Have you ever been told that eczema can’t be cured, only managed? 

This is because of the old, outdated approach to suppress symptoms and apply moisturisers and steroids. Research shows that topical steroids do not improve eczema long term. This is because this ‘skin-only’ approach fails to identify and address the root cause(s).

Eczema is not just a condition of the skin.

It’s a symptom that your body is stuck in inflammation, and is expressing this inflammation through the skin. 

But, when you identify the root causes of this inflammation and eczema, the skin can heal. 

When you do identify the root causes of eczema and clear them – the eczema disappears. It is a logical resolution with the skin healing.   

 This is what I do with my private clients – identify the root cause – and help them resolve it quickly.

Today, I’m sharing all of this with you, because once upon a time I was where you are now.

My son had severe eczema as a baby and I didn’t know where to turn, or who to turn to.

To cut a long story short, we started with steroids, found they didn’t help, and addressed gut health and the root causes. His skin healed completely within a few months and he become eczema free.

That was over a decade ago. He lives his life eczema-free. (No moisturisers, no steroids, no crazy diet.) 

Now I help my clients heal their skin WITHOUT:

• super restrictive FAILSAFE, Vegan, or Carnivore diets,
• complicated supplement protocols (that are so hard to get your kid to take), or
• questionable medicated cream (ahem Aron) regimes.

It can be simple. 

If you’re ready to change your life – or your child’s life – read on and most importantly, take action. 

And if you are ready to fasttrack your child’s improvements – or your own, just reach out or click HERE for the different ways we can work together. 

I’m going to leave the BIGGEST one – and the one I spend about 80-90% of my time with my private clients, last. I see it time and time again in my clients – it is the KEY that results in the greatest shifts – so read on until the end.

I’ll also talk about healing catalysts – that is, things that can fasttrack things, reduce inflammation, and simple protocols for these. We all need a bit of extra support sometimes!

I only typically recommend 1-2 MAX of this list at any one time for my clients, as the quickest and biggest improvements I see are with the 1:1 work I do (at the end). 

DO NOT try to implement everything at once because it can lead to overwhelm.

There’s no need to be overwhelmed. Start with one in any order, and implement for one week. Then add another one the next week. You’ll be on a path to reducing inflammation with each and every step. 

1. DETOX ROUTINE FOR ECZEMA

Supporting your body’s detoxification systems are vital to clear the toxins and waste out and to minimise flare ups in doing so.

Lymphatic Massage:

30-60 seconds daily, gentle massage around collarbones, neck, armpits, abdomen, groin, and back of knees. Don’t go overboard. 

Hydration:

Ensure you’re hydrating with filtered water before and after the massage. 

Exercise: Move your body after this, e.g. dancing, running, jogging, marching on the spot, trampoline, or rebounding. 

Support the liver:

Castor oil packs (hexane-free and organic) on the liver (right side) for 20 minutes. Make sure you protect your furniture and clothing as it stains! Herbs can be helpful here too, but consult with your healthcare practitioner about appropriate herbs. 

Binders

There are various binders for mould, heavy metals, and general detox to support the body detoxify and ensure the toxins/heavy metals/mould exits via the digestive system instead of detoxing through the skin or lungs. A simple and easily accessible one is activated charcoal.  

;2. DIET & ECZEMA

Gut health:

Home-made meat stocks daily (NO BONE BROTHS to begin with please!). Must be made with meat and a meat joint (e.g. maryland – thigh connected to drumstick, meat and chicken feet/necks, or whole chicken). Add whatever veg you like including garlic and onion if tolerated, and add salt to taste. Drink at least 1-3 cups per day. After 2 weeks, SLOWLY add in a strand of sauerkraut and build up the amount to a few tablespoons per savoury meal.

Inflammatory foods:

Reduce or remove processed foods/ food additives, hydrogenated vegetable oils. The top ‘food triggers’ that I see are gluten, dairy, soy, and sugar. Once the gut is healed, these may be reintroduced slowly or in smaller quantities and well tolerated for many. I do not recommend strict elimination diets, carnivore, or vegan diets for healing eczema, as I tend to see more damage to gut health rather than improvement. Initial improvement on these diets may be due to removing processed foods at the start. 

