Overcoming Eczema Naturally

Every now and then I get emails asking about how to deal with skin conditions, eczema being the most prevalent, especially in children which can be heart breaking.

This blog post by Holistic Nutritionalist Natalie Brady is one I have shared before, but is still very relevant. So many of us, or people that we know, will suffer with skin conditions at some point in our lives. Often we feel that we have exhausted all options in an attempt to clear it up and simply accept that it is just something we will have to live with.

Well, what if you haven’t already tried everything? Have a read of Natalie’s personal journey and if this resonates with you, or someone you know, then contact her directly to get some more information.

From Natalie …

“I don’t often talk about my skin conditions, but eczema is a common condition which I help many clients with in clinic, so, I thought I’d share with you my experience on how I healed my eczema naturally.

For those lucky ones who haven’t suffered from this skin condition, here’s the quick breakdown: Eczema is an inflammatory skin disorder that causes rough, red patches of itchy skin that can develop blisters. 

When I was a child until my early 20’s I used to suffer with eczema. It would often be itchy and painful and would come and go all the time in the creases of my arms, legs, random spots on my stomach, hands, arms and sometimes around my eyes. I could never really put it down to anything specific except for having “sensitive skin”. Before studying nutrition and learning how the body worked I thought eczema was something I had to live with forever. Boy was I wrong!

When I embarked on my health journey almost 10 years ago to reduce my health conditions at the time (IBS, asthma, reaction to food allergies, addiction to sugar) I couldn’t believe my eyes that my eczema was one of the first things to go.

For years I didn’t understand what was happening in my body. I used to always do what the doctor told me… “the only way to reduce symptoms is with steroid creams”. So, as you can guess for almost 20 years I used corticosteroid creams to provide temporary relief for eczema breakout and symptom relief. Knowing what I know now, this was just a band aid to my problem, it didn’t get to the root cause. I never experienced a total decrease in symptoms until I change my diet and took on a holistic approach to my health.

I started experimenting with diet change, I first removed all nuts from my diet as I did a skin prick test and found out peanuts were a big allergy of mine. Following this I removed dairy from my diet and quit sugar (I was addicted to sugar at this time). I also learned that the years of antibiotics and steroids (from creams and daily asthma inhalers) negatively impacted by gut flora, leaving me with virtually no healthy bacteria in my gut. Without good bacteria to keep pathogens in check, I’d also often suffer with candida overgrowth. With no natural bacterial immune system left, my body had resorted to its last line of defense—inflammation…. hello eczema breakouts! Because of this I had to do a lot of work to improve my gut microbiome and gut lining. 

After months of diet changes, gut work and self-experimenting from the knowledge I gained during my studies my eczema breakouts started to decrease. For the first time in years, I didn’t have to use creams or anything to reduce symptoms and I was able to get through a hot summer, and sleep through humid nights without frequently waking with “the eczema itch”. I was also a lot less irritable and more focused.

I’ve now been eczema free for almost 10 years (apart from the odd eczema breakout on my fingers, which is often due to histamine foods – a topic for another day). If you suffer from this condition I hope this helps to shed some light on ways you can start to experimenting with your diet to become symptom free. What happens on the outside truly is a reflection of what’s happening on the inside and in particular what’s happening with your gut microbiome.

If you need help with exploring this or new ways to move forward, please don’t hesitate to make contact.“

Nat xx