Natural Remedies / Treatments for Eczema
This is my journey from using steroid creams to treating eczema naturally. It is quite a long post. If you just want to see what I do now to treat my eczema (after much trial and error detailed below) just scroll down to the bottom of this post to the red heading, ‘now, this is what I do to control my eczema’.
My experience with eczema:
I have suffered from eczema for most of my life. I had eczema as a baby, suffered from it as a child behind my knees and in the creases of my elbows. Unfortunately in year 9 I suffered from eczema on my top lip and I had a red ‘eczema moustache’ throughout the entire year in highschool . It was incredibly embarrasing and affected my self confidence. Thankfully, from year 10 onwards it seemed to fade away, until it returned in my 20s for about 2-3 years on my wrist. Finally it went away, though it would flare up every so often but fairly mildly. That was until I had to take antibiotics for an infection in my mid 30s. After taking a course of antiboitics, the good bacteria in my gut was severely effected – and so was my body’s immunity against ‘foreign invaders’. I was showing all the symptoms of ‘leaky gut syndrome‘. One of the responses your body has when you suffer from leaky gut syndrome is an immune response to certain foods, materialising as eczema. Also, I had become extremely sensitive to detergents, chlorine and animals. So much so that I had to cease swimming at the local pool with my children and gloves had to be worn to wash my hair and hang out washing (as wet washed clothes still had detergent residue on it). I could not touch dogs or cats, as it would start an eczema flare. This time, the eczema was all over my hands and it was an unbearably itchy and painful type of eczema called dyshidrotic eczema.
All of my life, I treated my eczema with steroid creams. Betnovate, Advantan, Elocon, Dermaid, Diprosone, Aristocourt…I have used them all. However dysidrotic eczema was debilitating and didn’t seem to respond to the strongest steriod creams. After years of use (and admittedly, over-use), my body had built up an immunity to steroid creams and was unresponsive to them. I took a visit to my doctor who informed me that I was already on the highest topical steroid cream available, so the next step was steroid injections to treat my incredible itch. I thought there must be another way…
I started to read up on the long term effects of steroid use and the effects of withdrawing from steroid creams. After all, steroids are a drug. And the steroids were a drug that my body had become reliant on. The more I read, the more I realised that I wanted to make the choice to go cold turkey and stop my use of steroid creams. However, I needed to be prepared for the consequences. ‘Red skin syndrome’ is widely written about on the internet and it happened to me as I withdrew from steroid cream. My entire body flared up and it was a horrible experience.
I also realised that the foods and drinks that I put into my body were affecting my eczema. Certain foods would make it flare and coffee/alcohol did too (NOOOOO!!!!). I needed to heal my body from the inside out. Things weren’t good in my gut. I bought an excellent book called ‘The Eczema Diet‘ by an Australian nutritionist Karen Ficsher. I would highly recommend it anyone suffering from eczema. In this book, Karen recommends eliminating acidic foods from the diet and maximising your intake of alkalising foods. I made a lot of changes to my diet after reading it. Including forcing myself to eat mung beans (which apparently are highly alkalising buy also tasted like dirt!!). However the changes I was making to my diet weren’t enough to get rid of my eczema.
I was wet wrapping my hands every night and applying liquid paraffin all over my itchy body. I drove my husband mad by washing my entire body with Pintarsol soap, helped to alleviate the insane itch but also has a pretty ‘pungent’ aroma. I bought every non-steroid eczema cream that I could get my hands on. I used coconut oil, Mcarthur cream, jojoba oil, Skin Juice Green Balm, Dermalogica’s Barrier repair, paw paw cream, Dermaveen, pure zinc, Caroline’s Cream, Hope’s Relief, Natralia eczmea and psoriasis cream and Moo Goo. Nothing seemed to work.
My Mum told me about a woman who treated psoriasis, eczema and other conditions. She is a complimentary dermatologist, Moree Coburn from the Sydney Psoriasis Centres. She had some excellent advice on restrictions that I should make to my diet (avoid ‘nightshade’ vegetables, tomatoes, all chicken and red meat except lamb, all processed foods, coffee, sugars, dairy, wheat – it didn’t leave much and needless to say after following her diet I lost a lot of weight!). Moree also gave me some creams and some nutritional medicines to take, including a high dose zinc tablet, (which is anti-inflammatory). The changes to my diet, medicines and creams that she gave to me certainly helped. I would recommend seeing Moree if you are in a terrible situation with your eczema. However, the creams and nutritional medicines were a considerable expense, so once the worst symptoms were over, I wanted to look for other ways to treat my eczema.
A trip to the Gold Coast saw a significant improvement to my eczema. Daily swims in the sea water and time in the sun seemed to assist. However daily trips to the beach were not realistic once back home. So I did the closest thing I could and bought some dead sea salts and soaked my hands in it every night, which helped … kind of.
THEN CAME … APPLE CIDER VINEGAR!
