regimne of steroids and powerful antibotics.  The swelling and bumps cleared up and all was well until two days ago (its back).  I was referred to an Opthamologist Surgeon for a bioposy of one of the bumps.  Hopefully this will reveal the problem.

TapD

[mtolson]

I have had this same problem since September! A few red pimple like bumps appeared on my left eyelid, I let them go for a few weeks thinking they'd go away (don't itch or hurt or anything) then thinking they were acne, I put some cream on them, that's when it all went south! They started to spread and like everyone else, I went to the dermetologist, they said allergy and sent me to the allergenist. She gave me a hydrocortizone cream for them, which helps when I put it on them, but comes back like 2 days after I stop using it. This has been ongoing for months now!! It does kind of spread to the bridge of my nose, but not so bad yet. That seems to come and go on it's own. Please let me know what happens to any of you and if you find a cause/cure! I will be going back to the allergenist next week. She has run all sorts of allergy tests, including checmical tests, but nothing much has come up...so I am starting to believe it's not even an allergy. Please help and if I find anything out I will let everyone know!

[1chocolate]

I woke up two days ago and my eye was really sore, the later that day it looked like a few tiny little bumps of course I made an appointment with my doctor and she said I had an infection in and I guess around my eye.  She prescribed me eye drops to use 3 to 4 x a day so I still am not sure what this is but if someone can give me some insight I would really appreciate it.

[Ray666]

Part 1 of 2

I just signed up to this website to post this one story.  I wanted to share my personal experience over the last few months in case it helps anyone in the future, because I had a heck of a time getting to the bottom of what was causing the red bumps around my eyes.  

This thread was one of the posts/websites that I found while trying to figure out what was causing the bumps around my eyes.  I decided to post my story here because this thread shows up very high on google when you search for "red bumps around eyes".  

In my case, which may or may not be related to other people's cases, it took me about 3 months to figure out what the source of the bumps was.  What I learned along the way was very interested, so I wanted to share it here.  I want to say right up front that I really feel for anyone going through this.  It's horrible.  I only dealt with it for 3 or so months myself, but that was plenty.  It was absolutely awful and depressing.  Nobody knows what it's like or can appreciate how horrible this is until going through it themselves.  The feeling of dread waking up each morning and looking in the mirror is something nobody should ever have to deal with.  I can't even imagine what it's like for the people who have mentioned that they have been dealing with this for years on end.  I'm sharing my story in case it helps someone in the future.  What I went through and discovered may or may not be related to other people, but here goes...

I'm 44 years old and in excellent health.  I've never had any major skin problems over the years.  I'm also not a huge fan of doctors, so normally I try to fix things on my own.  My basic feeling is that if you give your body enough time, then 99% of the time, it will heal itself.  So, anyway, about 3 months ago, out of the clear blue sky, the skin around my eyes erupted into a mass of little red bumps.  The symptoms were just like many people on this (and other) websites describe.  The bumps are small and red and they are a little bit swollen, but don't hurt.  They have a very slight white spot in the middle, like a pimple, but they aren't really a pimple like the big kind some people get when they are teenagers.  If you scratch them or use a blackhead remover, then they break open a little bit.  The skin around the eyes is very delicate, so they become inflamed a bit when you do this, but then heal over the next day or so(especially if you are putting a hydrocortisone on them).  There also tends to be some drying of the skin along with them healing, and this can leave little white flakes of dry skin that you have to pull off with tweezers.  However, as one group of the bumps heals, a fresh set tend to appear over night or the next day.  The bumps seem to appear in the corners of eyes, especially if your eyes are watering or (like me) if you have folds in this area due to age.

So, in my case, the bumps suddenly appeared one day just before I was about to leave on vacation (to visit my girlfriend).  At first, I didn't think anything of it.  The night before I had made chocolate chip cookies and also deep fried some french fries.  I thought maybe the oil was dirty or something and that my skin was having some sort of allergic reaction to what was in the oil.  Either that or maybe the high amount of sugar in the cookies or something.  I really didn't know.  All I knew is that it looked horrible.  I braced my girlfriend for seeing me at the airport with red bumps all around my eyes.  I had to leave in a week, so I frantically started searching for answers.

