NO MORE ECZEMA!!!!
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ladipoet
Posts: 4,180 Member
WARNING: This is going to be a long read!
Okay, so I’ve got a really cool NSV to share. I purposefully made myself wait a full 2 weeks to share it so that I could be absolutely sure I wasn’t just imagining it in my head! The eczema is gone. Yep, you read that right…gone as in no more, nothing, zip, zilch, nada, nothing! First let me back up a bit and give everyone some background:
Sometime about mid-2013, what I initially thought was a heat-rash on my hands developed into eczema on the front and back of my hands. I’d never had it before and couldn’t understand why all of a sudden this condition decided to show up out of the blue. For those of you who have never experienced it, and I sincerely hope you never do, it is awful. The skin dries out and cracks and itches like crazy (this is putting is mildly). If you scratch your skin, and it’s very difficult not to because the itchiness drives you mad, your skin gets thick and tough and starts forming scales. Most over the counter and prescription creams or lotions that the medical profession recommends in such cases usually do little to help and are generally not very effective. I decided to turn to natural substances to see if I could at least keep the eczema in check. I first used coconut oil based lotion on my hands it was okay. Then several months later I found argon oil and it worked even better than the coconut oil so the argon oil became my go-to daily/nightly ritual to moisturize the eczema affected areas.
In late June - early July 2015, I went on a 9-day family vacation. During that vacation I used sunblock liberally on a daily basis because I burn so easily and we were vacationing in Yellowstone so were outside a good part of every day. Much to my dismay, shortly after I returned from that vacation, I discovered that the eczema had spread! This time, however, the eczema appeared as a small strip running along just behind the eyelashes on the top eyelid of my left eye. I was absolutely horrified by this discovery! I knew that if I couldn’t find a way to keep the eczema well in check that the skin on my eyelid could get too thick, scaled and scarred that there was a very real possibility that the eczema could lead to damaging my eye and thus my vision in the future. Now instead of using argon oil only on my hands, I started using it on the skin of both my hands and face. Peripherally, I often find myself wondering if the appearance of the eczema on my eyelid was somehow an allergic reaction to the sunblock because by the end of those 9 days I remember the skin on my face especially was very unhappy – bumpy and itchy – which went away a few days after I stopped using the sunblock. The only thing that didn’t go away was the eczema!
I believe there are several reasons the eczema has departed as suddenly as it appeared. I would like to say that Keto is the reason it has miraculously been eliminated but that wouldn’t be entirely true.
(1) I believe that eating better, eating healthier, eating more whole foods which I buy at the store and take home to then cook and prepare there, and eating less processed foods is one of the main contributing factors.
(2) I made a conscious choice when I started Keto back at the beginning of September 2014 to eat “cleaner” and yes I am well aware that “eating clean” means different things to different people. For me this meant/means that I worked to consistently eliminate certain ingredients from my diet…things like aspartame, canola oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, unfermented soy (this one it still a work in progress), maltitol, anything hydrogenated or hydrolyzed, etc. to name just a few. I believe that eliminating a lot of the added chemicals and preservatives (i.e. crap / junk) found in food products is another main contributing factor as well because by working to eat “clean” in essence what I was doing was also working to lighten my toxic load.
What do I mean by “toxic load?” Well, in a nutshell, this…:
“Processed refined foods cannot be digested. When a child is born, his tract and blood are clean and clear. As he starts eating all this unmetabolizable trash, the residual sludge accumulated in the digestive tract and in the blood. Let’s call this accumulation the Toxic Load.
OK, so let’s say there is a Threshold, a level of toxicity below which the child does not react to the junky foods – no asthma, watery eyes, runny nose, skin eruptions, etc. But as time goes by the Toxic Load builds up to the point where one day it crosses over the line, exceeds the threshold, and now the child does react – any type of allergic reaction may results. At that point the patient has built up such a load of accumulated toxic foods that he has exceeded the body’s ability to deal with them – to break them down and process them through. We say he has reached the Threshold of Reactivity – it’s the end of childhood, in a health sense.” (Quote from Dr. Tim O’Shea chapter entitled “Allergies: The Threshold of Reactivity.”)
