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

[lindsay]

I had bad eczema on my face as a child (and sports induced asthma). I no longer have either. I learned to control the asthma years ago (basically, by not allowing myself to get worked up about things and breathing calmly), but the eczema got really bad in college. For me, it was this crazy outbreak on my face that was itchy and looked like acne, but with dry skin (weird, I know).

Anyhow, because I was not at home and could go to my doctor to get steroid cream (which I now realize is a good thing), I randomly began applying vaseline on it to sooth it, and voila! Eczema gone.

I now take some thyroid and try to eat a fairly RP diet and keep the gut as clean as I can. My last outbreak was when I got appendicitis, so yes - it was infection related. If you haven't tried antibiotics, I would give that a whirl. It went away after I had surgery and was put on minocycline. That being said, I still use petroleum jelly (I'm sure it's terrible, but it works for me) - the Bag Balm brand in the green can - every night on my upper lip, eyelids, hands, and corners of the mouth. This is where my outbreaks were the worse. As for dry skin, unless you want to stop bathing regularly, lotion is kind of necessary. I do much better if I skip showers, but I know that stinks when you have to work.

Also, I don't know if you eat gluten or starch, but eliminating both definitely helps for me. You may consider applying topical vitamin A as well - and vitamin E. But I do think thyroid has a lot to do with it.

 

[Motif]

Any updates/ improvements?

 

[jus d'orange]

This has been an awesome and helpful thread. I have a lot of the same symptoms. Thanks for commenting on it, would love to hear more about your progress when you have time.

To balance uncouplers, is sugar the best move? Or are other there other supps or things to eat to helps support liver health in the face of too much "uncoupling"?

 

[Cara]

I’m so thankful to find this forum! I have red peeling eczema as well almost looks like I got burned on my face.
I’ve tried histadine beef liver sugar fruit OJ bone broth collagen but still suffering really dry skin and extreme peeling. Might have to try ordering antibiotics. Did notice chlorine swimming pool cleared hand eczema. Thank you all for your suggestions!!!

 

[Cara]

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.

hi sara,
i do experience really bad itching on my face peeling and it looks like a bad sunburn. which antibiotics did you recommend for face? I dont wanna put rubbing alcohol straight on my face....

 

[Kray]

Long awaited update, finally some progress after deep soul-searching (or what I call long nights of google-ing)

Thanks to Haidut I've made aware that eczema may be an interplay between serotonin and estrogen, I've found more symptoms that correlate a lot with these two hormones.

It took some deep end-stage symptoms to realize, but basically in the end stage of my eczema, I got extreme fibrosis of the skin and extreme water retention. The fibrosis didn't really appear apparent until the water retention issue have been resolved over time (with careful attention to water/salt intake), but the estrogenic symptoms have been apparent the whole time. I suspect now that eczema is basically an interplay of hormones/signaling substance gone haywire. Usually serotonin and estrogen can be processed by your liver, but in a compromised state your liver also goes under function, allowing the signaling substance to stay too long.

I believe the liver is a key player in eczema as well, as my liver enzymes were elevated now out of the lab ranges, and I get occasional pain now that I take cyproheptadine and caffeine.

It'd probably take some nutritional care to solve my liver issue honestly, until then the hopeful balance is carefully tracking cyproheptadine, caffeine and how it affects my liver.

Cyproheptadine doesn't seem to stress my liver as much as caffeine so I might have to back down from the caffeine intake.

Hopefully I can regain optimal health soon and be back in the game of life.

@knockinondoors
How are you doing with eczema? Can you provide an update, and what helped, if so?

 

[SamYo123]

how do u know if a food is easily digested

What if easily digested foods cause symptoms?

 

[Spud]

Eczema, asthma and ichthyosis are due to a loss of function in the gene coding for filaggrin.
Until some sort of gene therapy exists the most promising supplemental approach seems to be a combination of histidine and royal jelly.
Studies have shown royal jelly to increase filaggrin gene expression and histidine, through an increase of substrate, has also shown to increase filaggrin.

 

[DrJ]

I had some dry, scaly patches of skin around the base of my neck for years. I recently tried a 5% sulfur soap with 2% salicylic acid and after one wash there was noticeable improvement and softening of the patches. After using it once a day for a few more days, the patches completely vanished. The soap was very inexpensive.

 

[Kray]

I had some dry, scaly patches of skin around the base of my neck for years. I recently tried a 5% sulfur soap with 2% salicylic acid and after one wash there was noticeable improvement and softening of the patches. After using it once a day for a few more days, the patches completely vanished. The soap was very inexpensive.

@DrJ
That's encouraging to hear- would you mind sharing the product you used?

 

[DrJ]

@DrJ
That's encouraging to hear- would you mind sharing the product you used?