When the bumps didn't go away over the next few days (in fact, they got worse), I really started to become alarmed.  I started to do a little research on-line.  I visited a few websites and did some google searches.  I finally decided that what I might have is Candida.  This is a yeast infection where your body's natural balance gets out of whack - usually due to a higher sugar diet.  This made perfect sense, because I was eating a very high sugar diet (cokes, candy, sweets, etc).  I also noticed that on the same day my eyes broke out, my foreskin area did as well.  Since this is a common area where yeast infections tend to crop up, that only served to reinforce my assumption that the problem around my eyes was in fact due to yeast (fungi) also.  On the foreskin area, I put an anti fungal liquid treatment from Lotrimin.  It's in a little eye dropper and called "Lotrimin AF antifungal".  It's clotrimazole liquid..  That cleared up the issue around my foreskin right away.  So, since that worked so well, I also started using it on my eyes.

Over the next 3 months, I tried everything you can think of.  I tried the anti-dandruff shampoo called Nizoral.  It's over the counter.  I put some around my eyes and burned the heck out of the skin.  One time, it combined with the soap I used to wash my face (or the anti fungal stuff) and left me with a horrible red chemical burn on the skin around my eyes that lasted for several days.  That was fantastic.  When I arrived to see my girlfriend, I looked like walking death.

The interesting thing about the skin around your eyes is that - while it's very delicate - it also seems to heal extremely fast.  I recall a number of times where I would have horrible red bumps around that area, only to have them nearly completely heal over night (albeit only to be replaced by fresh red bumps the next day in different areas).  I wish all the skin on my body healed that fast!

So, over the course of the next 3 months, I continued to have all these red bumps appearing.  I would scratch them and they would heal, but others would show up.  I tried everything you can think of.  I tried using Lotrimin af clotrimazole cream (as well as the liquid version they sell - as mentioned above).  I tried Lotrimin ultra (butenafine hydrochloride cream 1% also).  These two chemicals address slightly different forms of fungus.  One is more closely related to Candida, which is what I had.   However, while it seemed to help cure the bumps a little bit, new bumps kept showing up each day.  The other problem was that using these types of creams/liquids around my eyes caused my eyes to water all day/night.  This seemed to produce a vicious circle; the more my eyes watered, the more it seemed to cause red bumps.  I also was concerned about using these types of chemicals near my eyes, since they tended to work their way into my eyes and cause them to water.  

(continued on next post)

[Ray666]

Part 2 of 2

(continued from above)

I also had some left over 2.5% hydrocortisone cream from a prescription many years ago.  This helped to heal the skin faster, but it also caused my eyes to water when the cream got into the corners of my eyes also.

I also radically changed my diet.  I cut sugar out (on the grounds that I could start the Candida from its diet of sugar).  As mentioned, I was drinking several cokes per day (this works out to nearly 100 lbs of sugar a year in your diet btw), plus I was eating ice cream and sweets.  I would estimate that I was consuming probably on the order of 100 to 150 grams of sugar per day (on a good day :-)  I changed my diet and eliminated cokes and candy.  I would say probably down to less than 10 or 15 grams of sugar per day.  I became an anti-sugar fanatic.  

I also started taking probiotics, multi-vitamins as well as amino acids.  Amino acids help with protein production, which allows your body to repair its skin faster.  Probiotics are supposed to help to restore proper bacteria levels in your intestines (incidentally, I noticed after taking the probiotics, the constant pressure in my stomach and intestines mysterious went away - although this might be due to stopping my consumption of coca-cola also).  

I was trying everything I could think of, but the bumps still kept coming.  In fact, my skin broke out a few times around the back of my head also.  It was just terrible.  I was embarrassed to leave the house.  The red bumps around my eyes would not let up.  So this went on for about 3 months - during which time I was really becoming alarmed.  I thought something had gotten a foothold inside my body or something.  I could not figure out what was going on, but these bumps could not be kept at bay.  Even in the cases where I did put stuff on my skin, it would heal them up okay, then a few days later, fresh bumps would appear.  As mentioned, I have little faith in your average doctor, so I decided I would have to get to the bottom of this on my own, no matter how long it took.

So after 3 months or so, I was really started to become worried.  In reading on this and other forums, I saw where people had been struggling with this for years on end.  My heart goes out to them.  So, while my specific situation might not be the same as others, here's what I did...

After about 3 months with no luck, I decided that treating the bumps by putting on creams and stuff wasn't working.  It was more like I was treating the symptoms and not the cause.  So I stopped and started to think that this must be related to something I'm putting into my body.  My girlfriend suggested that I keep a log of everything I ate.  I didn't go quite that far, but I did start to keep a mental note of when the bumps appeared and what I had just eaten.  I also sat down and started thinking long and hard about when this all started and what I had changed.  Also, what I put into my body on a daily basis.