Nutrition:

Increase nutrition as much as possible, e.g. beef/chicken livers, sardines, herbs like oregano, rosemary, thyme, garlic, onion as tolerated.  Think about what you’re eating as being healthy building blocks for skin; processed foods and hydrogenated vegetables oils aren’t great building blocks for healthy skin. Ensure that you’re getting enough protein in your diet, essential fatty acids, vitamin A, D, E, and zinc. Vitamin D is typically low in those with eczema, allergies, and asthma, so can be worth testing and if low, supplementing with Vitamin D3/K2.  

Colours of the rainbow:

Increase plant-based foods and multi-colours. Aim for 20-40 different plant-based (unprocessed) fruit/veg/seeds per week.

Mealtimes:

Peaceful mealtimes are key to improving digestion. This means eating together (where possible), eating sitting down, not rushed or stressed, no screens before, during, or after dinner. Chewing 20 times per chew. No water during meals – save this for at least 30 mins before or after a meal to avoid diluting the digestive juices. 

Hydration:

Drink the recommended amount of filtered water per day (for adults and babies over 6 months). Use a filter for drinking water to avoid drinking chlorine and other chemicals/heavy metals etc. Chlorine can affect gut bacteria negatively. Alcohol is inflammatory and can also affect gut health, so best to avoid. 

Celebrating another client –

NO LONGER HAVING TO GO ON DUPIXENT.

Has said GOODBYE to 3 medicated creams –

as they no longer have eczema!!  

 3. ENVIRONMENT & ECZEMA

If you’re doing alllll the things in this article but not seeing any improvement, I would b strongly suspicious of environmental factors, particularly mould.

Mould:

This can be a BIG contributing factor – check for mould in common places like bathrooms, ceilings/roof, cupboards, behind bookshelves, and basements. I recommend a Building Biologist to assess and recommend appropriate remediation.

Dustmites:

The dustmite faeces (!) can be an allergen – so regular vacuuming with a HEPA filter vacuum and dusting can help reduce the load. They also don’t like light – so NOT making your bed for the first 30 mins after you get out can help reduce them. YES! Wash clothes on 55C or higher and/or use tea-tree essential oil to kill them.

Bathing:

Reduce frequency of bathing. 1-2 times per week with ‘top and tail’ washes on the other days for kids. For adults – see how you go. Chlorine may be a trigger – so consider a water filter. Include Epsom Salts and Dead Sea Salts if in bath. Ensure water is not too hot. If you’re finding bathing is a trigger, try a very short shower instead.

Soap:

AVOID. Soap is drying and increases the pH of our acidic skin. The bacteria Staphylococcus Aureus is a bacteria associated with eczema and inflammation/flare-ups. This bacteria likes dry and skin with a high pH! Use just water with babies and kids – no need for bath oil, shampoo/conditioner or other products until much older.

Personal care products:

Overall, reduce exposure to personal care products to reduce exposure to more chemicals. Avoid fragrances and oat/goatsmilk coconut oil as these MAY lead to the development of a new food allergy – not always, but a few small research studies have made this correlation.

Moisturisers:

Ensure your moisturiser does not contain the ingredients above, perfumes/fragrance,  or skin irritants. Check EWG.org website Skin Deep database for information on the safety of your moisturiser ingredients. For my private clients, I recommend a basic eczema skin serum made from jojoba oil (2/3), hexane-free castor oil (1/3) and a few drops of black-seed oil. With the addition of lavender, frankincense, geranium, roman chamomile, and helicrysm (ensure these are pure oils), these oils are known for healing skin and are very powerful. Make sure you only add a drop of each as they are powerful and effective even if well diluted at 0.5%.    

Clothing:

Best fabrics are cotton and silk. Bamboo has a lot of greenwashing and uses a lot of chemicals to get it to become a fabric. Avoid synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon. Wool can also be irritating. Wash your clothes in fragrance-free detergent – you can a very simple one with bicarbonate of soda, washing soda, and borax.

Temperature:

Sometimes, those with eczema “run hot” and may need less warm doonas/blankets/gro-bags at nighttime.

Sleep:

Avoid blue light (i.e. screens) 2-3 hours before bed to optimise the circadian rhythm. Getting outside and into the early morning sun and evening sun can help reset the circadian rhythm and improve sleep quality. Switch off modems at night to allow the brain to detoxify more effectively and improve sleep quality.  

4. HEALING CATALYSTS FOR ECZEMA

Light Therapy:

This is super beneficial and can fasttrack reduction in inflammation and symptoms. DM me if you’d like to join my photoceutical protocols group for gut healing, anxiety, stress, or lowering inflammation. 

