| I had a severe bout with the cold and flu the early part of this year. On the recommendation of friends and family, I started taking St. John's Wort along with other holistic medicines like ginseng and Echinacea. Since these medicines seemed to work for them, I thought why not give it a try.
Well, within a couple of weeks, I developed an itchy rash on the top side of both my forearms, from my elbows down to the backs of my hands. The problem was most severe in June/July with itchiness, pinkness, rawness, and soreness. I play a lot of tennis so I thought that by being in the sun with this condition, the sun would "burn" away the problem. Wrong.
Because the "rash" did not seem to go away, I made an appointment with my doctor who then referred me to my current skin doctor who said this was the worst thing I could do. My dermatologist recommended I keep my arms completely out of the sun and to use a sunscreen on my arms and wear gloves when I'm outdoors. Thankfully, the itchiness, the redness, the flakiness, and rawness slowly went away. On occasion, however, when I fail to follow my doctor's directions, I feel the irritation return and I quickly work at what my doctor told me to do. We are still conducting tests to see how permanent this damage has been to my skin, but frankly I feel that it is because of my use of SJW that I developed this skin rash. I have been tested negative for cancer, vitiligo, and fungus.
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