Chronic Eczema + Dry Skin. Please Help Me With My Plan

[knockinondoors]

Here's my intro post - viewtopic.php?f=52&t=7680

Basically I have the following

Asthma + Eczema since very young.

asthma cleared up through Cooked paleo diet but eczema was always on and off.
It'd improve sometimes when things are on point and go off track again if I was stressed or not eating optimally.

Chronic Dry skin - Have to moisturize myself with coconut oil everytime after shower and upon waking up.

Currently on NDT 3 Grains + Raw Carrot Salad.

Trying to understand where to go from here...

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Previously my eczema got better when I introduced a strain of probiotic that helped with calming the immune system. So I suspect the issue is mainly in the gut.

On the other hand, the dry skin really bugs me so that's how I found ray peat.

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I've spent the last several months diving into ray peat's work as well as changing up my diet (minor changes..), but I think there's a connection with what some forum members said so it's sort of acting up again.

"When you heal and reduce adrenaline/cortisol people often get more histamine reactions"

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Tried donating blood but they wouldn't let me since they saw eczema on my arm.

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If anyone has clue for directions or steps to take for both, I'll be very grateful!

 

[lexis]

Do you tolerate coffee?

If not,try to improve your glycogen storage by taking famotidine and taurine

 

[knockinondoors]

Coffee? I don't find much problem with drinking it ..I've been having coffee for years
Recently drinking instant since I don't have my coffee machine anymore..but doesn't seem to cause much problem

Reading about the suggestion now. Famotidine inhibit stomach acid though, won't that irritate digestion?

 

[knockinondoors]

"Caller: Thanks, I’m sorry I tuned about mid-­way through. I’m not sure you have covered this but I am interested in your thoughts on eczema and relationship to leaky gut and digestive stuff.

HD: OK. Dr Peat, what’s your view on eczema?

RP: Say it again, I didn't hear.

Caller: The lady was asking about eczema in relation to leaky gut and/or.

RP: Oh well -­ Coeliac disease is one of the causes of both skin disease and Arthritis. Coeliac disease, among other things, will allow endotoxin into your circulation and low thyroid is probably the most common thing associated with just ordinary eczema and that's because when your thyroid is low the circulation to your intestine is poor, the serotonin is high. The combination of endotoxin and the serotonin for example will cause the skin to have abnormal growth patterns.

Caller: Would psoriasis then be in the same category? RP: I think so.

Caller: That's so interesting.

HD: And that’s why when people who have eczema and psoriasis take liver herbs like dandelion and burdock that they notice an improvement. It’s generally not enough to cure them but they do notice an improvement. The curative effect has to be more of a combination of looking at the whole system like the thyroid and the diet and how that influences an overall inflammation but working on the digestive tract definitely makes a big difference with Eczema and Psoriasis."

excerpt from another podcast

[show engineer]: Lidocaine for cancer was the question.

RP: These studies have been done in many different ways. But I've had several sort of random experiences with both Procaine and Lidocaine that were really just amazing to me. For example, a girl with life time terrible eczema, red and scaly all over; she put a hand full of I think it was rubbing alcohol mostly with some Novocaine in it and stroked it up her shin. And with at same speed that her hand moved up her shin a wave of normal looking skin appeared right behind it. And it stayed that way. And I've seen people with terrible burns. If they could get it on in the first minute or so the burn stopped and didn't develop. It has anti-histamine, anti-serotonin effects, stopping inflammation in its tracks. But what it´s doing — all of these well known anti-inflammatory things are also undoing the limiting and harmful genetic changes that are caused by injury.

 

[lexis]

post 98367 Coffee? I don't find much problem with drinking it ..I've been having coffee for years
Recently drinking instant since I don't have my coffee machine anymore..but doesn't seem to cause much problem

Reading about the suggestion now. Famotidine inhibit stomach acid though, won't that irritate digestion?

You can perhaps start by improving your breathing. Bag breathing and consuming baking soda..Biotin can increase Co2 as well.
More Co2 means better thyroid functions

 

[knockinondoors]

Okay, so on the list right now is the several supplements you recommended as well as CO2 Bag breathing

 

[BrundleFly91]

Hi knockinondoors,

Above you quoted some RP on eczema etc. can you tell me which interview that's from?