Around this same time, I also started researching allergies, since sometimes my skin would break out suddenly for no real reason (and typically a few hours after a meal).  In reading about what people tend to be allergic to on the Internet, I discovered that eggs and milk are at the top of the list.  Now, in my case, I haven't been a fan of drinking milk for 20 years.  However, I just recently had started consuming large amounts of milk as part of starting to drink coffee (specifically lattes and mochas).  I won't go into my sudden love and exploration of making the perfect espresso, but the important takeaway here is that after 44 years of never drinking a single cup of coffee and barely drinking any milk, I suddenly developed a love of lattes.  So, I started having one every morning.  This involved microwaving and hand frothing half-and-half to add into the coffee/espresso I was making.  I started with one cup a day and was soon up to two.  

In thinking back, I realized that when I started drinking coffee, this was very close to around when the first problem with these red bumps occurred.  I started to wonder if maybe there was some link and/or maybe I was allergic to the milk or the coffee.  Around this same time, I also ran across an interesting article about how you can be allergic to your tooth paste (especially if it has stuff for tarter control and whitening, etc.)  I was using Tom's of Maine toothpaste.  I don't think this was the issue, but I'm not 100% sure (because I stopped several things at all once).

So this is what I did:

I stayed with my low sugar diet.
I stopped using toothpaste and switched brushing with baking soda each morning
I stopped drinking coffee with frothed milk.

Sure enough, within 2 days, the red bumps started to heal and go away.  I couldn't believe it.  I still was putting the hydrocortisone 2.5% cream on and also a little bit of the clotrimazole liquid stuff from Lotrimin.  Over the next 3 or 4 days, I watched at the red bumps stopped and healed.  I stopped putting anything on my skin and they continued to heal.  It's been about 5 or 6 days now and the skin around my eyes is almost totally back to normal.  Each day, the damaged caused by the red bumps heals more and more.  I'm about 99% healed as of this posting (5 days).

My assumption here is that something I was putting into my body was causing this.  In my case, all the stuff put onto my skin was only treating the symptoms, not the root cause.  Now, I can't tell you if it was due to coffee or milk or toothpaste.  All I can tell you is that as soon as I stopped using those things, the problem instantly stopped.

The other interesting thing to note here is that the red bumps I have always had on my thighs (ever since I was a 13 or 14) seem to have also magically cleared up.  I don't know if maybe that's related to stopping the toothpaste or what, but I can tell you one thing for sure, I'm never going back to using anything other than baking soda to brush my teeth (you just have to be careful, since it's a little more abrasive and can rub your gums raw if you brush too hard).

At some point in the future, I might try introducing coffee and/or milk back into my diet just to see if the red bumps suddenly come back.  However, right now I'm just so thankful to have my life back and to have my skin healed that I don't want to rock the boat.  The one thing I can say without question is that this was related to either using toothpaste, milk or coffee (or all three).  I don't think it was related to sugar, because I did have some M&M's the other night and had no problems reoccur.  However, I still keep my sugar intake much, much lower than before.

Again, I have no idea if what my problem was relates to anyone else here.  I'm sure you can have fungal and/or bacterial problems that cause the same issues.  Or even herpes could probably do it.  All I know is that my problem related to either coffee/milk and/or toothpaste, because the day I stopped using those, the skin around my eyes magically healed and went back to being totally clear in a matter of 3 to 4 days.

If this post helps a single person, it will be worth the time I spent writing it.

Ray

[Ray666]

A couple of days after posting the above two posts, I had some ice cream and noticed that the bumps came back.  Not nearly as bad as before, but definitely back.  It's been a couple more days and they are starting to go away.

I'm still not drinking any coffee and have been attempting to avoid anything with milk in it.

I wanted to add that one thing I noticed which seems to help is lemon juice.  I have started doing a shot of fresh lemon juice each morning.  I know it sounds horrible, but it's actually pretty good.  My girlfriend turned me on to it.  You just take a lemon and squeeze the juices into a shot glass.  We put a little sea salt around the rim.  It's pretty good.  I really enjoy it and it's a nice way ot start off the morning.

I also googled the health benefits of lemon juice and they mentioned it helps with your skin and acne.  I'm not 100% sure if there is a correlation, but it does seem like my skin heals up when I do a shot of lemon juice each day.

I'll continue to follow up on this thread - good, bad or otherwise.

