Anyone Else Have Polymorphic Light Eruption (PLE)

Noble_Viking

[[[[deleted]]]] [[[[deleted]]]]

theoretica

Not I, but my mum speand a lot of time outdoors and wears a sun hat practically all year, long sleeves (and not all fabrics are equal), high factor kids suncream everyday and UV filters on her glasses. Presumably whatever you have been doing for previous years was working, but you may need to ask your doctor about something other than sunlight for the vitamin D.

Tiddlywinks

Many, many people in the northern hemisphere will be vitamin D deficient at this time of year and it is recommended that we take a supplement for the months of Oct through to April.

I'm sure your GP will be able to confirm the dosage for continuing supplementation given that you will be staying out of the sun even in the summer months.

Also, now you know your skin is sun sensitive, wear sunscreen, sleeves and a hat and adapt your lifestyle accordingly.

marrowgirl

Most of the time I cover up but when I am going to be in sunlight I use a pretanner (I use Ecotan, others are available but this one is pretty cheap, I think there is also something similar at Home Bargains). it needs a week of use to get the melanin levels up but it means I can be in the sunshine for longer without having to go crazy with antihistamines.
As for vitamin D, I try to eat a varied diet with lots of vit D rich foods as I can't really do the sun thing.

marrowgirl

oh, and my hands are generally fine, I get it worst on my neck.

coffeehound

Due to over-use of steroid cream when I was a nipper, I now have zero sun tolerance on my face, and burn within minutes. Basically I now always walk on the shady side of the street and never go far without a bucket hat in my bag.

To get over the vitamin D deficiency I take a 2000 IU D3 supplement every few days. The recommended daily allowance is about 600 IU so I guess that is enough to top up the dietary sources.

The dosage she/he has you on at present is on or above the toxic limit so hopefully that dose isn't for too long!

SueMaggie

I've had PLE for the last 10 years or so, never had a problem before that though have always kept out of the sun as I'm incredibly fair-skinned.

I get it worst on the backs of my hands which is a real pain as it's not an area you can really cover up. To protect my arms I try to wear long-sleeved shirts (though thin ones with enough protection are hard to find) and for my chest and neck try to always carry a cotton scarf to cover the area. Both are in addition to wearing very high factor sun cream.

I notice that Boots are selling Eucerin Sun Allergy Protection cream so I'll give that a go I think.

coffeehound

Noble_Viking wrote: »

The current Osteocaps D3 20000iu is for 15 weeks, I am taking one twice a week, so for me Saturday and Wednesday. I've already noticed a decrease in the bone pain I was experiencing after just two weeks. After the 15 weeks I am switching to buying my own, can I ask where you get yours from?

Sorry for the slow reply. I've been getting mine from http://www.yournutritionshop.com/ but haven't done much searching. No doubt a thread for it here already somewhere! Thanks for the sunscreen info. I've been using the Riemann SPF20 liquid for the past couple of summers, but it doesn't seem to be 100% reliable for me and is a bit of a faff to apply (you have to use it after a shower with *soap* not shower gel, etc) so an alternative would be good.

Anyway, sounds like you are well on top of things; hope you keep it under control.

theoretica

As I mentioned, my mum uses kid's suncream - high factor, good for sensitive skin and often cheaper than special adult ones.