Dr. Mercola December 30 2008 181,316 views
Eczema (atopic dermatitis), and the closely associated psoriasis, are two very common skin problems.
Both eczema and psoriasis are potentially allergic conditions that can be triggered by environmental factors and dozens of other external irritants like:
While psoriasis is most often linked with external allergic triggers, eczema is often caused by food allergies.
However, although they’re different diseases and have varying triggers, their treatments have many commonalities. .
How to Effectively and Inexpensively Treat Eczema and Psoriasis
Eczema is “the itch that rashes,” meaning, there’s really no rash until you start scratching the itchy area. Hence, the first thing you need to do is to stop scratching!
Addressing the itch -- As anyone with eczema will attest, this is easier said than done. But fortunately, there IS a really simple, inexpensive way to relieve the itch: Simply put a saltwater compress over the itchy area. You’ll want to use a high quality natural salt, such as Himalayan salt. Simply make a solution with warm water, soak a compress, and apply the compress over the affected area. You’ll be amazed to find that the itching will virtually disappear! Another method that can be helpful for reducing or stopping the itch is EFT. Proper skin hydration – When working with any type of skin condition, you need to make sure your skin is optimally hydrated. Skin creams are rarely the answer here, but rather you’ll want to hydrate your skin from the inside out by consuming high quality, animal-based omega-3 fats in your diet. Your best sources for omega-3s are animal-based fats like krill oil or fish oil. I also find it helpful to include a bit of gamma linoleic acid, typically in the form of primrose oil, as this works remarkably well for eczema. Products like “krill for women” are good for both sexes for this condition as they have both fatty acids. Plant-based omega-3s like flax and hemp seed, although decent omega-3 sources in general, will not provide the clinical benefit you need to reduce inflammation and swelling in your skin. Secondly, you’ll want to reduce your exposure to harsh soaps and drying out your skin with excessive bathing. Use a very mild soap when you cleanse your skin, especially in the winter to avoid stripping your skin of moisture. Taking care of your gut = Taking care of your skin – Many don’t realize this, but the health and quality of your skin is strongly linked to the health of your gut. I recommend taking a high quality probiotic to ensure optimal digestive health. Fermented foods can be used as well, but are neither as common nor as easy to use. Diet and skin quality – Food allergies play an enormous role in eczema. In my experience, the most common offending agent is wheat, or more specifically, gluten. Avoiding wheat and other gluten-containing grains is therefore a wise first step. If you were to visit my clinic outside of Chicago as a new patient, one of the first steps we would advise would be to go on a gluten-free diet for a number of weeks and carefully observe any health improvements. This is an enormously common problem and many of our patients are surprised to find how much improvement they actually achieve from this step. Avoiding grains will also reduce the amount of sugar in your system, which will normalize your insulin levels and reduce any and all inflammatory conditions you may have, including inflammation in your skin. Other common allergens include milk and eggs. I recommend you do an elimination trial with these foods as well. You should see some improvement in about a week, sometimes less, after eliminating them from your diet if either of them is causing you trouble. Basking in the sun – Vitamin D in the form of sun exposure is your best friend when dealing with either of these skin conditions, but it’s especially helpful for psoriasis. I produced a one-hour lecture that explains the health benefits of this long under-appreciated vitamin, so if you haven’t seen it already, I strongly recommend you take the time to watch this free video now. Ideally, you’ll want to get your vitamin D from appropriate sunshine exposure because UVB radiation on your skin will not only metabolize vitamin D, but will also help restore ideal skin function. High amounts of UVB exposure directly on affected skin – but not so much to cause sunburn! – will greatly improve the quality of your skin. However, if you can’t get sufficient amounts of sun during the winter months, a high quality safe tanning bed can suffice. A safe tanning bed will provide the optimized forms of UVA and UVB wavelengths, without dangerous magnetic skin balance.
Addressing the itch -- As anyone with eczema will attest, this is easier said than done. But fortunately, there IS a really simple, inexpensive way to relieve the itch: Simply put a saltwater compress over the itchy area.
You’ll want to use a high quality natural salt, such as Himalayan salt. Simply make a solution with warm water, soak a compress, and apply the compress over the affected area. You’ll be amazed to find that the itching will virtually disappear!
Another method that can be helpful for reducing or stopping the itch is EFT.
Proper skin hydration – When working with any type of skin condition, you need to make sure your skin is optimally hydrated. Skin creams are rarely the answer here, but rather you’ll want to hydrate your skin from the inside out by consuming high quality, animal-based omega-3 fats in your diet.
Your best sources for omega-3s are animal-based fats like krill oil or fish oil. I also find it helpful to include a bit of gamma linoleic acid, typically in the form of primrose oil, as this works remarkably well for eczema. Products like “krill for women” are good for both sexes for this condition as they have both fatty acids.
Plant-based omega-3s like flax and hemp seed, although decent omega-3 sources in general, will not provide the clinical benefit you need to reduce inflammation and swelling in your skin.
Secondly, you’ll want to reduce your exposure to harsh soaps and drying out your skin with excessive bathing. Use a very mild soap when you cleanse your skin, especially in the winter to avoid stripping your skin of moisture.
Taking care of your gut = Taking care of your skin – Many don’t realize this, but the health and quality of your skin is strongly linked to the health of your gut. I recommend taking a high quality probiotic to ensure optimal digestive health. Fermented foods can be used as well, but are neither as common nor as easy to use.
Diet and skin quality – Food allergies play an enormous role in eczema. In my experience, the most common offending agent is wheat, or more specifically, gluten. Avoiding wheat and other gluten-containing grains is therefore a wise first step.
