Latest JK theories

Hallopals,

I've observed some things over the past three weeks that I thought I would
share. I'm just about done with a long experiment, and it might help explain
something that has puzzled me for the past three years or so.

Starting about three weeks ago, with no great change in diet or other habits,
I started feelng the old urges (and the old pleasures at indulging them)
coming back. I was puzzled by two things: first, at what could be their
cause--I was, in fact, on a sort of working vacation and under less pressure
than usual--and, second, at why they were rather low key, but persistent.
Usually the urge to mess with my eyebrows is more intense. It was as if I
were having a muted version of TTM.

Since I was spending the time in California, I thought it might be due to
eating more avocados than usual, but the feelings persisted even after a week
of abstinence. The only other change I was experiencing, besides a chronic
low-level fear of earthquakes, was hot tubs. More specifically, I was
enjoying the worst case of tinea crucis in 30 years, which I had picked up
from indulging in them. More vulgarly, I had developed a really bad case of
crotch rot (a superficial skin infection with Candida Albicans, a common yeast
infection).

I did the following. I took a tip from Mike Grant. He reported to me in a
phone call that people who had experimented with his "TTM kit" had found that
micatin cream was surprisingly effective in relieving itching and pulling.
Micatin is the brand name for 2% miconazole nitrate, one of the azole family
of antifungals (which family includes Nizoral, which some others have found
effective as a shampoo).

I used the Micatin to treat the skin condition it was intended for, but as an
experiment, before going to bed I also applied some of it directly to my
eyebrows. It was astounding to me that the very next morning after the first
application, and continuously ever since, the urge is back to where it should
have been: zero. I have applied the cream to my eyebrows every nighttime
since, although I will start to taper off about now. It has been about one
week and the infection is clearly receding.

This leads me to speculate on the following.

I searched the medical literature and was gratified to discover that the
grease-loving yeast Malassezia that I suspect as an agent in TTM nevertheless
cross-reacts immunologically with Candida. Although there are immune
responses that are only to Malassezia and others only to Candida, there are
many allergens they seem to hold in common. This may explain why the reaction
was muted--it was not full TTM--and why the relief was nearly immediate.

Further, the infection by Candida was in the skin of my groin, but I felt it
literally all over: not only was a scratching at my brows, I was scratching
and skin picking all over, too. In fact, I generally felt irritable on my
entire body. My guess is that there was enough bad stuff getting into my
general blood circulation (and brain) that the itch reaction was systemic. In
fact, in keeping with other commentary, for the first two days after applying
the cream, the general body itching *increased* somewhat, apparently in
response to what is called a "die-off" reaction: as the organism dies and the
its yucky little cells decay, more of the allergen is temporarily released.
My brows remained calm, however, possibly because the cream also contains
other ingredients (benzoic acid, in particular) which provide a counter-
irritant sensation.

Lastly, it was curious to me that, as I had observed numerous times before, no
amount of good foods were helpful during this time of infection--for example,
we even went to the Garlic Festival in Gilroy one of those weekends. The
"bad" seems to overpower the "good". And since I was not eating any "bad"
(personal trigger) foods at all, what was happening appears to be that the
infection was having a similar effect to eating "bad" foods aanyway.

So, my summary speculations are the following:

1) TTM appears to have a systemic component (the "brain itch") that can be
triggered away from the skin area affected (the "skin itch"); this brain itch
can also lead to skin picking and scratching all over, not just where there is
hair. This TTM "brain itch" may be due to a similar brain reaction to yeast-
related allergens, just as OCD may be due to a brain reaction to strep-related
allergens.

2) Micatin helps. Ultimately, working from the inside by changing the skin
environment is probably a better way, especially since chronic use of
antibiotics leads to resistant strains of organisms. But it is a good quick
over-the-counter fix.

3) If TTM is yeast-related, then it also is triggered by Candida, although
less severely. This may even explain why some people don't find diet
effective: it may be that some people have a low level Candida infection which
acts as if they are still eating "bad" foods. In particular, this might be
related to the apparent sex difference of TTM incidence; women seem to be more
prone to Candida yeast infections.

4) Anti-Candida diets have some overlap with the anti-Malassezia diet that I
found effective for me. Noteworthy is the areas in which they overlap: sugar
and caffeine. According to dozens of TTMers, these are two of the more
powerful TTM triggers. Both are generic yeast food supplies.

5) I would speculate that there would be a higher incidence of (ordinary,
Candida) yeast infections and yeast sensitivity amongst TTMers and their
relatives. If so, this would suggest that if one has a history of such
infections, then any Candida problem has to be addressed at the same time that
one attempts dietary control for the (hypothesized) Malassezia problem.
Otherwise, the systemic Candida "brain itch" will win anyway, even if it is
somewhat less aggressive than a Malassezia "brain" or "skin" itch for TTM.

As ever, I would be grateful for people's observations and comments, in
private or in public.

John