Invisible bugs always crawling on you? Try cutting out sugar.

Posted by Eric on October 14, 2009 at 10:52:07:

The short version of this post is this: To all of the people on this forum plagued by microscopic bugs crawling on you and biting you that you never see and can't get rid of, try cutting sugar and possibly even refined carbs out of your diet for a test period of a few days and see if that makes a difference. I had a casual observation about the tie between what I ate and the bugs getting on me, and I experimented and it worked. I couldn't believe it. They drove me insane last year and it was starting up the same time this year and now it has stopped, whereas it went on for another couple of months last year. Here's the full version:

A number of people on this forum are afflicted by invisible bugs crawling on them, tickling, and sometimes biting, all over any exposed skin, including face, eyelids, ears, etc. But they swat and swat and never see anything. Sometimes there are bites, other times you have to strain to see tiny little red spots and wonder if they're bites, other times there are no bites but a lot of itching. And always there is just the maddening feeling of them landing on you and crawling on you. You fumigate, spray, etc. Pest control people say they don't know what you're talking about. Your doctor probably tries to tell you it's psychological, or allergies, or formication (it's neurological, look it up). But you know based on how these things behave that they're real and that they're bugs. They might plague you for months and they drive you insane. You feel like you can't be in your house or car or office. You scour the internet looking for help but mostly find other people asking the same questions as you and not getting answers. You've tried all the wacky remedies and nothing works.

I was that guy. The bugs started up again this year same time as last year, almost to the week. I had thought a lot about the bugs and had taken lots of notes and made lots of observations. I'd written letters, consulted professionals, etc. And I had some theories. Then one day I noticed that the bugs got on me not long after I ate a bunch of convenience store snacks and a sweet drink. That made me realize they hadn't gotten on me at their more usual activity spike time of early afternoon. I had skipped lunch that day and had the snacks at about 4pm. That made me wonder if it was somehow tied to what I ate. I had never associated their early afternoon and late evening activity spikes with meals but it made sense in retrospect.

So I started experimenting. I figured I'd test the food groups one at a time and see which of them might trigger the bugs getting on me. My theory was highly refined carbs or sugar, with preservatives or other junk food chemicals as an outside chance. I ate only meat for two days, which was awesome, first of all. Mmm porrrk. I did have a few slices of cheddar for snacks and a couple of straight liquor drinks (I was worried about the liquor). But the bugs trailed off to almost nothing right away. I seriously only had three or four tickles the whole time. Poor little things were probably sad, like when your favorite restaurant closes. Scratch that - no sympathy for them. I hope they all die in starving agony and go extinct.

Then I switched to two days of eating only bakery-fresh bread and butter, again with a couple of straight liquor drinks (no sweet mixers). I wanted to make sure the bread had none of the sweeteners and junk ingredients you see in grocery store bread, though I know sugar is used to get yeast going to make many breads, grocery store or not - but I believe the yeast eats it. Anyway I may have felt a very slight increase in tickles. It was more like a few lost bugs who showed up at the restaurant and found it deserted and kind of wandered around. I felt a few stings. So maybe call that a very very slight difference from the meat phasse, but even this was wonderful compared to the bug assaults I used to suffer.

My plan was going to be to move on to vegetables next and then to fruit, and then finally to a turbo-charged snackfood and sweets extravaganza for two days, eating every kind of sweet thing and junky snack I could imagine. My theory is that the bugs will come back in force during that time. I think I'll just skip the veggie phase - I have to think that's not it. Fruit I thought might do it because of all the sugar. But having gotten such stark results with meat and bread, I'm ready to skip ahead and try to prove my hypothesis about the sugar or the refined carbs, or whatever it is in snacky foods that I think may have been the difference. It's candy/chocolate/cokes/cookies/chips time.

The point of all of this is to say that if you are one of these people afflicted by the invisible biting crawlies, try cutting all sugar out of your diet for a test period of a few days and see if it makes a difference. Be rigorous about it, because sugar and high fructose corn syrup and other pseudo-sugary things sneak into so many of our foods. Grill up a bunch of fajita steak or chicken or go buy a couple of pounds of pulled pork (no sauce) and just eat that for a couple of days and see what happens. Obviously it's not smart to eat that way long term, but a few days won't hurt. It's science! Then you can try other food groups by themselves or just reintroduce them in sequence, while still eating the others that have proven to be OK.

I hope this helps. I'm really hoping this is the answer for me as opposed to, say, some environmental change around here that just happened to coincide with my experiment, or all the Borax that has been coating my carpets for two weeks. The effect of my test was so stark that I really do think it's food related. I think there must be some kind of chemistry going on in my blood/flesh/microecosystem that makes the difference in whether the little jerks see me and my blood as food. I mean it kind of makes sense. Sugar is stored energy, it's fuel. Little bugs need that one way or another so why not through me? I would think that the only sugar in my blood would be glucose regardless of what kinds of sugar or carbs or whatever else I put in my stomach, but what do I know. Maybe it's a levels thing. Maybe higher blood sugar levels have something to do with it. Whatever, just give it a try. Good luck! I'll let you know what happens with my sugar overload test period. I wanted to go ahead and evangelize here just because I know how this problem can drive you to your wit's end.

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