My Experience and Cure towards Erythema Nodosum

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Hi all,

I have lurked around this forum since 2003 (age18); since I started having

Erythema Nodosum symptoms.

My symptoms:

- Starts with my feet feeling uneasy in the shoes and mild itchy sensation

- Feet start to swell up

- Small nodules/inflammation start to pop up on/under the feet and mainly on the

shin region of the leg

- There were a few times where the nodules even appeared on the arm (but this

was only twice or thrice)

- I was retired to bed rest and anti-inflammatory/painkiller tabs

- After a week or so the nodules start to go away and the area where the nodules

appeared is now bruised and the skin starts to flake off

- Few times a mild fever was the forerunner of all these symptoms

Doctors diagnosed the disease as Erythema Nodosum and said that it was

auto-immune; and there is no particular treatment to fix it.

My hopes of having a fit active lifestyle was shattered. But, this also made me

stronger mentally; I kept fighting through these symptoms and I kept up with

working out and tried to be active.

Fast-forward to 2009 summer, I still had the symptoms with no change whatsoever.

At the beginning of the summer I decided to workout and watch my food intake. I

started to log what I eat and how much I worked out. My food mainly consisted of

chicken, green veggies, carrots, lentils, nuts and whey protein. I noticed that

I did not have any erythema nodosum breakouts; I was ecstatic and thrilled that

I finally beat the disease! But, this didn't last long ...

A friend of mine was visiting me for a week, he being very much into cooking, he

made a potato dish. It tasted amazing!!! It had been months since I had any

potato in my diet. We feasted on that potato dish for lunch and dinner. I wake

up the next morning and go to brush my teeth, I noticed that my feet were

swollen up like crazy and I had nodules all over the place!!! I was shattered!

It was back.

I started to think about what might have caused it and realized that there were

no symptoms for the past 4 months. But, once I had this potato dish, it was

back. I laid off the working out due to pain for a few weeks; during which I

skipped potato. Once the nodules cleared out etc ... I drove to Jack in the Box

and ordered a small order of french fries and ate them all; my suspicion was

true, next day the painful nodules returned.

So the moral of the story is that I was allergic to potato and didn't know about

it for 6-7 years!

I'm not sure if this is the case with everyone; but I'll tell you one thing,

please watch what you eat, drink, places you go, anything that stands out. Once

your symptoms occur, please rewind back to few days and make a note of

everything, food, place, time, etc ... maybe you can weed out the cause of your

problem.

The following foods bring Erythema Nodosum back for me:

Potato (100% guarantee!)

Sweet Potato

Water Chestnut (this was a sneaky one to figure out, as this was served in

Chinese fried rice)

Coleslaw

Gorbanzo beans (slight effect)

Black Beans (especially canned ones; the ones in Chipotle restaurant are

fine)

In-n-out burgers (don't know why)

A friend of mine whose parents follow Ayurveda (an ancient Indian Medicine

knowledge) say that Ayurveda classifies humans into few bodytype categories.

There is one such bodytype which is susceptible to inflammations in their lower

body, and those people are to avoid potato and root vegetables. ( I wish I had

known this long time back ... but, interestingly carrot which is a root has no

effect on me)

- Now-a-days, I try to eat healthy. I cook my own food or eat stuff which does

not contain the ingredients I mentioned above.

- I try to keep up with my workouts, even when I am burdened with work and other

commitments.

- It has been hard to not eat these foods and still be able to go to friends

places for dinner etc ... I don't let anything bring me down.

- It is still a work in progress ... I am ever aware of my food intake. Laying

these foods off has been highly beneficial to me.

I hope this knowledge and experience helps you all. I wish everyone the best of

health!

Peace!