It is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that results from inflammatory and painful lesions under the skin. The disease is of a wavy nature with benefits and exacerbation. The disease appears mildly in about 70 percent of patients, but in some cases it can worsen over the years and may even cause physical disability and severe quality of life. Inflammatory, deep, and painful lesions in skin areas that contain apocrine glands in the armpits, groin, and genitals. The chronic progression of the disease, the pain, the excretion from the lesions and the scars created in advanced cases of HS significantly harm the quality of life of the patients, their daily functioning, their social lives, and the work of the patients.
The diagnosis of HS is based mainly on symptoms, the nature of the lesions and their location. There is a certain heredity, and in some families the disease passes through the generations.
The prevalence of 1-2%
The disease usually occurs after adulthood, usually between the second and third decades of life. The onset of the disease is relatively rare in children and in the 50+ age group. Women suffer more from the characteristic lesions of HS in the groin, genitals, and under the breasts. Men suffer more than HS in the perineal region and in the buttocks.
Similar to other diseases that may be due to endocannabinoid deficiency or an imbalance of endocannabinoid system such as fibromyalgia and endometriosis, there is a significant delay of about 10 years between the onset of symptoms and the diagnosis, since patients travel among family doctors, plastic surgeons, surgeons, dermatologists and even Gynecologists.
In the literature it is described that up to 42 percent of HS patients suffer from depression. The severity of the depression is correlated with the severity of the disease, the location of the disease, and the age of the disease.
HS patients suffer from severe pain, foul-smelling pustules in affected areas, difficulties in relationships, depression, and impaired functioning. Often people with the disease are socially isolated due to their condition.
The impact of HS on patient quality of life is extremely high. Even more than psoriasis !!!
The treatment of HS patients is complex and should be adapted to the severity of the disease.
Most important is proper nutrition and mental balance. For medications, the treatment is based on a combination of several biological and antibiotic drugs. Surgical intervention for the purpose of drainage of painful abscesses and extensive surgeries for the removal of areas of the apocrine glands in particularly severe cases.
Cannabis – There is not much information about cannabis treatment in HS but there is certainly room to try mainly against pain, depression and of course in the anti-inflammatory context because cannabis and CBD cannabidiol is anti-inflammatory.
