Hi tulip76 i think definitely you are rght theres a relation. Thats a great correlation on your behalf. The suspicion seems to be candida overgrowth in the gut caused by yeast (not the actual boils themselves) .. Which can worsen leaky gut and allow other things into the blood stream causing a flare.

In PrimalGirls book 'The Hidden Plague" Tara refers to a study showing 100% of the HS people studied show an intolerance to brewer's yeast.
C. Cannistra, V. Finocchi, A. Trivisonno, et al. New perspectives in the treatment of Hidradenitis suppurativa: Surgery and brewers yeast-exclusion diet. Surgery. 2013 Jul 25

Coincidentally I've never got along very well with beer myself... Makes me really tired and headache.

Thers other anectodotal evidence in this thread
http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Hidradenitis_Suppurativa/forum/14399463-candida-overgrowth-and-hs

I saw another unrelated article today regarding Mahmoud Ghanoums assertions that rather than just looking at gut bacteria research should include our entire microbiome including fungi and viruses. That will gain momentum and you'll be sure there's some bacteria or fungi in common with all of our microbiome making us susceptible.
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/04/16/474375734/the-human-body-s-complicated-relationship-with-fungus

Without knowing exactly why at this stage... People seem to be successfully gaining remission through an autoimmune paleo diet. Thats a little much for me..... But i have identified potato's as my trigger snd simply avoid those.

How well can you control the HS with Diflucin? One underlying point would be its only addressing the symptoms and not the cause... But hey... Who wouldnt give anything to at least get the syntpoms under co trol!

Yeast should come up on a wound culture, you'd think. There's a lot of bacteria in the folds of the skin. It may be worse for women. Maybe you've had a yeast infection and never knew you had it. Or yours could be due to high counts of yeast. You also get a yeast infection with antibiotics you are taking too.

I have a metabolic disorder (hyperinsulinemia) that makes me susceptible to yeast infections, it seems like I'm always breaking out in red rashes. I just wondered if there was a connection. It's interesting to see that other people are starting to look into this too!

My dermatologist actually has me on a weird regimen of washing the skin with hibiclens once or twice a month followed by applying plain yogurt for 2 - 3 days to reculture the skin. It sounds bizarre but it's actually been very effective for me. My sores are almost all gone, I only have one or two. And even those get smaller and less inflamed when I take Diflucan.

Unfortunately (Or maybe fortunately? Depends how you look at it) diet doesn't seem to be a factor for me. I've tried just about everything - gluten, vegetarian, dairy, nightshades, paleo - and not found any difference. I do know others have, though.

I don't know who else it may apply to but it's been slowly dawning on me that I may have a chronic fungal infection of long standing. I'm not sure it's to blame for my HS, but I think the way it interacts with the gut bug that I'm blaming my HS and other diagnoses on, is important.

I wish I didn't have to get into that because life would be so much simpler if I only had one bug to blame for all my complaints, and I think there may be an endless supply of questionable advice for fungal infections on the Internet, but I have two non-HS diagnoses where I think the possible role of fungal pathogens as at very least an exacerbating factor (if not maybe a requirement) may deserve some serious consideration.

Toxicologically at least, I'm not sure why fungal infections couldn't be capable of taking over from other infections in keeping HS from resolving, or of complicating an existing case.

Other than that I'm still a little confused - you would think of course that they checked for fungi in the clinical HS studies but maybe fungi really are suspiciously absent from some of even the more detailed reports?

I do seem to have some intolerance of brewer's yeast - I seem to be very prone to heartburn when I take vitamins that source their B vitamins from yeast? - and certainly intolerance to alcohol which I've long given up because of that. Alcohol also seemed to be capable of making me more prone to infection or exacerbating my HS, whichever exactly, which is another reason I just gave it up.

Not even sure if it matters, but what I haven't sorted out yet at all is how much of that intolerance could be genetic, and how much of it could be due to chronic fungal infection. Maybe I will get to find out more about this though since fungal infections are now way up on my list of things to talk to my doctor about.

I'm going to have one more try here at getting my HS etc. sorted out without a lot of long-distance commuting to see a specialist. Historically, road trips have been a pretty powerful trigger for my HS and pilonidal cyst. Maybe not be very helpful to try to see a distant specialist and end up having to have an emergency surgery instead by the time I get to my destination. :-(

Good Luck, chronic. I hope you get some answers!!

Speaking of yeast. I grew out yeast infection under my arm with my open wounds. Crazy! The type of area is in a wrong place.

Some time ago, a D.O. told me I had too much yeast in my gut and, among other things, I gave up gluten. The change in diet resolved a lot of my health issues, but I fell off the wagon about six months ago.

Not only have I gained 30 pounds since then, but my HS has gotten MUCH worse. It was mostly under control before, but not now.

As of this week, I'm back on the gluten-free wagon. I'll be interested to see if there is a connection between gluten and my HS.