If you were to visit my clinic outside of Chicago as a new patient, one of the first steps we would advise would be to go on a gluten-free diet for a number of weeks and carefully observe any health improvements. This is an enormously common problem and many of our patients are surprised to find how much improvement they actually achieve from this step.
Avoiding grains will also reduce the amount of sugar in your system, which will normalize your insulin levels and reduce any and all inflammatory conditions you may have, including inflammation in your skin.
Other common allergens include milk and eggs. I recommend you do an elimination trial with these foods as well. You should see some improvement in about a week, sometimes less, after eliminating them from your diet if either of them is causing you trouble.
Basking in the sun – Vitamin D in the form of sun exposure is your best friend when dealing with either of these skin conditions, but it’s especially helpful for psoriasis.
I produced a one-hour lecture that explains the health benefits of this long under-appreciated vitamin, so if you haven’t seen it already, I strongly recommend you take the time to watch this free video now.
Ideally, you’ll want to get your vitamin D from appropriate sunshine exposure because UVB radiation on your skin will not only metabolize vitamin D, but will also help restore ideal skin function. High amounts of UVB exposure directly on affected skin – but not so much to cause sunburn! – will greatly improve the quality of your skin.
However, if you can’t get sufficient amounts of sun during the winter months, a high quality safe tanning bed can suffice. A safe tanning bed will provide the optimized forms of UVA and UVB wavelengths, without dangerous magnetic skin balance.
Why Conventional Treatments Fail
You don’t have to use expensive, dangerous medicines to treat eczema or psoriasis!
Steroid creams especially, are clearly something you’ll want to avoid, because although they work initially, you will tend to rapidly develop tolerance to them. These creams contain synthetic steroids, which are absorbed into your skin, and can wreak serious havoc with your adrenal system.
So please, avoid steroid creams and other potentially dangerous medications for these skin conditions and use these natural methods instead. You’ll find they work almost all the time, especially if you diligently apply them.
Every winter, like clockwork, I get Eczema on my legs. This has been going on for about the last ten years. In the late spring or early summer it would go away. I always attributed it to dryness. In fact last year I saw a physician about the problem and she recommended I use lotion (loaded with chemicals I might add). I had been using lotion to no avail prior to her recommendation so I knew this was not the solution. After reading Dr. Mercola's articles on Vitamin D I started additional supplementation (my multi's have about 400IU). I bumped up my daily intake to around 5000IU for the last few weeks and, low and behold, I have NO eczema for the first time during the winter in a long, long time. Apparently the fact that I'm not out mowing the lawn, going to the pool, riding my motorcycle, and all the other summer activities was depleting my Vitamin D reserves, hence the eczema. Thanks to Dr. Mercola for helping me to finally figure this out.
Have to agree about "wheat" being a culprit: for me I'll add/say gluten (wrapped in wheat, rye, barley & oats) was the culprit. Eczema was one of my early symptoms in my teens, and was exacerbated by stress (living with an alcoholic parent - another "wheat" problem!). I was finally diagnosed with celiac disease in middle-age and ta-da: no more eczema. So: leaky gut & nutritional deficiencies for me definitely!
I try to help others, but often they won't listen. I will add this article to my arsenal of info for them. Thank you!
I can personally attest to the things that Dr. Mercola addressing in this article being things that work to prevent eczema from happening to me in the first place. It makes sense to me that he says that eczema is an autoimmune disorder, since I have other autoimmune disorders that are closely related. What Kelly Eidem was talking about is something that Dr. Mercola has also already covered. It's too bad that my conventional doctor doesn't believe in the Candidas connection, because she will cooperate with me and my naturopath on so many other things, but she won't do any of the tests for Candidas. She will integrate on every other issue but that one. I've been doing what I can with my diet, so hopefully any possibility of Candidas infection has been greatly reduced, if not eliminated. I don't have the awful cravings, like I used to, which is a good indication that I'm on the right track, and I've lost a significant amount of weight along the way.
Also, since I addressed food sensitivities, I'm having less overall skin irritation. And, I switched from all commerdcially made dish liquids, which are all petroleum based. They were making me feel nauseous and were giving me headaches.
With all these changes and others that match what Dr. Mercola has addressed in this article, I no longer get those giant blisters on the heels of my hands I have gotten in the past, which used to appear overnight. I would do what I could to keep those blisters from popping open, but they always appeared on the active part of my hands, so they would often pop open without my prompting them to. Then, the misery would start and last for weeks. I'm not having this issue so much anymore.
Your mention of hand blisters made me think of my friend's 5-year old son. He had the same symptom and has been diagnosed with Celiac disease. Anything with gluten in it (soy sauce, vinegars,etc. etc) causes a reaction. So maybe that is contributing to your symptoms as well.
Me too--only for psoriasis! I had psoriasis as a child, and my parents took me to the Jersey shore as much as possible. They noticed that the rash was much smaller and itched less after I had been swimming. They didn't realize it was the sun. They thought it was the saltwater (which hurt like a son of a gun!).
To stop the itch i use Aloa vera straight from the desert plant. I Made sure to cut the spines off because if I didn't I would use them for a good scratch. Mind you it didn't do any good but it felt good. The aloa vera would stop the itch nearly instantly. I have many plants growing on the windowledge. My itch is caused by bread I think cos everytime i stop eating bread it goes away. Milk has something to do with it to, but milk is very easy to stop drinking. I still go on bread binges especially now because it is cold but i am getting better. I don't use any soap or shampoo except on the palms of my hands. I just shower in water and that is it. I found out a long time ago that soap made it worse. I do sometimes use neem soap - my sister makes it - on my hair.
Thank you, Dr. Mercola! My naturapathic physician helped me resolve issues with my skin by treating candida and 3 weeks later even skin cancer on my nose went away....just need to eliminate sugar from your diet as much as possible!