I personally believe that everyone, children and adults, are all affected thusly…at least it makes logical sense to me why someone who’s never have any allergies or skin issues would develop allergies / major skin issues like eczema. I don’t expect everyone will agree with what I’ve said here. I’m not saying that you have to agree with me. I’m just trying to explain what I believe is largely responsible for this awesome reversal.
(3) In addition to getting rid of a lot of the chemical junk from my diet and food, I also began making a point to have something with probiotics in it every day and I believe these are also part of the reason the eczema has finally disappeared. I usually drink 2-3 ounces of Kombucha tea every day and more recently I began having at least 1 serving of Gut Shot (a probiotic drink). There are some days where I will have 2-3 serving of Gut Shot and the irony here is the reason I started drinking Gut Shot was for the sodium content alone.
(4) I also take taking a few key supplements every day as consisting of Shilajit powder which is excellent for replenishing important trace minerals that your body needs and marine phytoplankton which is an excellent source of SuperOxide Dismutase (SOD), an incredibly potent antioxidant enzyme produced by virtually every cell in the body which reduces free radicals during normal metabolic cell processes and protects against oxidative (aging-related) damage.
I cannot point to any one specific thing and say with absolute certainty, “See, THIS is the reason for X!” I do, however, believe it was a combination of all of the above which helped me achieve such a wonderful, much-prayed-for-but-hardly-hoped-for resolution specifically with regard to the eczema I had previously been experiencing. If was I wasn’t before, I am now a total convert and very much believe that true health starts by healing your gut. Better health through nutrition is possible. I’m living proof of it. Thanks for listening / reading and for all the wonderful encouragement along the way!
P.S. I will be posting this shortly to my own feed so my apologies in advance if you see it twice!
Okay, so I’ve got a really cool NSV to share. I purposefully made myself wait a full 2 weeks to share it so that I could be absolutely sure I wasn’t just imagining it in my head! The eczema is gone. Yep, you read that right…gone as in no more, nothing, zip, zilch, nada, nothing! First let me back up a bit and give everyone some background:
Sometime about mid-2013, what I initially thought was a heat-rash on my hands developed into eczema on the front and back of my hands. I’d never had it before and couldn’t understand why all of a sudden this condition decided to show up out of the blue. For those of you who have never experienced it, and I sincerely hope you never do, it is awful. The skin dries out and cracks and itches like crazy (this is putting is mildly). If you scratch your skin, and it’s very difficult not to because the itchiness drives you mad, your skin gets thick and tough and starts forming scales. Most over the counter and prescription creams or lotions that the medical profession recommends in such cases usually do little to help and are generally not very effective. I decided to turn to natural substances to see if I could at least keep the eczema in check. I first used coconut oil based lotion on my hands it was okay. Then several months later I found argon oil and it worked even better than the coconut oil so the argon oil became my go-to daily/nightly ritual to moisturize the eczema affected areas.
In late June - early July 2015, I went on a 9-day family vacation. During that vacation I used sunblock liberally on a daily basis because I burn so easily and we were vacationing in Yellowstone so were outside a good part of every day. Much to my dismay, shortly after I returned from that vacation, I discovered that the eczema had spread! This time, however, the eczema appeared as a small strip running along just behind the eyelashes on the top eyelid of my left eye. I was absolutely horrified by this discovery! I knew that if I couldn’t find a way to keep the eczema well in check that the skin on my eyelid could get too thick, scaled and scarred that there was a very real possibility that the eczema could lead to damaging my eye and thus my vision in the future. Now instead of using argon oil only on my hands, I started using it on the skin of both my hands and face. Peripherally, I often find myself wondering if the appearance of the eczema on my eyelid was somehow an allergic reaction to the sunblock because by the end of those 9 days I remember the skin on my face especially was very unhappy – bumpy and itchy – which went away a few days after I stopped using the sunblock. The only thing that didn’t go away was the eczema!
I believe there are several reasons the eczema has departed as suddenly as it appeared. I would like to say that Keto is the reason it has miraculously been eliminated but that wouldn’t be entirely true.
(1) I believe that eating better, eating healthier, eating more whole foods which I buy at the store and take home to then cook and prepare there, and eating less processed foods is one of the main contributing factors.
