Nutrition for good skin: How to heal eczema naturally.
Have you just about tried everything to treat your eczema, with little success? We asked Dr Cheryl Kam, a fan of Utama Spice and a functional medicine coach for some tips on how to heal eczema naturally.
She shared her top 5 tips:
- Limit Stress
- Take Pre and Probiotics
- Load up on healthy fats
- Add more nutrients to your diet
- Balance the gut
We hope you'll find this useful!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most of the time, eczema is caused by underlying conditions. And you thus have to identify and treat its root cause, not just its symptoms. So before popping more pills or trying a new cream, you may wish to explore other healthier and more long term alternatives and treatment strategies.
It may sometimes be necessary to use antihistamines, steroids and other pharmaceuticals until an acute reaction subsides, and there is no shame in this, but concurrently treating the underlying causes in a holistic manner can complement medical treatment very well, and often lead to more effective, long term solutions and less reliance on pharmaceuticals.
Good health starts from the inside out. Nutrition, sleep, and lifestyle habits have the biggest impact on your skin. Dr Cheryl Kam, a passionate functional medicine coach, shares 5 tips for you to try and heal eczema naturally.
- Add more nutrients to your diet
Nutrients that support gut health will positively affect your skin.
Zinc piccolinate, for example, helps maintain the mucous lining of the mouth, throat, and stomach. This keeps pathogens at bay and improves nutrient absorption.
Take a multivitamin or 15-40 milligrams of zinc carnosine or zinc piccolinate to heal your gut and consequently your skin, or incorporate enough meat or liver into your diet on a weekly basis.
- Load up on healthy fats
Not all fats are created equally. Consume more avocado, eggs, nuts, seeds, olive oil, and fatty fish and you should notice that your skin will look younger, your energy levels should go up, and your cholesterol levels will drop.
Our skin needs vitamins A, D, E, and K to maintain its elasticity and stay young. However, our bodies can not absorb these nutrients efficiently without dietary fat. Therefore, the Omega-3s found in the foods listed above are particularly beneficial. These essential fatty acids improve vitamin absorption and fight inflammation, which in turn helps heal eczema.
- Balance the gut
Addressing the root cause of eczema, such as candida infection or severe dysbiosis, is an important step in healing eczema.
Eczema is an indicator of an imbalance in gut flora and often candida overgrowth. When your gut flora is imbalanced, pathogens can kill healthy bacteria and spread throughout the body. This causes skin disorders, inflammation and recurring infections. You may also feel hungrier than usual and crave sugar.
Consider an elimination diet to remove food triggers until the gut is healed. These typically are removed for a period of time until the skin and gut lining completely heals and the body is no longer hypersensitive to the food triggers.
You may also wish to test for allergies to common allergens such as animal dander, dust mites and run food intolerance tests in order to have a clearer idea what to avoid for the time being until the condition and the body’s hypersensitivity has improved.
Drink bone broth to heal intestinal permeability and balance gut flora.
L-glutamine, marshmallow root, and amino acid formulas can help and it pays to know your body’s constitution (yin/yang, Vata/Pitta/Kapha etc) to help select a herb that is suitable for you.
- Take Pre and Probiotics
Stress, poor nutrition, candida, and other factors affect gut health. When your microbiome is unbalanced, pathogens take over your gut and destroy good bacteria. This is where probiotics come in handy.
These supplements contain live microorganisms that colonize your gut, killing fungi, microbes, and harmful bacteria. As a result, your skin becomes clearer and your immunity increases.
Ideally, choose a probiotic with at least 10 billion active cells, such as L. acidophilus, L. rhamnosus, and Bifidobacterium lactis. If you’re struggling with eczema, take higher doses.
Kefir and fermented foods if well tolerated are also fantastic natural sources of pre and probiotics.
- Limit stress
Chronic stress affects the amount of diversity of healthy gut bacteria. It's also a major contributing factor to inflammation, which in turn, triggers eczema.
In addition to the above, always keep your skin well moisturized because that will help protect the outermost layer of skin known as the skin barrier or the stratum corneum. People living with eczema have a weaker skin barrier, which makes skin more sensitive to irritants, bacteria, allergens and other invaders. A damaged skin barrier also make it harder for the skin to retain water, leading to chronic dry, itchy skin, which can cause eczema to flare or get worse.
If you're looking for all natural, fragrance free body oils that can be used as all over moisturizers, you can try our Utama Spice Jojoba Oil, Argan Oil or our Virgin Coconut Oil. If your skin can tolerate aromatic moisturizers, you can also try our Coconut Lotions that are perfect for the hot and humid weather in Singapore!
We hope you've found the tips above useful. If you want to check out the original article, you can find it here on Dr Cheryl Kam's blog.