After much research on the internet, I came across numerous people recommending apple cider vinegar as a cure for eczema and decided to give it a try. I applied it to my hands. It stung! However, after I applied it, the insane itch that I had experienced for so long was no longer unbearable. It was still itchy but MUCH better. After using it for a few days, the tiny blisters and welts which were on my hands were starting to dry and heal up. I was even drinking it, as ACV has an alkalising/detoxing affect on the skin. In fact, ACV contains lactic, acetic and malic acids that gives anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties, which in turn, was relieving my skin from inflammation, itchiness and dryness. I would highly recommend anyone with dyshidrotic eczema to use ACV in order to heal your skin. It is known to help other types of eczema too. It’s best to use the organic type which contains the ‘mother’ (which have a special enzymatic quality). Braggs is the brand that I use.
I use ACV by soaking either tissue in a 50% ACV/50% water solution (you could use cotton wool too). Then I wrap the tissue around my fingers/hands and leave it on for 10 minutes. If using it on young kids, I would probably soak a cotton wool pad in an even more watered down solution and wipe it over the affected areas, perhaps 20% ACV / 80% water, so that it doesn’t sting them. When you first start using it, it might appear to dry out the skin however this improves after a couple of days.
COLLOIDAL OATS
Applying the ACV to my skin certainly helped, however for about 10 minutes after removing the tissue wrap, my skin would appear inflamed and feel even more itchy that before I applied it. In order to calm it down, I decided to apply a home made colloidal oat paste, which I applied to my skin immediately after applying ACV to it. You can learn how to make your own colloidal oats here. I grind mine up using my nutribullet.
Note: adding colloidal oats to a bath is also fantastic, especially for kids.
SLIPPERY ELM POWDER
ACV certainly helped, however I would find anytime I deviated from my ‘eczema diet’ too much, or in times of stress, my hands would get another flare. I was already looking after my diet and taking fish oil, 2 tsp flax seeds, probiotics, vitamin B and zinc daily. I found a random article on the internet about Slippery Elm Powder and how it could help alleviate the symptoms of leaky gut syndrome and eczema. So I decided to give it a try.
After three days of taking it, I could see a noticeable difference in my skin. Within about 10 days of using it, my eczema was GONE! I truly believe that Slippery Elm Powder is my cure for eczema. Granted, I can still get flares if I expose my skin to detergents and I don’t think I can ever swim in a chlorinated pool for the rest of my life. However with Slippery Elm Powder , my eczema is controlled. The reason I believe it helps my particular case of eczema is because when I don’t use it for a few days, my eczema starts to come back. About 3-4 times, I have skipped taking my Slippery Elm Powder for a few days at a time, and every time it has come back.
I have recently read that slippery elm powder can be added to a bath and also applied to the skin mixed with water as a paste, and left on like a mask and an hour. I haven’t tried it but you might wish to try it.
URTICA CREAM
At the same time that I bought the Slippery Elm Powder, I decided to try Urtica Cream. Out of all of the creams that I used, this seemed to help to calm and soothe the itch the most, and it also felt very nourishing. So this is now my ‘go to’ cream whenever my hands feel itchy or get exposed to detergents/chlorine.
So, after much trial and error, my eczema is now controlled, naturally.
NOW, THIS IS WHAT I DO TO CONTROL MY ECZEMA
I avoid all triggers. So I avoid soaps and chorine as much as possible. I wear gloves if I have any chance of being in contact with soaps/chlorine. I use Moo Goo Shampoo to wash my hair and Moo Goo body wash for my hands/body.
Sometimes, I still get eczema. When I get a flare, this is what I do:
1. Soak a tissue in a 50% organic apple cider vinegar/50% water solution. Wrap the affected areas with the tissue and leave on for 10 mins. Remove tissues, rinse ACV off with water. (You can usually find Braggs organic apple cider vinegar, the brand of ACV that I use in any good health food store)
2. Apply a colloidal oat paste to my hands to bring down the inflammation. Leave on 10 mins, the rinse off. (As mentioned above, I make my own colloidal oats).
3. Apply Urtica Cream to the affected areas (I buy mine from Chemist Warehouse)
Diet plays an important part
Most mornings, I will have a green smoothie for breakfast, which contains slippery elm powder/flaxseeds together with a mix (which varies) of banana, berries, papaya, kale, celery, dates, almonds, pear and oat or almond milk.
Generally, I try to minimise my intake of sugar, coffee, alcohol (I often fail dismally at this one), wheat, dairy, tomatoes, and nightshade vegies (capsicum, eggplant), beef, pork and processed foods.
I try to eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables and other ‘alkalising’ foods. Some days I am more successful than others!
Here is an acid/alkaline food chart and here’s another link to Karen Fischer’s eczema diet book.
Taking supplements helps too
These are the supplements I take daily to help with my eczema:
1. Slippery Elm Powder
2. Flaxseeds
3. Fish Oil
4. Vitamin B (which also helps with my stress levels too)
5. Probiotics
Lifestyle
Stress and minimising stress also helps with eczema. Exercise/yoga and meditation can help. Sleep and rest is also important as your body repairs itself best whilst you sleep. Sleep deprivation does not help eczema sufferers.
ENDNOTE
Please note, all of the above is what has helped me cure MY case of eczema. I am in no way affiliated with any of the brands/products mentioned above. Of course everyone is different and I would recommend checking in with a health professional before trying any of the above suggestions, to ensure that they are safe for YOU.
Thanks for reading and I sincerely hope that my suggestions help you or someone you know. Eczema is a BITCH!
