You are currently browsing the daily archive for April 28, 2009.
I am focusing this post on allergic eczema because that’s my field of experience. There are other triggers, most notably: toxin overload, insufficient diet, severe emotional trauma, multiple chemical sensitivity. You can also check my other posts below for more information and my “Who We Are” page. Other eczema related posts:
Dairy Allergies and Fermented Foods
If you are dealing with eczema today, you have my sympathies. It’s a miserable scourge, attacking young and old and making sweet babies miserable. My youngest developed allergic eczema before her first birthday when we moved from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest. We had no idea she was allergic to juniper when we moved into the house surrounded by a hedge of it. We didn’t know she was allergic to pine when we relocated into a national forest full of it. We’d never even heard of dust mite allergy when we moved into a 150-year-old house with 40-year-old carpeting. If we’d known the extent of her sensitivity to mold, we probably wouldn’t have put her in a carpeted basement bedroom in the southeast where we live now. It’s a real moving target for us: finding out what causes the rash, avoiding the allergen, fixing the rash. Eczema is called “the itch that rashes.” For us it’s very true that the itch comes first, then the rash. It’s hard to tell a youngster or adult, “Don’t scratch! That makes it worse!” But telling it to a baby or toddler is just so much wasted breath.
As for causes, there are as many causes as there are allergens. Eczema can erupt from an allergen you breathe, eat, drink or touch. And because the affected body is exhibiting allergies through the skin already, prick allergy tests can be almost useless by giving false positives on nearly every tested allergen.
My first line of defense is different with eczema than with other health problems. For most health issues, we believe in using the smallest possible “gun” first, relying on nutrition and lifestyle refinements and saving the bigger guns (OTC drugs and prescriptions) in case the situation worsens. But when Rose tells me she itches, we go right for the Benadryl first. Allowing the itch to live on her skin increases the odds she will scratch, rash and worsen. Steroids do knock out the problem fairly quickly, but are also very strong drugs. We try to avoid steroids, even topically, unless the rash is covering a large part of her body and not healing after several weeks of home intervention. We have tried every lotion available and they all sting her skin, so we don’t put anything on the rash. Oatmeal baths actually made her worse, and for a time we suspected an oat allergy. We were able to rule that out later, and still don’t know why her skin reacts negatively to oatmeal baths.
In this photo, you can see how the skin on Rose’s neck is oozing, a very distressing symptom of eczema. You can also see the red rash on her arms, chin and chest. I took this photo for comparison. If the rash didn’t show significant improvement in 48 hours I would take her to the doctor. This open skin is very susceptible to infection, and once infected, the skin can suffer permanent damage and scarring. With a combination of compresses, dietary intervention and filtered air, she did show improvement within 24 hours.
As for what works, that’s also a moving target. Sometimes a cool bath takes the itch out enough. Sunshine helps sometimes and worsens it others. Benadryl helps a little, but not nearly as much as one would hope. Topically, aloe gel helps sometimes, as does clay (like the kind used in a facial). Calendula cream in a choline base (available from health food stores) can help if applied soon enough, but once the rash starts, it just stings. A decoction of marshmallow root can prevent infection on an open, weeping area. Witch hazel works nearly as well as over-the-counter hydrocortisone cream and doesn’t have the nasty side effects. If they work for you, forskolin tablets (also available at health food stores) can be a good substitute for Benadryl.
Food suggestions include cold water wild caught salmon for its EPA content. There’s a good EPA supplement called Coromega that our kids take. It’s pricey, but they will take it. Cod liver oil is also very helpful, and capsules are available. Sufficient zinc is important in any skin condition, and good sources include beef, grains, lima beans and peanuts. Berries (blackberries, blueberries, cherries and raspberries) have wonderful anti-inflammatory compounds to take swelling down deliciously. Rose has long had a habit of eating an apple (or more) every day. In doing some research on her eczema, I learned that apples have a good dose of Quercitin, a compound that helps the body with inflammatory issues like allergies.
If your child has eczema and asthma, check your house carefully for molds and dust mites. These two allergens and reactions often go hand-in-hand.
I strongly recommend keeping a diary for eczema-prone children. Where did they play? What did they eat? What’s the pollen count and major pollen source (available at the Weather Channel website)? What did you try? Did it help? Because eczema has so many causes, keeping it all written down could help you identify triggers that would remain a mystery otherwise. It took journaling and internet research for me to discover the cause of the outbreak Rose suffered an hour after jumping on the bed (hello, dust mites!) But if I wasn’t journaling, I’d probably have missed it.
This post is part of the Natural Cures Blog Carnival.
In my journey from standard American to smarter American, I embarked on an herbal medicine course. Due to family issues, I had to stop two or three weeks before completion. I have since finished the course on my own, but don’t have the official stamp of certification. Studying herbal medicine was a wonderful step toward being more self-reliant for our family. As I see the US move toward socialized health care and as I study the strengths and weaknesses of the Canadian and British systems, I am more and more convinced that I need to take care of as much as I can in my own home and not rely on doctors for everyday illnesses and injuries. DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor, the medical advice I provide my family is just that…advice. The herbal remedies I make at home are for supporting our health, they aren’t cures.
Studying herbs has also lead me to study food and the way what we eat supports or degrades our health. I believe there are critical first steps to take to help our bodies function at their peak: sunshine, fresh air, clean water, lifestyle exercise, restful sleep, peace with God and the foods we eat. Sometimes our bodies fall ill and we need to take stronger steps. But long before I bring out the cannons of prescriptions, I’ll try some smaller guns like herbs and time-tested home remedies.
I have what some might call “weak lungs.” That is, when I catch a cold, it usually goes to bronchitis and occasionally pneumonia before resolving. In order to stop the downward cycle, I have a weapon in my herbal arsenal I’m never without.
Mullein grows wild in many parts of the US, including the Pacific Northwest where I first learned about this gem; and the southeast where I now live. The first year it makes a soft, green rosette. These leaves can be made into a soothing salve for scrapes and hemorrhoids.
If left through the winter, the plant puts up a flower spike that I’ve seen rocketing 7 feet tall in its second summer. As the spike blooms, the flowers can be picked and made into a tincture.
When I catch a cold, the cold goes through these stages if left untreated: the headache, the runny nose, the congested chest, bronchitis, pneumonia, healing. When my cold reaches the congested chest stage, I will start taking my mullein tincture. The mullein causes the congestion in my chest to break up. The coughing that results is good coughing, called expectoration. This coughing breaks up the mucous in my lungs and keeps a secondary infection from getting started. The exercise of coughing also increases blood flow to my lungs, which helps my body warm up and clean the area. Since I’ve begun taking mullein during the congested part of a cold cycle, I have only had one bout of bronchitis and it didn’t develop into pneumonia.
I now have mullein growing in my medicine garden so I don’t need to wonder if the herb I wildcraft has been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. The next time you’re driving through a wild area and see a tall spike like this, I hope you think “medicine” and not “weed!”
The Dark Side of Fat Loss
