Since childhood, I’ve lived with the constant bane of eczema, other various skin rashes, and hives. Through the years, I’ve gotten rashes all over my body—under my eyes as a toddler, moving to under my knees, armpits, and in that crease where your elbow bends. As a teenager, it moved to my hands and feet, and is aggravated by heat, creating a rash of micro-blisters. In the past, this has made summer my least favorite season, and it still makes taking hot showers or hot baths unbearable, because once the eczema flares up, it sticks around for a while.
During my childhood, my mom and I tried everything under the sun to soothe my dry, itchy skin and also to avoid the embarrassment that comes with it. I took oatmeal baths, slathered on calamine lotion, and used A&D Original Ointment (which contains petrolatum and has reported side effects of rash, hives and itching—the very symptoms I was trying to treat!). Little did I know that many of the products I was using to try and heal my skin, actually only perpetuated the problem. I was treating the symptom, not the source.
As a teenager, I did an experiment and eliminated dairy, wheat gluten, and processed sugar (not fruit) from my diet during my senior year of high school. It seemed to help a little, but the eczema still didn’t go away.
Today, I still battle with flare-ups in the summer. It is exacerbated by heat, and it stays localized to my feet and hands. If you’ve been out and about and ever seen someone dump a bottle of water on their feet, duck a foot into a rain gutter/puddle/fountain/etc. or put ice from the water at a restaurant on their feet….it was probably me! Anything to cool them down and stop the burning!
So far, some natural remedies I’ve tried and that help with the SYMPTOMS are:
Champori Anti-Eczema Cream, which is a plant and herb-based topical ointment.
Young Living Geranium Essential Oil, which soothes the itching and seems to aid in healing the rash that develops.
Another thing I’ve tried is the Maximized Living Daily Detox (Cell Detox + Body Detox). I’ve currently been on the detox for 26 days, and while my rashes have not disappeared, I have noticed a difference in the flare-ups. Usually, when my skin starts to flare, it begins with the warming of the skin and the feet turning red. Then an itchy rash develops, which spreads over the feet and results in micro-blisters, which pop when scratched. It’s terrible, and it grosses me out to even write about it, but it’s something I live with every day. Well, with this detox, I’ve still been getting that itchy, burning feeling, but the rash hasn’t been flaring up as frequently, which is an improvement.
I’m hoping to find out what’s triggering this soon.
UPDATE: See Get Rid Of Eczema The Natural Way!
UPDATE #2: IT’S THE ALUMINUM!! See more HERE.
Hello! I love your website/blog! I just wanted to share that I had bad eczema as a child an young teen, esp. on my calves, forearms, and between my fingers; sometimes more widespread on my body. It left me almost completely when I started consuming omega-3 in my diet daily. About 10 years ago, I started with flax seed oil, then fish oil, then krill oil. Now I eat one to two scoops of chia seeds almost daily in Greek yogurt or juice or oats. Chia seeds are an excellent, safe, convenient, relatively inexpensive plant source of omega-3. The best place to get them is http://www.AZChia.com Dr. Wayne Coates of the Univ. of Arizona is considered the “father of modern chia.” But in a pinch, I buy them at a local wholefood section of my grocery store.
I believe our modern Western diet is depleted of omega 3 because we don’t eat grass-fed beef anymore. Omega 3 is in grass, so we used to get it through beef. Also, Dr. Joseph Hibeln did outstanding work on the essential need for omega 3. I heard him on the radio right after Andrea Yates killed her 5 children. He was talking about countries where there is a big fish consumption (omega 3 source), there is very little post partum depression and bipolar.
Lack of omega 3 seems to cause eczema and skin disorders, in addition to poor mental focus, eye problems, and mood disorders. Omega 3 is anti-inflammatory. Inflammation causes brain and heart problems, skin, hair, and eye problems, mental problems, and autoimmune issues like increased allergies and skin disorders.
Americans now eat too much omega 6 instead of 3 because we eat so much corn-fed beef, and little to no cold-water fish.
Look at Pelegra, the lack of vitamin D causes people to go insane before they die!
I bet if you got a proper amount of omega 3 in your diet on a regular basis, it would greatly alleviate your eczema! The other thing is modern, semi-dwarf, high-yield “Frankenwheat.” It has a protein called “gliadin” that is VERY inflammatory! Do you eat einkorn instead of modern wheat? Getting modern wheat out of my diet also improved residual allergy symptoms I had.
Godspeed,
Maggie Buckley