Features - Eczema: Causes and Topical Treatments

Article written by: Vicky Ewbank MA ECH Homoeopath, living foods coach and co-founder of Live Native

We meet so many people when we attend natural Health and Beauty fairs who suffer with dry and irritated skin conditions that I thought it may be worthwhile to share a little of our experience on the condition of Eczema.

Our skin is our largest organ – as well as being our most visible. As such it acts like a notice board for our body. Not only does it tell us when a vital ingredient is running low (those painful little peeling bits below our finger nails when we are short of Zinc, for example) but also when we have indulged in way too much of something ‘bad’ – yesterdays pizza and chips washed down with a can of coke and bar of chocolate can change the smooth curves of our chin into an unhappily rumbling Mt Vesuvius in no time at all!

Symptoms should always be recognised as our body’s primary method of communication. The skill in responding to a symptom is not to ignore it (or even to suppress it with the use of medicine or surgery), but rather to know how to interpret the message correctly and address the cause! 

Eczema can result in some people when they suffer from a nutritional deficiency and in others when they are prone to excess, but its appearance does arise from similar causes for many people.

Babies commonly develop eczema when their mothers cease to breast feed and turn to formula milk. This is because breast milk contains high levels of Essential Fatty Acids, whereas formula milk does not. In this instance the baby’s skin is warning that the new diet is deficient in these vital nutrients and the parents need to add Evening Primrose Oil, Borage Oil, Krill Oil or some other EFA supplement into their baby’s meals.

Other babies develop eczema even while breast feeding and the cause for this may be surprising for some. Proteins from the foods the mother eats find their way into the breast milk, some of which can cause a lot of discomfort for newborns. For example dairy products, soya and grains are the three most common offenders (wheat first followed by the other grains that contain gluten). So if you are a breast feeding mum whose baby suffers with eczema look to your own diet first to find a solution.

Adults with eczema should also look first toward their dietary habits. Our skin is a major organ of elimination and often suffers when our liver and bowels are overloaded and struggling to eliminate waste. Eczema can be a sign of chronic dehydration and over-acidity of the body, where the toxins and waste products are so concentrated that our sweat becomes quite caustic, irritating and distressing to our skin. Allergies and food sensitivities also trigger skin problems, again Dairy and Wheat/Gluten are major culprits – but so are acid forming foods: red meat, coffee and concentrated fruit juices for example. And we should never overlook the immune lowering effects of everyday stress.

With so many different causes it is no wonder that so many people, of all ages, suffer with eczema!

An important step in successfully treating eczema is to identify any food sensitivities you may have. Once allergens have been identified, perhaps with an ELISA, VEGA or muscle test, it is important to check all possible sources of where you may come into contact with them. People who are meticulously avoiding gluten in their diet may inadvertently be coming into daily contact with it through their skin care! As we absorb 60% and more of what we put on our skin (and incidentally women are said to eat as much as 4-5lbs lipstick in their lifetime), it is common sense to check exactly what is in your skin care. There is a simple rule of thumb – if you wouldn’t eat it then don’t use it on your skin!

Petroleum and steroid based ointments designed to soothe and moisturise eczema-type skin can unfortunately do considerable harm. If we attempt to suppress the symptom without dealing with the underlying cause then we have removed the body’s safest mode of expressing its distress. No longer able to communicate through the visible, external skin the body will have to use the internal skin instead. The alimentary canal is also made of epithelial tissue and is indeed the body’s ‘inner skin’. Eczema, once suppressed with the use of steroidal creams, may re-emerge as asthma, colitis or irritable bowel syndrome…the same symptoms of distress but now expressed on a deeper, more serious level.

This pattern is frequently seen in children who first develop eczema and then after treatment when the eczema is seen to have ‘improved’, they proceed to develop asthma. This is labelled as a new and separate disease and once again medicine may be employed to suppress the new symptoms. This pattern obeys Herrings ‘Law of Cure’ which states that disease moves from organs of greatest importance to those of lesser importance when the medicine effects true cure - but moves the other way when symptoms are suppressed.

Of course it is possible to use topical treatments to soothe and calm eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis. We have developed our range of SkinFoods with precisely this purpose in mind – to not only provide deep moisturising and regenerative properties for healthy skins but also to help correct and rebalance damaged skin conditions. Vegan organic living SkinFoods provide essential fatty acids, mucopolysaccharides and lignins that penetrate and moisturise dry skin. Aloe Vera gel contains salicylic acid, a mild analgesic, while coconut oil has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties killing microbes that tend to colonize and complicate eczematous conditions.

Most importantly gentle, plant-derived, vegan skin care does not suppress the eruption but rather provides gentle relief, whilst the cause of the symptoms can be correctly identified and appropriately treated.

 

Handmade on the Isle of Skye, Live Native is a new and truly unique collection of living skin care products inspired by the life-loving ideals shared by all who enjoy vegan, organic and raw-food led lifestyles. www.livenative.co.uk