Random Tip To Stop An Eczema Itch

I want to share a funny story with you (well, funny to me at least). My Mum phoned the other day and was telling me about an article she had read about distracting the body from pain and also a bit about helping itch scratch cycle with eczema.

That night my hubby had a moan "What on earth are you doing??" as the bed rocked rhythmically. No doubt he was thinking the wrong thing what with him being a man and all that. I said "A tip Mum gave me to stop me itching". "But what ARE you doing??" replied my hubby again. (I can still imagine what he was imagining!). "Sticking my finger in my ear and wiggling it" I explained.

Well, this tip didn't work and eventually I had to stop so my hubby could sleep.

The next day I confronted my Mum on the phone and told her that her tip was nonsense. She replied, "The wriggling in your ear is to distract the brain when you stub your toe! To stop the itch/scratch cycle you are supposed to rub a stone in your hand!". Oops. No wonder it didn't work. lol

Well, I now have tried the correct tip and I must admit, it is quite useful. Further research has suggested that the stone should be rose quartz. Crystal Well-Being discusses it in this article.

Worth a try in my book.

Just wanted to do a mini update. Right now I'm going through the most stressful time in my life. I would normally share it with my friends and family but I'm bottling it up and trying to deal with it alone. The odd thing is that stress usually comes hand in hand (excuse pun) with a big flare up of eczema. However, for the first time in my life, my hands are pretty much clear. The only tell tale sign is with a bit of dryness.

My doctor is baffled because she agrees that really I should be bandaged up with minimum hand movement. Very very odd.

The only other changes in my life are as follows:

1. I no longer eat apples or drink apple juice on a daily basis.  Due to a recent trip to America I've discovered cranberry juice is nicer.

2. I've decided to stop hiding away under long sleeves. I let the air get to them.

3. I now wear cotton gloves for all dusting, hoovering and sorting of laundry. I wear vinyl gloves for all cleaning and washing my hair.

4. I use Palmers cocoa butter regularly.

5. I wash in warm water rather than hot.

Any of these things could be helping but because I don't know which is helping, I refuse to change anything else that I do!

I will try and remember to post some photos.

How are you all?

8 Ways To Reduce Eczema Flare-Ups

I just wanted to share this article that was mentioned to me today. Some of the stuff in there is very interesting and it goes along with my theory about doing a juice detox to get a head start on my eczema.

8 Ways To Reduce Eczema Flare-Ups

Joe Cross is an extremely motivating and inspiring man. He did a documentary called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. If you can get to view this I HIGHLY recommend it as I found it very inspiring and motivating.

The following article is also an interesting read.

Natural Remedies For Common Skin Disorders

Due to all my research into eczema, some of it isn't new news but I hadn't heard the following before:

Replace inflammatory saturated fats: Replace foods such as meat products and dairy with the anti-inflammatory unsaturated fats such as those from deep sea fish, avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts and all seeds particularly flaxseed, chia and hemp seeds. Increasing consumption of these foods will also increase selenium, vitamin D, zinc and other helpful nutrients for good skin health.

I'm intrigued about the meat being "inflammatory". I do eat a lot of meat but mainly white meat. I've read that chicken can irritate but never why.

I've also learned that people with eczema (and even without!) should avoid processed meats like ham, bacon etc.

The other thing that I've been made aware of with regards to meat is that the meat bought in the supermarket off of the chiller is treated with something. I'm sorry that I can't remember what (sodium something?). It's a chemical for preservation. Also they add chemicals to keep it looking pink . I was told this by the man serving me on the delicatessen! I only found this out because I was asking him if their meat had MSG in it. See my previous blog post about MSG.

So, there you go, something else for you to read. See you next time. :-) x

Before And After Photos - Hand Eczema Clear

Well, as I said yesterday, I decided to reopen this blog. I wanted to share with you the improvements in my eczema and over the next week I'll discuss each one.

Here is the before and after photo. The first one is from January of this year before I started juicing and changing my way of life with regards to what I do, eat, touch, use etc. The second is as it looks today. Massive improvement!

I just hope I'm not tempting fate. If you're interested in finding out how I did it then please follow the blog and I'll explain more over the next week or so.

Starting this blog again

I've decided to start this blog back up again. The reason being is that I moved it to the Inspired By Jason Vale blog but as that isn't all about eczema I decided to reopen this one for those that aren't interested in juicing. x

Blog moved to another address

To anyone who follows this blog, I've now moved my posts to the following address and will no longer be posting in here. Thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing you on the new blog. :)

http://www.inspiredbyjasonvale.com/

Eczema Miracle!