(2) I made a conscious choice when I started Keto back at the beginning of September 2014 to eat “cleaner” and yes I am well aware that “eating clean” means different things to different people. For me this meant/means that I worked to consistently eliminate certain ingredients from my diet…things like aspartame, canola oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, unfermented soy (this one it still a work in progress), maltitol, anything hydrogenated or hydrolyzed, etc. to name just a few. I believe that eliminating a lot of the added chemicals and preservatives (i.e. crap / junk) found in food products is another main contributing factor as well because by working to eat “clean” in essence what I was doing was also working to lighten my toxic load.
What do I mean by “toxic load?” Well, in a nutshell, this…:
“Processed refined foods cannot be digested. When a child is born, his tract and blood are clean and clear. As he starts eating all this unmetabolizable trash, the residual sludge accumulated in the digestive tract and in the blood. Let’s call this accumulation the Toxic Load.
OK, so let’s say there is a Threshold, a level of toxicity below which the child does not react to the junky foods – no asthma, watery eyes, runny nose, skin eruptions, etc. But as time goes by the Toxic Load builds up to the point where one day it crosses over the line, exceeds the threshold, and now the child does react – any type of allergic reaction may results. At that point the patient has built up such a load of accumulated toxic foods that he has exceeded the body’s ability to deal with them – to break them down and process them through. We say he has reached the Threshold of Reactivity – it’s the end of childhood, in a health sense.” (Quote from Dr. Tim O’Shea chapter entitled “Allergies: The Threshold of Reactivity.”)
I personally believe that everyone, children and adults, are all affected thusly…at least it makes logical sense to me why someone who’s never have any allergies or skin issues would develop allergies / major skin issues like eczema. I don’t expect everyone will agree with what I’ve said here. I’m not saying that you have to agree with me. I’m just trying to explain what I believe is largely responsible for this awesome reversal.
(3) In addition to getting rid of a lot of the chemical junk from my diet and food, I also began making a point to have something with probiotics in it every day and I believe these are also part of the reason the eczema has finally disappeared. I usually drink 2-3 ounces of Kombucha tea every day and more recently I began having at least 1 serving of Gut Shot (a probiotic drink). There are some days where I will have 2-3 serving of Gut Shot and the irony here is the reason I started drinking Gut Shot was for the sodium content alone.
(4) I also take taking a few key supplements every day as consisting of Shilajit powder which is excellent for replenishing important trace minerals that your body needs and marine phytoplankton which is an excellent source of SuperOxide Dismutase (SOD), an incredibly potent antioxidant enzyme produced by virtually every cell in the body which reduces free radicals during normal metabolic cell processes and protects against oxidative (aging-related) damage.
I cannot point to any one specific thing and say with absolute certainty, “See, THIS is the reason for X!” I do, however, believe it was a combination of all of the above which helped me achieve such a wonderful, much-prayed-for-but-hardly-hoped-for resolution specifically with regard to the eczema I had previously been experiencing. If was I wasn’t before, I am now a total convert and very much believe that true health starts by healing your gut. Better health through nutrition is possible. I’m living proof of it. Thanks for listening / reading and for all the wonderful encouragement along the way!
P.S. I will be posting this shortly to my own feed so my apologies in advance if you see it twice!
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Replies
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YAY! Sounds like your gut microbiota got better. If you youtube: GAPS diet and watch a video (from the author) she shows that a messed up gut microbiota = allergies, food allergies, eczema and many other maladies. The keto diet starves the bad pathogenic bacteria, usually its processed foods and sugar.
I'm glad for you! Great NSV.
Dan the Man from Michigan
Keto / The Recipe Water Fasting / E.A.S.Y. Exercise Program
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Excellent news! A lot of the low-carb MD's seem to be convinced that many skin problems are associated with insulin resistance, but there aren't a lot of hard-core studies to back them yet.