[Ray666]

Still having problems with the red bumps around my eyes.  For a while they cleared up (for about a week), but then started coming back.  I decided to try using some Mupirocin, on the idea that it may be bacterial in nature.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mupirocin

I found tube of Bactroban that my ex-girlfriend left behind (which had never been opened - must have been a spare tube or something).  The doctor had prescribed it to her when she got a rash on her skin and it worked really great.  

Anyway, I gave it a shot.  I used it for about a week steady (twice a day) and combined that with taking some oil of oregano pills (which are supposed to be good for digestion, etc).  I also used a few drops of tea tree oil under my tongue.  At first, it seemed to start to clear up a bit.  Most of the improvement occurred over night (while sleeping), but just today I noticed some bumps showing up again.  Whatever this is, it's pretty stubborn.  

I'm considering going to the doctor and asking them to give me some antibiotics that will kill any bacteria in my body, as well as something that will kill all yeast.  However, based on reading some of the information from other people, I'm not holding out a lot of hope on that.

I've also ordered a couple of other things to try.  One is some stuff called "magicream" that I read about on another skin forum.  I found it on ebay and just bought some to try.  I also ordered some 20% Azelaic Acid Cream.  Might as well give that a try.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azelaic_acid

So we'll see.  I'll keep everyone posted.  I'm about ready to rip my eyes out... so wish me luck!  I'll report back how things work and what other steps I take.  

Ray

[Ray666]

Some good news to report... here's the latest:

First, the Mupirocin was a bust.  It seemed like it wanted to work, but never really fully got rid of the bumps. It was more like it kept them at bay, but they seemed to remain under the skin.  It's hard to explain exactly, but it was sort of like the Mupirocin kept new bumps from developing as rapidly, but couldn't really clear up the ones that seemed to be deep in the skin near the folds of my eyes (at the corners).  I used it 3 times a day for about 10 days.  After about 7 days, a new batch of bumps showed up, so I discontinued its use.  It's supposed to be very powerful stuff, but it only sort of worked for the bumps around my eyes and then they came back.

I had to give up the tea tree oil stuff.  It was pretty nasty and I read some articles on line that it can be dangerous to ingest.  I also tested it on some mold (or something) that was growing on the lid to my hot tub.  It didn't even touch it.  However, bleach and white vinegar did kill the hot tub mold within only a few hours.  I was sort of surprised the tea tree oil didn't bother the mold (or whatever it was) growing on the hot tub lid.  BTW, I tried some bleach/white vinegar on my eyes, but it didn't seem to make much difference :-D

I have continued to use the Oil of Oregano however.  It seems like when I take those pills, my skin overall has a better appearance and is more clear and healthy looking (contrary to how it sounds on this thread, I actually have really clear/nice skin :-).  I also noticed that it seems to cut down on the red bumps I get on my thighs once in a while.  The bumps on my thighs are something I have had ever since I was a kid (on and off).  They are different than the bumps on my eyes however.  The little bumps on my thighs are more like pimples and come and go.  Anyway, it seems like when I take the Oil of Oregano, my skin is much better looking as a whole and those go away.  I also have started taking a multivitamin again and cut way back on sugar in my diet - just in an effort to be more healthy over all.  I also have taken folic acid and some amino acid, as well as zinc and magnesium.  All those things seem to help.  It definitely speeds up how fast your body heals.

Anyway, back to the red bumps from hell around my eyes...

The 20% Azelaic Acid arrived a couple of days back. I found it on ebay from Thailand and bought 5 little generic tubes of it.  I'm not sure if it's prescription or what, but after reading about it on wiki, it sounded like it had potential, since they said it goes down into the pores/hair follicles of your skin to kill bacteria.

I put the Azelaic Acid (it's a cream) around the skin on my eyes and you could feel it working.  At first, it burns a little bit.  The interesting thing is that - any place you have red bumps - it's almost like you can feel it going down into the skin after them.  It's the only thing I have tried (and it's been about 6 months now) that feels like it actually targets the bumps (this may be due to the acid nature of it however).  Anyway, after only using it for a couple of days, the bumps are totally gone.  I woke up this morning and the skin around my eyes was the clearest it's been in months.  And this is only after about 2 days (or maybe 2.5 days) of trying the 20% Azelaic Acid cream... so that's pretty impressive.  I'll see if it lasts.  I'm going to continue the cream for a few more days.