I'm doing the Jason Vale juice program.

The photo shows what a change there has been since Sunday. :-)

...and the SLF plot thickens

I've just been told by a friend that SLF is in some toothpastes as well. As it's a foaming agent this makes perfect sense but hadn't occurred to me. She discovered this was the cause of her mouth ulcers. As I too suffer with them, I think its worth changing my toothpaste also. Maybe it will help with my mouth eczema too?

She has recommended a toothpaste (corsadyl) and a shampoo from Boots the chemist.

I'm off to town in a bit so will update you all later with what I end up buying.

Sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) and eczema

Well, I'm back after a long absence. I've had a very sore and dry neck and scalp getting increasingly worse over the last couple of months. I got to the stage last night where I came to the conclusion I must have nits!

My hubby had a good look and said that I had eczema all the way up to the parting on the top of my head. Well that explained a lot! I took this photo to see how bad it was and I'm horrified. Believe me it looks worse in reality.

Soooo....I figure the only thing that's changed in the last few months is that I started using L'Oreal shampoo. I'd won some in a competition. I googled shampoo and eczema and found a lot of stuff about Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS) so decided to investigate further.

I popped in to the bathroom and lo and behold ALL my shampoos contained this ingredient! Quite concerned I thought I'd best use my little girls baby shampoo...only to find it was in that too!

Here is a lot of info about SLS. http://www.babycentre.co.uk/worry-watch/sls/

I'm now on the search for a natural recipe for shampoo. Does anyone have one they can recommend?

I can't take much more

This is all doing my head in. One minute I'm starting the diet and then I'm not. Then one doctor says I can but then another says wait.

Well,  I've had enough of waiting!

The nutritionist said to wait until either the end of October or my eczema stopping improving. Whichever comes first.

This is because we thought the b12 jabs might improve it.

I'm now putting that initial improvement down to me coming off my period. Pure coincidence. My eczema always worsens when I'm due on. It then improves as my hormones settle (another blog post methinks). Anyway,  it just so happens that this time it coincided with the b12 jabs.

The difference that I have noticed however is that it heals quicker. I can have a really bad breakout which would normally lead to me waking up sore and having to bandage my hands. Now I'm always pleasantly surprised when I wake up.

I had chicken tikka 2 nights ago because I swear that is a bad one for me. True to form I had a breakout. I've also noticed a few hours after ice cream my fingers itch,  burn and swell.

So,  I'm going to email my nutritionist to inform him I'm doing the diet and that's that!

...and then it ends

This is soooooo frustrating.

I've just had an email from my nutritionist telling me to not start the diet!!!!!!!!

I've noticed an improvement in my eczema since the b12 jabs. He reckons that if I do the diet and my eczema clears up then we won't know if its because of cutting out the food or the B12 jabs.

As the doctor said it could take 6-8 weeks to give their full effect then I guess that's the end of October?

I'd got myself all psyched up to do this so am really disappointed. I guess that makes no sense because if its the B12 jabs that help then that's a great thing. I'm sure you understand. Sigh.

Day 2 - here goes everything!

Right,  my days of easing myself in are now over.

The photo shows my breakfast.

Todays meal plan:

Breakfast -  3 rice cakes
Snack -  grapes
Lunch - chips in sunflower oil with turkey
Snack -  apple
Dinner -  baked potato with dairy free butter,  shredded turkey and cabbage
Drinks -  water with a treat glass of 7 up

Thank god for the 7 up being on the list. I need to convince myself that it has caffeine in it because the withdrawals from no daily dr pepper will kick in. Good job I don't drink coffee!

Wish me luck.

The Food Hospital

Quick post!

The Food Hospital on Channel 4 tonight at 8pm is about eczema.

Sorry about the short notice,  I only just notuced it.

Day 1: Elimination diet begins...sort of

Yesterday I started the diet. I had my last b12 jab on Friday and got the all clear to start.

So,  breakfast was 3 rice cakes and a handful of grapes.

Lunch...well...that's where it all went a bit pear shaped. I realised that I had forgotten to buy the potatoes! They are a key part of the diet.

So, I then had that fatal attitude of "I'll start tonight" and went and bought a pasty!

However, after purchasing some spuds I then had roast potatoes in sunflower oil for dinner. This was with some turkey....and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Today I've started with my rice cakes again.

