Learn what nutrition can do for
ECZEMA
Dry, itchy skin keeping you up at night and embarrassing you by day – there’s no doubt about it, living with eczema is hard.
You might be wondering what foods to avoid with eczema, what is the main cause of your eczema, and how to cure it naturally and quickly. Maybe you want to know what can stop the itching, especially at night.
Ultimately, you are looking for your eczema to go away.
Know The Science
How Nutrition can improve Eczema
"Eczema symptoms may be treated by changing the mix of gut bacteria or by reducing inflammation in the gut."
Gut healing
Most, if not all, eczema sufferers will benefit from gut healing1,2. Finding the foods you personally should avoid for your eczema is key. Poor gut health is a main cause of eczema, and correcting it is a key natural treatment for healing. Personalized nutritional therapies, comprehensive stool testing, and targeted herbal treatment plans should be used to promote gut healing and eczema.
Improve immune system functioning
treat symptoms naturally
Prescription medications for eczema can be very useful – but ultimately, they are just “band-aids.” No prescription can permanently cure eczema. Plus, prescription medications can cause major side effects or eventually just stop working altogether. While it may be necessary to use these medications at times, using natural products to support the body’s healing process is also a good idea. When used correctly, natural treatments are less likely to have negative side effects, and are much more likely to keep working over time.
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The main causes & triggers for Eczema
Eczema is an autoimmune disease. This means that your immune system is highly sensitive and can react to even the smallest allergens or irritants. This can cause inflammation underneath your skin, and lead to flare-ups. Your immune system isn’t actually trying to harm you – it’s just very confused. This is why figuring out which foods to avoid for your eczema is critical. However, these foods will vary from person to person.
There are many contributing factors that cause eczema. Everything from your individual genes to the environment around you can impact your eczema. Things that can cause eczema include: food sensitivities, nutritional deficiencies, stress, poor dental hygiene, toxins released by microbes living in your intestines, suboptimal liver functioning, air pollution, and more.
Eczema triggers will be different for each person. Identifying these triggers and then reducing your exposure to them is key.
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Nutrition & Lifestyle Treatments for Eczema
Prescription medications can provide much needed relief to eczema sufferers. This includes topical steroids, methotrexate, cyclosporine, crisaborole, Dupixent, and similar medications.
While these medications can be very helpful at times, many cause negative side effects (including worsening eczema) or simply stop working after awhile.
Natural treatments for eczema are different. When used properly, they are less likely to have side effects and they stay effective over time. The goal is to:
- Identify 1-2 food sensitivities (a full elimination diet is not necessary and actually often dangerous)
- Identify then correct nutritional deficiencies
- Identify key gut microbe imbalances, then address them
- Optimize the natural detoxification processes in the liver and other organs
- Reduce exposure to environmental triggers
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How a dietitian-nutritionist can help
Autoimmune diseases like eczema are poorly understood. Therefore, it’s absolutely essential to work with healthcare providers who are committed to servicing the autoimmune community and are up to date on the latest research.
A dietitian-nutrition specializing in autoimmune disease will help you identify 1-2 food triggers without putting you on an elimination diet. Elimination diets are dangerous, as they can promote eating disorders, which autoimmune sufferers are more likely to have. Identifying which foods to avoid for your eczema is particularly helpful.
A dietitian-nutritionist will also ensure that you are obtaining adequate nutrition, and are not deficient in key nutrients. By evaluating your eating habits and patterns, learning about your symptoms, and reading your blood work, a dietitian-nutritionist can make recommendations appropriate for you that can improve your eczema.
Additionally, stress is a well known trigger for eczema. There are specific nutrients that the body needs more of while stressed, and certain foods that can help our bodies handle stress better. Targeted nutrition can be used to reduce the impact of stress, therefore reducing your eczema.
Are you ready to take the next step?
Citations:
- Chan, Carmen Wing Han et al. “Effects of gut microbiome and environment on the development of eczema in Chinese infants.” Medicine vol. 99,21 (2020): e20327. doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000020327
- Makrgeorgou A, Leonardi-Bee J, Bath-Hextall FJ, Murrell DF, Tang MLK, Roberts A, Boyle RJ. Probiotics for treating eczema. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2018, Issue 11. Art. No.: CD006135. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006135.pub3
- Vighi, G et al. “Allergy and the gastrointestinal system.” Clinical and experimental immunology vol. 153 Suppl 1,Suppl 1 (2008): 3-6. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2249.2008.03713.x