One thing about the cream is that it does irritate the skin around your eyes.  After a couple of days of using it 3 or 4 times a day, I noticed the skin was starting to look red (like a rash).  However, that does go away over night.  Also, be careful about getting that stuff in your eyes, as it burns like a mother effer.

Anyway, so I'm happy to report that the Azelaic Acid worked amazingly well.  I'll see if the red bumps return or not.  I'm going to continue the Azelaic Acid for a few days and see how things go.

As far as the magicream, it hasn't arrived yet.  I except it any day however.  When it shows up, I may use it as sort of a preventative measure and/or just to improve the skin.  From what I have read about it, it sort of sounds more like a skin cream than anything else.

Anyway, that's the latest.  The Azelaic Acid has been the most effective by far at this point.  I'll keep "an eye on things" (pun intended :-) and report back over the next couple of weeks.

Ray

[straighttothepoint]

Hi about 1 mth ago I started getting little blisters around my eyes (herpes - shingles), I am right into alternative medicines try this: your body is lacking in Vitamin B, C, D, and sulfur. Eat more Spinach, apricots and alfalfa. Mix powdered pharum phos (a cell salt) with witch hazel and apply externally. The call salt may also be taken internally 1/2 teaspoon with water 3 times a day. Add Kelp to your diet to help elimiminate herpes take it daily one teaspoon, or eat seaweed soap. Good Luck and I hope this works for you Kelly :-) ***@****

[alohachic]

I had no idea what mine was either! i had it for months, tried tea tree oil, nizoral shampoo, natural dandruff shampoo gently on the eyes as well as coconut oil, tamanu oil.  What worked for me was from reading one of the many forums on this weird ailment: magicream. Its an all natural baby cream from england i think or aussie. I dont know but right before i broke down and went to the dreaded derm whom only seems to make things work (i distrust almost all of them), this worked..in a DAY. its been a week and its almost entirely gone.  Wow. Try this guys for all of you who are suffering and confused.
Aloha!

[rosierosierosie]

Thank you for your very detailed account of your symptoms and the remedies you've had so far.  You don't know how you've help me and probably others too.

I have the same problem.  Several little pimples appeared under my left eye after a stressful night.  As I have cortisoid, I applied some on them.  They dried up in a day or two.  But came back after another sleepless night in abundance now in both eyes.  They are sore when touched.  A dermatologist advised to just wash them with Johnson baby shampoo and they will go away on its own.  I still have have them.  And are now making my eyes itchy and watery.  I now have them on my eyelids too.

I just moved to San Antonio Tx from Toronto, Canada.  I never had this before.  So I believe I got this form of allergy, here in Texas.

I look forward to your next post.  Also please read Alohachic comment.  I'll give it a try and let your know.

Rosie

[Ray666]

Just wanted to provide a little further update:

It's been a little over a month since my last post above.  In that time I have had some good luck and some bad luck, but have learned quite a bit.

First, I have narrowed down the root cause of the red bumps around my eyes.  It's clearly related to a reaction to food (in my case, it seems to be mainly anything having to do with milk).  It also seems to relate to sugar and/or coffee.  I haven't narrowed it down specifically to one of those, but I can tell you definitively that if I have something such as ice cream, cream pie, coffee (with milk in it) or a large amount of sugar (such as cookies, etc.), then the result will be red bumps in the next 24 to 48 hours.

Let me relate some general information and then I'll provide some more details.

I did have some good luck with the magic cream stuff.  I started using it around my eyes and it really improve the skin and seemed to keep the red bumps at bay.  Interesting, I noticed that the bumps stopped affecting the skin where I was using it (in close to my eyes) and later moved out farther on my face (up to my eye brows and down a bit further on my cheeks - at least as far as subsequent out breaks go, of which I have had a couple).  The magic cream ( http://www.magicream123.com ) is good stuff, even though I don't know exactly what's in it.  You can use it very close to your eyes and it doesn't get into them, nor bother them.  It improved the appearance of my skin and made me look 5 years younger around my eyes.  Good stuff for sure and not super expensive.

However, applying cream or addressing this issue from the outside isn't the solution.  I've gone weeks without an out break (and having my skin look fantastic) to having a huge re-occurrence due to re-introducing something like coffee (e.g. Caffe Lattes) back into my diet.  Or, just having something with too much milk in it can now set it off.  This is very frustrating, because I used to have no problem at all eating as much ice cream as I wanted.

