Kerotosis pilliaris, anyone else?

gwhizz75

I know this is an old thread but I thought I might be able to help with my experience of this. I have the dreaded red bumps on my upper arms and on my legs to some extent. My dad has it too so that's where I get it from, but my case isn't too bad. The bumps on my arms aren't particularly red and they aren't bad enough for me to want to cover my upper arms all the time.

I haven't actively tried to get rid of them for years but I did stumble across something that helps last week! I just joined the gym and with my membership I can use the health suite and spa. Last week I spent about 40 minutes in the steam rooms and saunas and when I came out, well, my arms have never felt so smooth! I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but this condition is worse in the winter and gets better in the summer. Heat has a positive effect (I'm not just making that up - I have read it several times).

I had always marvelled about how wonderful my skin is when I'm on holiday and that is why. The reason it makes a difference for me is that when I shave my upper legs on holiday, they don't get rashy and sore like they would if I shaved them regularly in a cold climate. It must be the shaving over the bumps that irritates my skin, so when the bumps go down, I can shave my legs everyday without a problem. That is how I first came to realise that something different was going on with my skin when I visit hot countries.

Anyway, with my new "cure" in hand I should be sitting in the steam room every day - unfortunately I also get these little red pin pr1ck dots on my skin which are like tiny bleeds into the skin and guess what? Heat makes them worse! So I came out of the steam room having fixed one problem and made another one worse. Sometimes you just can't win

jenniewb

gwhizz75 wrote: »

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but this condition is worse in the winter and gets better in the summer. Heat has a positive effect (I'm not just making that up - I have read it several times).

I tend to find they are worse for me in the summer and then in the autumn. I tend to think of it as my skin reacting to the change in clothes as I swing from covering my arms in the winter to keeping them uncovered (and so they are able to be irritated by pollution (-I live in London)) and then from summer vest tops to winter wooly clothes where they are no longer in the "fresh" air.

Exfoliating helps me so for me this seems to prove my problems with them but it could well be different for other people, it could be anything from hormones to stress. I heard its a problem with vitamin A production. Not how much or little vit.A you eat but what your body does with it. Its not something which has had alot of research so no one really has any real promise cure, I guess its all trial and error.

Be careful of the blood spots you mention though as if they are broken skin vessels (can happen in the heat) it could start something called Rosecia (sp!) which you may find hard to stop and looks alot more noticable then KP.