Three weeks ago I saw "Lisa" a lovely 9 year old girl with a 2 year history of itchy red skin. She had been prescribed a steroid cream with some success but it was not completely going away. She had areas of red flaking and itchy skin on her hands, in the crease of her arms and at her ankles. The diagnosis was clearly eczema.
Steroid creams are the mainstay of treatment, but there is so much more to do to clear up this condition. Steroids can control the symptoms but they do not cure the problem.
This girl had normal skin on most of her body, so our job was to get the abnormal skin to go back to normal skin and this was our plan:
*Continue the steroid cream twice a day just to control the symptoms while we started the rest of the treatment. This helps lessen the itch (usually the most annoying symptom) and the inflammation.
*Start a cream or lotion with CERUMIDES in it. This can be bought without a prescription in all pharmacies and health food stores. This is the main issue with the skin, not enough cerumides in the tissue so we need to replenish it. This should be applied twice a day.
*Change the diet!! One must get inflammatory foods out of your body so the body can heal. The diet that I have seen that does the most good is Paleo:
- eat lots of vegetables (avoiding root vegetables like potatoes)
- eat healthy protein
- eat LOTS of healthy fats (avocados, nuts, wild fish, coconut oil, olive oil). Avoid trans and deep fried fats.
Why the fat? EVERY cell in the body has a cholesterol membrane which is fat. If you do not eat enough fat the skin cannot repair. Low fat and fat free diets are the worst.
*Get rid of sugar. Sugar is inflammatory. The skin cannot heal if the body is inflamed.
*Drink water and only water frequently throughout the day. Healthy skin needs hydration.
I saw "Lisa" yesterday in the clinic and she was doing amazing. Here hands were 90% healed and the eczema on her arms and ankles were 70% better. She was thrilled with how well she was doing. The itch was barely there and she was feeling so much better with the healthier diet. Her dad said she was a much happier child.
Stay healthy!
Doctor Pamela