I Finally Beat Eczema - New Year's Advice

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Peace on the Road
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Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2017 9:05 am
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by Peace on the Road on Wed Jan 04, 2017 10:23 am

I Finally Beat Eczema - New Year's Advice

After having suffered eczema for most of my life, it seems that during the previous year I have finally discovered some lifestyle changes that have allowed me to defeat it. In the spirit of the New Year I have decided to share this information.

As a bit of a disclaimer, I cannot guarantee this will be at all useful for anyone and/or everyone, it just seems to have worked for me. Please do note that some of these suggestions can take months before you will feel the positive impact of them. Also, I do not believe that you can ever 100% beat eczema since it is tied to allergies and other health conditions that will likely persist over the course of your entire life. But by making the right lifestyle choices you may be able to suppress it to the point that you forget you even suffer from it.

*I went to my doctor and had a blood test done to determine what specifically I am allergic to. It turned out I was highly allergic to dust mites, various plant detritus, and a whole lot of foods (most of which I already had already figured out via unfortunate happenstance).

*I bought an air filter and a Roomba (vaccum bot) for my room. Roomba runs for ~ an hour while I'm at work 5 days a week. I also do touch-up vaccuming in corners and other spots where the bot cant get to once a week. I run the air filter on windy days. If you're extremely diligent with your vaccuming habits, you do not need the assistance of a robot - I just happen to be a little bit lazy in this regard!

*I stopped drinking milk entirely. I avoid bread but have not cut it out completely. I have also been looking into my ancestors and what they likely ate and have been adjusting my diet accordingly. So far, it's been a lot of potatoes, raw spinach, some chicken, red meat, or fish occasionally. I treat myself to some dried fruit sometimes but for the most part I do not eat that food group, there is too much in it that I am allergic to. I also try to avoid processed sugar—supposedly it causes gut inflammation which wrecks the rest of your body in short order.

*I keep my fingernails as short as possible. Even if you have a lot of discipline with avoiding scratching itchy areas during the day, you might be doing it at night and not realizing it. Short fingernails will help prevent bacteria from spreading to raw areas, which will keep inflammation down.

*I take baths rather than showers.

*I use anti-dandruff shampoos as body washes. The one I've found to be most effective thus far is Neutrogena T/Gel. Works like a charm, but be warned that it has a distinctive smell to it that I would describe sort of like a combination of tar and eucalyptus. Not entirely unpleasant, but kind of weird. My grandmother had a jar of decades-old anti-psoriasis ointment that was also super effective—it had the same scent and dark brown color. This is likely because of the active ingredient which is 2% Neutar solubilized coal tar extract (coal tar 0.5%). There are other shampoos out there that also contain coal tar as well as soaps and ointments that you can buy over-the-counter. I have also used a lot of Nizoral which contains ketoconazole. Read up on these substances before you start using anything that contains them, consult your doctor, etc.


My skin is now very clear, whereas before I would at times get rashes so bad the bath water would turn pink with the blood oozing out of the open sores.

Since the age of 13—I am now 30—I had been using a cortisone steroid gel called Clobetasol Propionate which required a prescription. It wasn't supposed to be used preemptively, but rather after the rashes had already broken out, and it was not to be used on the face/scalp.

Clobetasol Propionate has a number of negative side effects, such as causing the skin to thin more quickly, which results in faster aging and a higher likelihood of skin breaking with damage. It may also cause increased body hair growth.

To be perfectly honest, this works extremely well for healing damaged skin and reducing dermatitis, but I feel it would be best to avoid using it if at all possible. I think I would be better off now if I had not started using it so profusely at such a young age. Fortunately I am now at a point where I don't seem to need it anymore.

In 2014 and 2015 I had tried a lot of holistic suggestions from various health sites, such as drinking 1-2 tablespoons of hemp seed oil per day and creating a "poultice" of raw honey, but none of that seemed to help all that much.

Hopefully this information is helpful to someone. Happy New Year.

johnhilbert1979
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 1:04 pm
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by johnhilbert1979 on Thu Jan 19, 2017 1:22 pm

Re: I Finally Beat Eczema - New Year's Advice

I'm very glad you got through this terrible skin condition!

You said you used steroid creams for a long-term use. How is your skin now from the creams? Many people get thinning of the skin and easily bruised from long-term use!

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