I will soon be 58 years old and have had HS since I was 15 or 16 years old. It started in my left groin area and I later got it under both arms. After years of antibiotics, soaking in various solutions, etc, etc. I finally had surgery when I was about 40 years old on all areas. It was done by a plastic surgeon with a large skin graft covering the groin area. I have never had lesions back in those area's. Now however it has come back on the right side of my groin. The plastic surgeon is retired so I recently went to another Dr. recommended by my GP and may as well gone to a witch doctor as I knew more about HS than he did. He said I just need to use an anti bacterial soap. Recommended hibacleans or however you spell it.

I have researched HS extensively and would like to share some thoughts I have on it and also a treatment I am now trying. I cannot claim it is a cure but so far it is working. My post will be a bit lengthy and I apologize for that, but want to let you know my reasoning behind the treatment as it sounds somewhat crazy by all accounts.

While doing research it becomes apparent that to this day the medical community still has no clue what causes HS. Some sites say blocked pores and bacteria, others say not bacteria, but occlusion of hair follicles for unknown reasons. Here is my take on it.

It is known that the apocrine sweat glands have a role in HS as that is the areas that are affected so that is a given. Also it is known that smokers and people who are overweight are the main people who have HS. Now I have never been overweight but have smoked since I was a teenager. In order for skin to heal oxygen must get to the skin surface. Since the area's most often involved are skin folds they get little to no oxygen from the air and so blood must carry the oxygen through capillaries to the skin surface. Smokers and those overweight have one thing in common and that is poor circulation. To combat that I am now taking large doses of niacin daily (not the time released kind as they can cause liver problems). Please take note if you wish to try this to start out on small doses and work your way up as niacin will give you a "niacin flush". I started at 100 mg three times a day and have worked my way up to 1,500 mg three times a day. Do not intend to go over that amount. I have never experienced much of a flush as I increased as your body gets used to it. Niacin opens up the capillaries (not to mention has many other health benefits.

When researching apocrine sweat glands they secrete mostly Salic acid. Salic acid is used in many acne treatments to soften dead skin cells and move them through pores. It is also used in higher concentrations in wrinkle creams and even higher concentrations as a wart remover (compound W). It is my opinion that people with HS have overactive apocrine sweat glands and secrete far to much Salic acid. This acts as a "chemical peel" on the outer layers of the skin. Lack of oxygen causes the skin not to heal and constant friction causes the occlusion and sebum and Salic acid get trapped beneath the skin surface. White blood cells rush in with T-cells causing the swelling (and are responsible for the foul smell during discharge). Salic acid is very close in composition to lactic acid. During research it appears women often get more flares around the time of their monthly cycle. Research also led me to find that women produce more lactic acid around their monthly cycle so that could account for the increase in flares during that time.

Now comes the really strange part of the treatment I am using. It sounds crazy as hell but please bear with me.

In doing research I researched HS, boils, cystic acne, as well as a host of other sites with similar type lumps and just common pimples. The latest clinical trial I could find on HS now shows 90% contain bacteria. This study was considerably flawed as prior trials show about 40% with only trace amounts of bacteria and 60% of HS boils with no bacteria at all. The latest trail is now using "prolonged culture tests". Kind of like saying we want it to be caused by bacteria, normal culture tests show it is not, so we will just make the test much longer to prove we are right. So I feel certain bacteria is not causing the problem.

I then came across a site on cystic acne. In reading comments someone wrote the following. "I had a friend back years ago in high school that had really bad acne and an old country Doctor told him he just needed to eat Swiss Cheese and that would clear it up. So maybe you all just need to eat more Swiss Cheese".

I am sure most people would disregard such a comment but since Smallpox was cured when an old Dr. noticed that people who got Cowpox (which only results in a few spots and mild fever) never got Smallpox and led to a cure I thought I would research Swiss Cheese.

Swiss Cheese has a bacteria P Freudicelii (did not spell it right, but not going to look it up). It causes the holes in Swiss cheese by eating lactic acid. Rather than eat it (although I do at times) I have been putting aged Swiss cheese slices in gauze and putting it directly on the area. If you try this do not put it directly on the skin as it will dry and you will wind up pulling hair out. Also if you want to try it use real Swiss not that stuff wrapped in single slices I have quit using any anti bacterial soap as I now feel that may be contributing to the problem killing off good bacteria on the skin flora.

When I first started this treatment I did it for about 5 days and thought it was working. I then quit using the Swiss Cheese (to smart for my own good and switched to zinc oxide (diaper rash) cream). Within a week I had a terrible flare which took a week to break and start draining. I have now been back using the Swiss Cheese and my lesions are way down including ones that are deep under the skin after 8 days.

It is way to soon to tell if this is a cure. God I hope so for myself and everyone else that has to deal with this. I will update this discussion to let you know the progress but just wanted to share in the hopes that this may be of some help to someone else.