I've had eczema since childhood too. Recent years its got worse along with my energy levels falling. RP helped with the energy but I can't find any of his advice on dry skin/ eczema.

Any idea where I can find his views/ strategies on curing eczema?

BrundleFly

 

[Sea]

I would try some antibiotics. I have found minocycline to be the most effective(compared with the other tetracyclines and all of the penicillins) for dry skin/dandruff, at least in my case.

 

[knockinondoors]

post 99417 Hi knockinondoors,
Any idea where I can find his views/ strategies on curing eczema?
BrundleFly

It's from his interview transcripts. Try searching "eczema" from the "interview transcripts" you'll find it.

post 99419 I would try some antibiotics. I have found minocycline to be the most effective(compared with the other tetracyclines and all of the penicillins) for dry skin/dandruff, at least in my case.

The thing about anti-biotics is that i'll have to prob go to the doc for it which is kind of annoying.

 

[bornamachine]

OP, your age and gender. Have you had fasting iron panel test done?

 

[knockinondoors]

No i haven't. I'm trying to understand the cnonection between Iron and Eczema atm.

Do you have any clues or links I can follow up on?

 

[mujuro]

It saddens me that a Peat diet did absolutely nothing for my skin other than ruin it. It was always flaky, dusty, oily, dry, and my hands looked like those of a 40 year old.

 

[BrundleFly91]

I definitely gained much needed weight on the Peat style diet but if anything my skin got worse

 

[knockinondoors]

Inflammation is worsening lately and body is going into constant mode of either adrenaline / cortisol (high temperature slow pulse or high pulse low temperature) ..

More often it's low temperature high pulse, or normal temperature super high pulse.

Skin is worsening along with depression and low libido, more drying and aging.

Here are the current supplemental regime
NDT
Pregnenolone 300mg / week
Liver 2-3 times / week
Coffee (Nestle Coffee Extract 2-3 cups/day ) with sugar 3-4 tbsp + skim milk
Sunlight (1-2 hours outdoor)
Carrot salad
Calcium
BCAA when depression gets too bad to decrease serotonin (mixed with OJ)
1 bottle of 888mL coca cola

Breakfast
Scrambled egg (2-3) along with some veggie + some meat (either regular chicken/pork/beef)

Dinner:
half a pound of meat with veggies + egg
Liver (along with coffee to prevent iron absorption)

I'm thoroughly lost..life in transition lately as well so I'm not having that great of a time..

Any advice will be welcomed. Thank you!

 

[Sea]

It doesn't look like you are eating many carbs. Are you only eating 2 meals/day? If that is all you are eating everyday then it should be very easy to make improvements by just increasing carbohydrates and total calories.

To keep it simple you could try adding in 2 quarts of orange juice mixed with about 1 cup or more of sugar and 1-2 teaspoons of salt. This will get you around 400 grams of carbs and shouldn't be too difficult to consume over the course of a day. But, keep in mind that you could easily need a lot more carbohydrates than that. I came from lower carb paleo and I needed around 800 grams from carbs/day for a while to recover from that mess. Honey is another food that I think is a good source of carbohydrate when you are recovering from a slow metabolism.

And you can order antibiotics without a prescription. I recommend the All Day Chemist website, although they do take about 1 month for delivery. However, I wouldn't advise taking the antibiotic until your diet includes a lot more calories because when the antibiotic kills off bacteria even more endotoxin will be released, and serotonin I think usually increases in the short term until a lot of the bacteria have been destroyed. This can be quite unpleasant, and I wouldn't risk it without a lot of carbohydrates in the diet.

Another thing you might consider is trying a lot more carrot salads, or 10+ grams of activated charcoal several times a week, but I haven't found either approach as effective as an antibiotic, but it should certainly help.

 

[knockinondoors]

Can you explain why I needed that much more carb? I thought recommended amount was about like 100g per day and I'm drinking a coke each day (which has 100gm of sugar alone in that)

And what does having so much sugar do..? I understand it boosts the metabolism and gives me more energy but do I need so much ?

