Mystery skin problems - allergies? digestive?

[LIsaM951]

Hi.  I am a 29 year old with a very healthy diet and pretty active lifestyle.  In the past several months, I have started having some striking skin symptoms that overall make me wonder if there is something going on in my body digestively in my immune system or otherwise that need rebalancing or attention.  Any suggestions or ideas would be helpful.

  Symptoms
* a red bumpy rash that starts on the outer edge of right under my eyes, radiating out towards my ears- when it sometimes worsens (not sure why) it spreads between my eyebrows.  When I have this rash, my eyes also sometimes itch, especially in the shower.  I have had it for several months.  I saw a dermatologist who recommended a cream that was over $250 that was out of my price range.  I was using coortisone but know that this is not a good long term solution - cortisone cream over the counter seems to help but the rash comes back when  I stop taking it
*I also have rashlike/acnelike small red bumps on my neck on both sides under my chin.  This is not itchy, but they never come to a head like regular acne or have black heads.  They are just red bumps and don't itch.  I've had this for over a year.  It is unsightly and unpleasant.  Nothing seems to clear it up.
*Sometimes I will get a red blotchy rash that covers this area of my neck and chest and feels warm to the touch- I have no idea why it comes and goes.  Sometimes I notice it with a glass of wine, though
*In addition, in the last six months, I have also noticed a dramatic increase in  broken red capillary lines on my cheeks, puffy under eyes, dark under eye circles, and a big increase in my ammount of fine lines around my eyes in just a few months.  This would seem normal for an old person, but I'm not even 30 yet.
*decreased ammount of energy

  I am not under allot of stress, so am concerned at why my complection is not looking so healthy and that my skin doesn't seem to be doing very well overall.

My thoughts are that this could be diet related - something tying in my digestive and immune system.  When I did a 15 day "cleanse" under my doctor's recommendations, at day 7, I was on a juice and water fast for 3 days.  At that point, my eye rash went away, as did my circles, and fine lines.  It was amazing.  Immediately, when  I started eating again - it all came back.  My eye rash didn't come back until after I was eating dairy, meat, and small ammounts of sugar and alcohol again.
      If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts, this would be helpful.
    Thanks.

   I have also noticed increased dark under eye circles and decreased energy since I've been having the eye rash.  In addition I sometimes find that I am sometimesaffected by very drippy nose and my ears plugging up - allergies I am told.

    So, I have this host of mystery symptoms and have been trying to get to the bottom of them for several months with little luck.  On my doctors recommendations I did a 15-day "cleanse" where I took out food groups one by one until, for several days, I did a juice fast.  While on the juice fast, my eye rash cleared up, but my neck bumps did not.  

[feather319]

Hi Lisa. I am having a very similar problem right now.  I had impetigo covering my face last month and finally went on a very powerful (and extremely expensive $1800) antibiotic.  Ever since then, my face, legs, arms, and hands have been getting red blotchy patches on them.  The one on your eye is very similar to mine too!  It starts a little above the cheekbone and radiates up to and around the brow and goes back to my ear.  I also have red hive like bumps on my cheeks.  My hands and ankles break out in the pimple like bumps.  I thought the bumps where folliculitis.  My dermatologist told me it was eczema and it was not related to the staph infection I had a few weeks ago.  Frankly, I don't believe that.  He did prescribe me a few topical steroid treatments.  It is helping with the redness and they weren't very expensive.   Sorry I can't explain what is going on with you but I really hope your skin clears up!  I eat very healthy and have an active lifestyle and I'm only 26.  It just doesn't make sense.   The bumps come and go, sometimes they are white, sometimes they are red.  My skin is red like I slept on my face wrong and some parts look like hives.  I just really hope it goes away.  

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
Red rash around the eyes, stuffing and dripping up of nose, appearance of itchy hives now and then and itching of the eyes are all symptomatic of allergies. From the symptoms the possibility of hay fever cannot be ruled out. When a person with allergies breathes in an allergen such as pollen or dust, antibodies are produced. When the antibodies are stimulated by pollen and dust, histamine and other chemicals are released. This causes itching, swelling and mucus production.

Please contact an allergic specialist and get skin tests like skin ***** test done. In this a small amount of allergen is introduced into the skin of the forearm and the reaction of the skin is noted. If there is any redness then that person is allergic to the allergen introduced. You can also get blood tests like RAST done. Once the allergen is identified, then avoidance of that allergen is the best treatment.
I hope it helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing or if you have any additional doubts. Kind regards.