It's this one:

Amazon product ASIN B07VNT4G4GView: https://www.amazon.com/DermaHarmony-Sulfur-Salicylic-Acid-Soap/dp/B07VNT4G4G/

 

[Kray]

It's this one:

Amazon product ASIN B07VNT4G4GView: https://www.amazon.com/DermaHarmony-Sulfur-Salicylic-Acid-Soap/dp/B07VNT4G4G/

Thanks- same one I found while searching. Interesting- my initial rash IIRC was at the base of my neck (I want to say it began after I tried the no-shampoo routine for some months- think that was a success?). I see the company makes a slightly stronger one, but I am thinking it could be too much. Right now my rashes are widespread over my face- hairline, eyes/eyebrows, ear lobes, chest, neck- will it dry my skin out even more?

I also am stumped whether I have atopic dermatitis/eczema or SebDerm. Is there an easy way to know without seeing a doctor? Or does it matter-- will the soap help even for atopic dermatitis (eczema)? Scanning the reviews, most people seemed to use for SD.

I appreciate your help!

 

[DrJ]

Thanks- same one I found while searching. Interesting- my initial rash IIRC was at the base of my neck (I want to say it began after I tried the no-shampoo routine for some months- think that was a success?). I see the company makes a slightly stronger one, but I am thinking it could be too much. Right now my rashes are widespread over my face- hairline, eyes/eyebrows, ear lobes, chest, neck- will it dry my skin out even more?

I also am stumped whether I have atopic dermatitis/eczema or SebDerm. Is there an easy way to know without seeing a doctor? Or does it matter-- will the soap help even for atopic dermatitis (eczema)? Scanning the reviews, most people seemed to use for SD.

I appreciate your help!

I don't notice any drying effect from this one. In fact, it seems to make my skin softer and more supple so I intend to keep using it even with the spots gone. This is how I determined that it was doing something to the spot by my neck is that after one use: the dry, hard and scaly texture had dramatically softened, and - although still drier than the skin around it - seemed to be less dry than before. It became pliable like normal skin and the spot began looking like the pink color under a scab after it falls off and then the spot was gone. It was all an unexpected but pleasant surprise.

I have a buzz cut so I also use this soap as my 'shampoo' and it makes my hair and scalp feel very nice and soft. Not dried out.

Sorry I don't know about determining between the different skin maladies, but I have a strong suspicion a lot of these skin things are related to yeast on the skin getting out of control, so the sulfur part will benefit that, and the salicyclic acid (same as aspirin) should help topically/locally raise the metabolic rate to help the cells take care of themselves and fend off unwanted things.

 

[Kray]

I don't notice any drying effect from this one. In fact, it seems to make my skin softer and more supple so I intend to keep using it even with the spots gone. This is how I determined that it was doing something to the spot by my neck is that after one use: the dry, hard and scaly texture had dramatically softened, and - although still drier than the skin around it - seemed to be less dry than before. It became pliable like normal skin and the spot began looking like the pink color under a scab after it falls off and then the spot was gone. It was all an unexpected but pleasant surprise.

I have a buzz cut so I also use this soap as my 'shampoo' and it makes my hair and scalp feel very nice and soft. Not dried out.

Sorry I don't know about determining between the different skin maladies, but I have a strong suspicion a lot of these skin things are related to yeast on the skin getting out of control, so the sulfur part will benefit that, and the salicyclic acid (same as aspirin) should help topically/locally raise the metabolic rate to help the cells take care of themselves and fend off unwanted things.

That's great help, thank you! When your skin is so irritated and dry, it seems counterintuitive to put what seems to be more drying on your skin, which is just about any soap, in my experience! I am encouraged by your results, and look forward to trying the products.

I ordered the soap bar (5%/2%) and the castile soap liquid version, to compare. I also ordered their SebDerm cream. I had forgotten to ask if you have found any good cream or moisturizer after washing with the soap?

 

[DrJ]

had forgotten to ask if you have found any good cream or moisturizer after washing with the soap?

I didn't. The soap leaves my skin in good shape.

 

[Kray]

I didn't. The soap leaves my skin in good shape.

Wow, that's great to hear! I may at least try the cream since I have already ordered it, but hope that my skin will respond well enough with soap alone that I can go back to using my regular moisturizer.

Thank you again.

 

[Kray]

Wow, that's great to hear! I may at least try the cream since I have already ordered it, but hope that my skin will respond well enough with soap alone that I can go back to using my regular moisturizer.

Thank you again.

Hey DrJ!

Just checking back-- can you give an update on your skin?

 

[Kray]

Eczema, asthma and ichthyosis are due to a loss of function in the gene coding for filaggrin.
Until some sort of gene therapy exists the most promising supplemental approach seems to be a combination of histidine and royal jelly.
Studies have shown royal jelly to increase filaggrin gene expression and histidine, through an increase of substrate, has also shown to increase filaggrin.

This is a great bit of information. So many things good attributed to Royal Jelly. Worth a try for skin problems. Thanks-

 

[Kray]

hi sara,
i do experience really bad itching on my face peeling and it looks like a bad sunburn. which antibiotics did you recommend for face? I dont wanna put rubbing alcohol straight on my face....

How are things? Can you give an update on your skin situation, what worked, etc?
By the way, this is the first i had ever read that caffeine might not be good for liver. Did you find removing caffeine helped your skin?