★★★★★
I completely stopped eating sugars (sweets, fruits, etc.), breads, acidic foods (tomatoes, citrus, etc.), raw onions/garlic, and began drinking a whey protein shake every day. I did get a keloid on the stitch site after surgery, which was expected. However, I was extremely surprised by how quickly the wound healed! A little over 2 weeks later, my wound was completely healed, although still tender. My wounds have always taken a very long time to heal. I think the protein was largely responsible for the prompt response, as I probably am on a low protein diet as a vegetarian. My diet was extremely important for how well it healed. The moment I would eat even a little bit of onion or sugars, I had a very uncomfortable sensation in my keloid, and after months of surveillance I can say that whenever I ate these foods and had these sensations, my keloid would grow. I reincorporated breads, acidic foods, and sugars slowly back into my diet after a little over month, but still stayed away from onions/garlic. I tried eating apricot seeds and some kind of oil in pill form (can't remember which type), but I would get incredibly nauseaus everytime I ate them, so I had to stop after a few days.
Topically, I alternated every other day with DMSO and Iodine (50/50 each, 1-2x daily) and silicone sheets once the wound healed. I swear by this! It was incredibly in keeping my keloid soft! The smell was a little off-putting, but it went away once the application dried. Whenever I would take a break from using it, I could tell my keloid would start to harden. However, the applying it again would immediately help! I was pretty diligent about applying it everyday, but I stopped after about 3 weeks because I was afraid the constant aggravation would make the keloid worse. However, while I did use it, the keloid did slowly shrink and stay soft. I really do believe if I had continued using the Iodine and DMSO, my keloid would have been completely removed. It has been a year now, and I only have a small dot of a keloid left. I have been getting small doses of steroid injections every 6-8 weeks since. Although the steroid injections are extremely effective, I think it is important to use a natural remedy in conjuction to keep the steroid injections at a minimum. The injections have caused a slight skin discoloration and made the scar area a bit larger (because the raised skin has flattened out). There is also the potential for a depression to be formed in the skin if the doctor uses the injections haphazardly (which is why I opted for a plastic surgeon to watch the growth of my keloid - I am very cautious about my skin because of its tendency to form keloids). I still don't eat raw onions/garlic because I still have tingling sensations when I eat them and can tell my keloid grows.