Sunlight:

Red light therapy has been shown to be very beneficial for eczema. You could consider a portable device. However, Sunlight has the full spectrum and so exposing your skin – including eczema areas – to the sun in the morning with sunrise and late afternoon /evening with sunset, is very beneficial. 

Grounding:

Getting outside with your bare feet on the grass, dirt, sand – is a beautiful way to reduce stress and reconnect with nature. 

FIND JOY DAILY!

Taking the focus off eczema/your skin and doing something that brings joy into your life every day is vital. This reduces inflammation, and helps your body shift out of the stress response.   

5. RELEASING STRESS & STORED EMOTIONS

TO CLEAR ECZEMA

THIS is the BIGGEST root cause of eczema that I see, time and time again in my private clients. It’s also why you’re probably not seeing the improvements you think you should be seeing by now. 

When an event occurs that is stressful to us, we respond (SNS subconscious response), we feel intense emotions and then process them through and out of our body. Then, our PNS kicks back in and we’re calm again.

Except, this is increasingly NOT the case.

Why?

At the time of a stressful or traumatic event, we may not feel safe to feel and process those emotions (e.g. grief – cry), or we don’t know how to feel and process those emotions.

If we don’t process our emotions, they get stored in our bodies, contributing to ongoing inflammation. 

It’s exactly why two soldiers can be in the same battle, and one suffers afterwards with PTSD and the other is not affected in this way. One may have had a childhood where he felt safe and able to prcocess emotions growing up in a household with adults who modelled this for him. The other may have grown up in a household where he didn’t feel safe to feel and process his emotions, whatever the cause. 

Over time these unprocessed, stored emotions accumulate and eventually present as a physical symptom(s).

For those of you reading this – this is eczema. 

 The most common stored emotions that I see are anger, fear, sadness, hopelessness, frustration, shame, and guilt.

If your baby or young child has eczema, you may be wondering how your child could possibly have stored emotions when they’re not even that old!

It’s a great question. 

Some of these emotions may have originated as a foetus during your pregancy or during birth. For some, stress around conception can also play a role in symptoms.  

Separation or fear of separation is also a common theme I see in my private clients, which commonly occurs between mother and baby shortly after birth (even if just for a few minutes), or a parent returning to work. 

Biologically, we are present as an egg in our mother’s ovaries when she is a developing foetus in her mother’s womb.

So any stressors that occur during our maternal grandmother’s pregnancy with our mother, or our mother’s childhood, can affect us too.  

You may need to read that (above) again. It can be mindblowing for many, but biologically true. 

While we cannot change what happened in the past, we can clear the stress and resulting inflammation created at the time of these events.  

My client was DONE with eczema and Topical Steroid Withdrawal.

She was ready to clear the root cause.

By identifying the root causes of her eczema, we cleared stored emotions and supported her nervous system so she could finally hea. These changes were rapid (4 sessions over 6 weeks).

 I use a range of gentle approaches to help my clients reduce the intensity around these emotions/events in time – even if they’re not sure exactly what happened. This helps to release the stuck SNS response allowing the client to feel more calm as their PNS is allowed to “come online”. This cuts the inflammation at the core and results in a reduction of symptoms. Sometimes this takes a few weeks, sometimes it is much quicker. 

The amazing thing I’ve also  witnessed is that by supporting parents in this process, they’ve seen their children’s eczema symptoms reducing. We know that our kids sense when we are stressed – and they also sense when we are not. Calmer parents also can mean improved family dynamics, which benefit all. Our children’s nervous systems can reflect this too.

Are stuck / unprocessed emotions holding back your healing?

If you’re wondering if unprocessed emotions are contributing to your symptoms / your child’s symptoms, here’s a short exercise to test it:

Think of your eczema / your child’s eczema.

Notice:

• What emotions are coming up?
• How you feel / sensations in your body?
• Where you are feeling this in your body?
• What the intensity of this feeling is out of 10 (10 = most intense, 0 = nothing)?
• What colour is this feeling/emotion?

   

  If you are sensing strong feelings and/or emotions, then these are contributing to inflammation in your body.  While there are lots of physical and breathing exercises that you can do to lower your SNS input and inflammation, by clearing the emotions around the event pulls inflammation out at the root.

  If you are DONE with eczema, and would like support, click HERE to find out the ways to work with me to reduce inflammation and symptoms. 

If you’re looking for additional information on how to implement any of these, you can access all the details for HOW To in my Nourish and Heal Inflammation Bundle, the Eczema in Babies and Kids Bundle,  or join my free FB Community of over 2,000 members HERE.