When he was a child he also had to be careful about bathing in special soaps and applying special creams to his skin. I recall there being times when his skin was tremendously dry and it would scale so badly that my brother didn't want to leave the house. My grandmother would apply apple cider vinegar to his skin, as it was believed to be a fungus, and it was thought that the apple cider vinegar would help cure the fungus. She also used to give him large quantities of raw garlic, which was believed to be able to fight mold. Sometimes she'd chop up the garlic into a paste and apply it to his scalp. Eventually, he saw a dermatologist who specialized in the condition who prescribed him a high level of hydrocortisone, a topical steroid that my mother had to apply to my brother's skin twice daily. It worked very well at first, but I believe eventually his body became immune to the topical cream as it ceased to be effective. While I never recall my brother complaining that the condition itched, I do remember him saying that he was embarrassed as kids at school made fun of him. He's now 46 and has not suffered from the condition in around 36 years. The condition generally just became milder and milder until it disappeared all together.

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