Transcript
Announcer:
This is DermConsult on ReachMD. Today, we’ll hear from Dr. Luis Garza, who’s a Professor of Dermatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. He’ll be discussing the role of lifestyle changes in the management of hidradenitis suppurativa, or HS. Here’s Dr. Garza now.
Dr. Garza:
I am in the camp—and it's not all doctors, but I think I'm in a large camp—of doctors who believe that there's been more HS in our community. And the question is, why? It's certainly not our genes. It has to do with our environment, because our genes don't change that quickly. So that means there's something in our environment and there's something in our lifestyle that's making HS worse.
I think a common question folks have is, well, if I optimize my lifestyle, can I cure my HS? And I think how beneficial the lifestyle change is really depends on how early in the disease you are. I mean, it helps all the time, but the biggest help is going to happen to the folks who are earliest in their disease journey.
We know that in HS, after you develop scarring—so after there are tunnels that form underneath your skin—those tunnels tend to fill up with pus, almost no matter what. And your body cannot take down those tunnels and scars after they form; not even any of our current therapies can. The only thing that can take down those scars is surgery. So lifestyle can only help so much in those folks that have those scars and tunnels underneath their skin, because it's very prone for folks to have flares.
However, that being said, early in disease, it can really help minimize flares. Even later in disease, it can help somewhat, because we do know that some HS patients do burn out from their disease. We tend to see it in younger folks and not as much in older folks. And so there probably are modifications of lifestyle as people go through their life journey. The good news is that lifestyle changes can really only help, and so it's good for all HS folks to think about it.
Announcer:
That was Dr. Luis Garza talking about how lifestyle changes fit into HS care. To access this and other episodes in our series, visit DermConsult on ReachMD.com, where you can Be Part of the Knowledge. Thanks for listening!