A few weeks ago I started reading a book called "Clean".  It was laying around my girlfriend's house and when I went to visit her, I started to read it.  Here is the link on amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Revolutionary-Program-Restore-Natural/dp/0061735329/

The book is amazing.  It's written by a doctor (and I'm no fan of most doctors) and he gives an absolutely fantastic account of how your body works and how modern day diets impact the toxicity.  In reading the book, I came across several examples that seem to address why my skin suddenly decided to start breaking out.  The book also gives clear details on how to detox your body and how important diet is.  After reading this book, it seems clear that the solution to most of these strange "bumps that will not go away" problems relate more to problems on the inside than anything else.  As such, solutions that address the symptoms (the bumps) - without really addressing the cause - are probably a band-aid at best.  At worst, they are a frustrating waste of time (and if they involve a doctor who is clueless, then a waste of money as well).

The book mentioned above outlines a detox program that is 3 weeks long.  The basic thrust of the book is pretty simple.  The author outlines how by constantly eating, your body never has a change to go into detox mode.  With all the chemicals in food these days, especially animal products, etc. your body spends so much time on digestion that you never really give it a chance to rid itself of toxins.  As the author points out, when you ingest food, your body has no choice but to deal with it.  If you are constantly eating, without allowing enough time for your body to rid itself of the toxins, then they will slowly build up.  The book details how many hours it takes for your body to start the detox process and provides diets that can help.

One thing I wanted to mention is that I have recently made radical changes in my diet.  And, as long as I stick to those changes, the red bumps stop appearing and begin to heal.  Basically, if I avoid junk food, sugar, candy, milk and coffee, then my skin heals.  As soon as I "cheat" and have something bad, then I'll get red bumps within 24 to 48 hours.

I wanted to also attempt to explain the red bumps better, in case anyone runs into this in the future.  After searching high and low on the Internet, I have come to the conclusion that the bumps are some form of a hive.  I've had hives in the past (such as due to stress, etc.).  Those hives are raised and red - about the size of a pea.  They show up suddenly, itch a bit and then disappear within maybe 45 minutes to an hour or so.  However, the red bumps around my eyes (now down on my cheeks) are different.  They show up just as fast, but these are more like a pimple in appearance.  However, there is nothing to pop and get rid of.  Instead, there is a semi-hard bump under the surface [fairly far under the surface] which is white (maybe with a faint yellow tint).  It appears, at first, if you can squeeze it and pop it, but in most cases, you cannot.  In some cases, I am able to scratch my finger nail over it and get rid of it.  However, in other cases, the bump is solid and appears more like part of my skin - under the surface - which has suddenly turned white and then become inflamed around it.  Sometimes it hurts a bit, but other times not.  After breaking the skin open, there really isn't anything to "come out".  Moreover, the bump that you can feel under the skin (i.e. the skin itself) typically remains for several days to a week, until it slowly starts to heal.  Ultimately, a combination of scratching, squeezing and breaking open the skin occurs and then it takes several weeks for the red area to heal.  As it heals, the swelling and "hard bump" beings to disappear.  I should note that this is different than how it used to be.  In other words, the bumps seems to have changed.  At first, I seem to recall that I could easily scratch them away, leaving just a red area that healed fairly quickly.  Now, it's not that easy and it takes longer to heal - however, that could be due to the location changing from closer to the corners of my eyes (where the skin is more delicate) to out further around my cheeks and eyebrow area.

I also wanted to add that showering every day before bed does help.  It doesn't stop the bumps (since they seem to be due to a reaction to food), but it does help overall.

Anyway, at this stage, it seems several things are clear: one, the bumps are from a reaction to food.  Treating the bumps with creams, etc. doesn't really do much to solve the root problem.  It seems the root problem relates to a build up of toxins in your system and the skin rashes are simply your body's way of trying to get your attention - i.e. "what you are doing with your health ain't working"

I also wanted to add something else, which is sort of interesting.  Around the time all this started, I noticed that the toe nail on my left food suddenly turned a horrible yellowish color.  Not really as bad as what you'd see when someone has actual toe nail fungus, but just shy of that.  I was shocked when this happened, since I've always had beautiful finger and toe nails.  Looking back, this was a clear indication that something had gone off track in a major way with regard to my diet (and I can tell you what it was: I was eating sugar and candy like it was going out of style :-)  In any event, after this happened, I started cutting out sugar (I totally gave up cokes and candy) and over the course of 3 or 4 months, I watched as my toe nail started to grow out more normal looking.  The interesting thing is that the other day, I noticed that there was a definite line across the middle of my toe nail (this time, all of them, but most visible on my two biggest toes).

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