I wonder how long before I notice a difference?

I've been reading up on b12 and apparently one of the symptoms is eczema!!!!!!

Maybe the difference will be down to that?

Time will tell.

My B12 deficiency and eczema

I've completely forgotten if I've got around to telling you about my B12 deficiency. This was discovered a month or so ago. I finished my 6th injection yesterday.

I'm already noticing a massive change in my energy levels.

I'm also noticing an improvement in my eczema. I was wondering if this was hormonal or something to do with the b12 jabs.

As you can see by the photo it appears b12 is important with regards to eczema! How exciting!!

I've now been given the all clear to start the elimination diet on Monday.

MSG - Monosodium Glutamate... The sneaky one

Oh it's been a while since I sat down and typed out a blog post.

I won't go into the health reasons that have put my elimination diet on hold right now because I want to share with you some information I learned about MSG (Monosodium Glutamate)

Before I saw my nutritionist I had been making notes about everything that I ate. One ingredient kept popping up over and over.

I mentioned it to my nutritionist and apparently there is a link between MSG and eczema.

He gave me a sheet of information which I'm now going to share with you. (ref Food Allergy Simpson pg 360)

MSG also known as:

1. Hydrolysed vegetable protein
2. Natural Flavouring
3. Kumbu extract
4. Ajinomoto
5. E 621

[My note: "natural flavouring" is the sneaky one in my opinion. The word "natural" conjures up something to be safe,  pure etc but this is not always the case.]

MSG naturally occurs in Tomatoes and is a constituent of parmesan cheese and camembert cheese.

Problem foods include:

1. Flavoured crisps e.g salt and vinegar flavour
2. Dips
3. Tinned and packet sauces
4. Sausages/sausage meat
5. Meat pies and other processed meats
6. Cream crackers
7. Stock cubes
8. Bisto etc
9. Chinese food

Symptoms induced by MSG :

1. Sweating
2. Palpitations
3. Headaches
4. Fainting - light headedness
5. Diarrhoea
6. Bronchospasm (rarely)

Scary stuff eh.

Please note: I have no medical knowledge and what I write on this blog is what I've experienced myself or read. I take no responsibility for my readers with regards to what they choose to do with this information. In other words,  chat to a medical professional first. :-)

The stigma of eczema

Today I thought I'd share with you some of my experiences of people's attitude to me and my eczema.

It started from when I was at infant school. I remember when we would play games that involved holding hands. I remember the teacher telling the other children to hold me by the wrist so that they didn't "catch" my eczema. This would have been early 80's.

Only yesterday I dealt with someones ignorance. I was in a shop and the checkout girl hadn't noticed my eczema. As she put the change in my hand she noticed it. She quickly snatched her hand away, wiped it on her top and said "eugh!".

I confess I dashed out of the shop crying.

That was the worst. I've lost count of how many times shop staff have gone to put change in my hand but then suddenly dropped it on the counter instead.

HOWEVER, this is where I shock you. I totally understand.

I think my hands are gross too. I didn't realise until I published the photos on this blog. Up until then I hated peoples attitude. I guess living with my hands means I don't see them objectively.

Seeing them like that made me see how gross and repulsive they are.

I remember watching The Food Hospital and it was the episode with the lad with hand eczema. (He inspired me but more of that another day)

My first thought was "yuck!". Then I looked down at my own hands and realised they were much, much worse.

So there you go. I may moan about people's attitude but really it's no big deal. It's not that they think it's catching. Would I want somebody else's blood, pus and dry skin on my hands? If i'm honest...no.

It's not just me

Today I went on the hunt for rice flour ready for this elimination diet. My search took me to a local health shop where I met a lady who had followed the same process as I'm about to embark on.

She told me that although the diet is a long slow process that it would be worth it in the end. I how so. I can't go on like this.

She also passed on a tip to get through the hatred of sprouts problem. Par boil them, coat them in a butter substitute and put them in the oven.

Its just occurred to me that I haven't told you what foods I can have! I shall upload a photo of the paper for now and type them out when I'm at home. I'm sat on a bus at the moment!

Disaster

I HAVE to start this elimination diet regardless of the advice to hold off. Look how bad its getting. :-(

My right hand...the worst

This is my right hand. (Obviously!) I've removed the plaster on my index finger so you can see how bad the cut is. Its deep.

I can see why people shy away from me now. They're disgusting!

I'm desperate to sort this. I can't see me waiting until all the results are back. I just want to get going on this elimination diet.