I sort of understand the rationale but I just couldn't get over the fact that even Ray Peat himself is like 250g of sugar/day

 

[Sea]

Well carbohydrates speed up your metabolism and are the bodies preferred source of energy. One of Ray Peat's main points is that using sugar for energy is far superior to using fats or proteins for energy. Ray Peat says that a very good state to be in is when excess sugar is just being oxidized, appearing to waste energy, when in reality the increased co2 production and heat generation from the oxidation of excess carbohydrate is very beneficial. When you are hypothyroid you won't oxidize sugar as well as someone with a fast metabolism so you will have a higher requirement for sugar which should decrease as your metabolism speeds up. Another of Ray Peat's main points is that stress hormones, which become elevated when the liver is low on sugar, are quite detrimental and should be minimized. When you are hypothyroid your liver won't store sugar as well so this further increases the requirement for sugar and means you should eat much more frequently the slower your metabolism is. Low carbohydrate dieters frequently complain of skin problems and it is basically because the body has run out of energy to repair the skin and since the skin is not as important as internal organs it isn't as high a priority for the body. When carbohydrates are low other tissues and organs, especially the thymus gland quickly atrophy and this weakens the immune system and allows bacteria a better chance at wrecking havoc.

I think that Ray Peat probably eats a lot more than 250g of sugar since that is only 1000 calories which is only 33% of calories on a normal 3000 calorie diet. The latest I heard was that Ray Peat was trying to further limit his already low intake of fat, but I really have no idea what Ray Peat eats. Ray Peat explained that when he was hypothyroid he consumed around 9000 calories/day. I never reached this amount, but I always noticed that even when my metabolism was at its slowest point, the days that I managed 5-7000 calories I always felt close to normal. Even now, my metabolism is above normal based on the temperature and pulse rate, but if I eat below 3000 calories/day I won't have much energy. Many of the recommended supplements work to help your body oxidize sugar more efficiently, even when you are still hypothyroid, but they won't work too well if you aren't actually consuming much sugar. I think that when you are first starting to repair the metabolism it is best to reach at least 100 grams of protien, and then eat the rest of calories as carbohydrate and eat a little coconut oil to help speed up the removal of unsaturated fats from your tissues. I always noticed initially even saturated fats would increase my stress hormones and I think it is because the liver is just really far behind/damaged the slower your metabolism is so I would exercise caution with fats.

 

[tara]

I agree with Sea that 100 g of carbs is very unlikely to be enough for optimal function. You may be using all of that 100g just to fuel your brain, with none spare for repairing and mantaining skin, thymus, etc.

Some do better with more sugar (fruit etc), some with more starchy foods.

If you've been eating such low carbs for a while, you may need to gradually increase it to give your system an opportunity to adapt. But I agree with Sea that getting up to at least 400g may make a big difference. Hopefully once you get started, your appetite will help guide you on this.

 

[knockinondoors]

okay so I guess i sort of understand the rationale then.

So first course of action is guarantee high sugar intake..1 quart of OJ/day + sugar + salt in it.
I'm eating liver quite regularly lately as well
Sunlight is there but I guess i might need to supplement D3 as inflamed skin can't really produce vitamin D3 (i heard)

fixing gut issue as priority probably

 

[knockinondoors]

I'm currently trying to up my calories in form of sugar through coke + OJ..and eating more..

But my skin is worsening by the day and it seems like it's not stopping anytime soon. What to do?
I'm trying to learn the rationale behind stuff.

Currently at 2000 calories yesterday, with majority from sugar.
Striving to 3000?

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Also not understanding the rationale behind eczema..According to Ray Peat it's caused by "many things" but include endotoxin going into the blood stream through hypothyroid affected leaky gut..

I'm taking in carrot salad everyday. taking liver 2-3 times a week..
Sunlight is not here so I'm going to have to order vitamin D3.

I'm just not having it currently.

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Attached my typical day diet.
No blood test currently, have to figure out and get a doctor for referral for where i am