Whatever the cause, I like your shotgun approach. Congrats!0 -
Great to hear! I, too, have suffered from eczema on my hands and it is very unpleasant. Not only is it itchy and sometimes painful it's embarrassing. I do find that low carb helps a lot but I wasn't able to get rid of mine until I started getting allergy shots. Even though the shots are for nasal allergies and I'm not certain which allergen was affecting my hands, seeing as I had a reaction to most of the panel, it's pretty close to gone.0
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My son has always had terrible eczema on his inner elbows that spreads up and down his arm. It gets so bad it turns bright red and bleeds and stings when we put anything on it. I haven't changed his diet other than we don't eat carbs at dinner, but I did start him on a basic probiotic, magnesium and high dose vitamin C and I can happily report that it is very much under control and I haven't actually looked at it in s long time now, so I don't know if it's gone or not. The pigment of his skin was actually different there but it's winter and he's been wearing sleeves everyday. Now I have to go look at it!
That's so great that you've cured yours! It's a terribly painful condition. Congrats!0 -
Excellent post. Thanks for sharing your experience.0
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Congrats on an AWESOME NSV! Although I can not personally relate, just reading your post, I can feel your pain and now your excitement. Congrats! :-)0
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That's wonderful! My son, brother and a few other family members have really bad eczema; I know how miserable and hard to treat it can be. Glad yours cleared up! One son's was definitely triggered by wheat and corn when he was younger (even tiny amounts).0
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First, congratulations!
I fully agree on the toxic load theory. Also the liver is critically important in ridding the body of toxins and it can be supported by supplementation. I too have noticed a skin difference but not to the level you have. Again, yeah!0 -
I read this on my feed.
Amazing. I'm so very happy for you!
My youngest son had ezcema very badly as a toddler and preschooler. He's 5 now, but in the past year since I've been limiting their processed foods more, I rarely have to treat him for it. Maybe once every 3 months or so and it's usually because he has spent a weekend at his grandparents whom I call the Carb-a-Lots.0 -
Congrats on this! So glad you can enjoy your day without the itchies!0
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baconslave wrote: »My youngest son had ezcema very badly as a toddler and preschooler. He's 5 now, but in the past year since I've been limiting their processed foods more, I rarely have to treat him for it. Maybe once every 3 months or so and it's usually because he has spent a weekend at his grandparents whom I call the Carb-a-Lots.
The Carb-a-Lots....love it! lol Thanks for all the support everyone. Yes, I'm absolutely delighted that the shotgun approach worked. I had no idea if it would or not but I was secretly hoping it would!
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YAY! Sounds like your gut microbiota got better. If you youtube: GAPS diet and watch a video (from the author) she shows that a messed up gut microbiota = allergies, food allergies, eczema and many other maladies. The keto diet starves the bad pathogenic bacteria, usually its processed foods and sugar.
I will definitely check this out Dan!0 -
So awesome!!! I so get it. I suffered chronic, moderate to severe eczema on my hands for seven years (from the time I got pregnant with my first child to about 6 weeks after starting a LCHF diet) and so I know all too well the craaaaazy itching, the cracking and bleeding, the dreading every time you have to get your hands wet at all, the humidity in the summer and the cold outdoor and dry indoor air in the winder making things worse, etc, etc, etc. I tried all kinds of OTC and prescription meds over the years, as well as many "home remedies" too - some things would help a little, other things not at all. I started eating low carb to lose weight; after two weeks, and to my great surprise, my eczema was 50% clear. By 6 weeks it was 90% clear and I knew I would never, ever, EVER go back to high carb again.
I'm not sure if I was (finally!) getting enough fats (especially saturated) to heal my skin, or if I'm sensitive to gluten, or if it was just getting away from all the heavily processed foods, but being pain free, being able to sleep well (I never realized how much the itching and pain interfered with my sleep until it was gone!), no longer dreading my kids' bath night, and not having to feel so self conscious (hard to hide your hands all the time) is a way better victory than the 45 lbs I lost.
Now I use my hands as a litmus test of sorts - if I see the eczema starting to flare, I know I've gone too far off plan and 'get back to LC basics'. Clears things right up every time.
So glad you found something that works!!0 -
tlflag1620 wrote: »So awesome!!!Now I use my hands as a litmus test of sorts - if I see the eczema starting to flare, I know I've gone too far off plan and 'get back to LC basics'. Clears things right up every time.
I use my feet the same way you use your hands re going too far off track. lol I'm glad LCHF has helped you too!
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