Skip to main content

How I “Cured” My Chronic Eczema

Disclaimer: this article is not professional medical advise.  It is my experience.  Not everyone will respond the same to certain stimuli. That being said, I hope my experience can be helpful to you.

***

As I ventured into my late 30's I noticed that eczema was becoming a real problem.  At first, it started creeping in on my ankles and wrists.  From that point, month after month, it just kept itching and spreading.  

So I consulted with a dermatologist, and she prescribed (you'll never guess) ... topical steroids.  This seemed to work great.  It was a silver bullet! Until the prescription ran out and it came back worse than before.  

Then I married a lovely, holistically minded woman named Lizzy.  She helped me realize that eczema is usually a symptom of something wrong internally.  It turns out that I needed to rethink everything I was putting in or on my physical body.

Here is a partial list of what I cut out of my diet: 
  • Cow dairy products (goat dairy is still OK)
  • Gluten
  • pork
  • artificial preservatives
  • unnatural dyes
  • pretty much anything that has been ultra processed (high fructose corn syrup is an obvious one)
  • unfortunately, almost everything at the grocery store that doesn't have an "organic" or "non-GMO" label on it

Enter the good guys. 

Here are some of the game changers for me in my journey to find a state of homeostasis, and thus stay eczema free:

Goat Milk Soap

Goat Milk Soap

Humans have valued goat milk for centuries for it's medicinal qualities.  It can be made into lotions, soaps and even lip balms.  Using goat soap in place of other more cleansers that contain alcohol, dyes, artificial scents and other irritants has really helped me get over my eczema.  

For this very reason, here at Ohana we make and sell some of the highest quality goat soap you will find anywhere. 

Hypo-Allergenic Deoderant / Foot / Shoe Powder

Hypo-allergenic Foot Powder



I was spending $25 per 4.4 ounce bottle of "premium body powder" from Amazon every month after a YouTube influencer recommended it and I decided to give it a shot.  It was effective at controlling odor, buuuuuut it was also very likely a contributor to my eczema problems.  It's a good idea to be mindful of your personal hygiene, but not such a good idea to put a powder on your body all day that contains lots of mysterious chemicals and artificial fragrances. 

So we decided to make a simple, hypo-allergenic deodorant powder ourselves.  I use this deodorant powder for my shoes and anywhere else that might get sweaty and yucky.  It comes in very handy during the muggy Texas Summers here.  It's also much less expensive than that stuff from Amazon.

Fire Cider

Fire Cider

It's like apple cider vinegar's big, muscular older brother. I was skeptical at first, but now I take it every day, and despite whatever stress or sleeplessness I might be experiencing, or however many sick kids might be going in and out of my house, I don't really get sick myself.  

It's all about health from the inside-out.  The healthier your gut is, the stronger your immune system will be.  There is lifetime of knowledge you could gain as you research gut health, but that's it in a nutshell.

Our Fire Cider is all organic, and made with organic apple cider vinegar (not Bragg's ... sorry, not today Katy Perry!) fermented with horseradish, turmeric, onion, jalapeno, lemon, garlic, rosemary, sauerkraut brine (for extra probiotic power) and sea salt.  It will wake you up in the morning! 😉

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Paul Gautschi's Back to Eden Growing Method

Raking wood chips, prepping to plant a small tree. From the first time I heard about Paul Gautschi's Back to Eden gardening method, I have been hooked.  It has answered almost every major question I had about setting up a regenerative homestead here in the central Texas area, where the weather is so extreme -- either flood or drought, burning hot or freezing cold, etc. The general philosophy of Back to Eden is: Grow Things as the Creator Intended .  According to Gautschi, God revealed to him that he was gardening the hard way, which also happens to be how farmers have worked since recorded history. Genesis, the first book of the Bible, states that after the Fall, God cursed mankind and the soil so that "man would only be able to live by the sweat of his brow."  And, after mankind was expelled from the Garden of Eden, men took to growing food by "tilling the ground."   This makes a lot of sense if you look at modern farming practices, where the ground is tilled ...

Beat the Cold and Flu this Year with Elderberry Syrup

Up until a few years ago, I believed that anything other than over-the-counter pharmaceuticals was "quack medicine." At the same time, I didn't think to question why I constantly struggled with persistent coughs, upper respiratory infections, and all the other symptoms that come along with seasonal cold and flu. My only gameplan was to buy Dayquil/Nyquil and Delsym (cough syrup) in bulk, and keep consuming it forever.  Thankfully, Lizzy (my wife) has steered me patiently toward a more holistic way of thinking, so I've been able to escape this cycle.  Elderberry syrup in particular has been a game changer for me.  Instead of just suppressing the cough or masking other cold/flu symptoms, it strengthens the immune system so I can actually recover from the cold and flu, and the associated symptoms (upper respiratory infections, sniffles, sore throat, etc.) And does so surprisingly fast, as long as I get out ahead of it.    Elderberry syrup has been used for centuri...

But You Can Control ... Your Diet

One of the biggest take-aways from Jordan Rubin's book, The Maker's Diet , is that we can control the number one most important factor for our health: our diet . When we are younger we seem to get away with making unhealthy decisions.  As long as we are moderately active, we can consume almost anything without becoming overweight or sick.  Alcohol and smoking don't have such a dramatic effect when we are younger. We can get by with quite a bit of sleep deprivation as well. Why? Because younger bodies are able to adapt to hostile treatment while still staying mostly functional.   But our bodies remember different kinds of stressors ... and dietary stress is a big one.  You have probably heard of the word "inflammation" in reference to health and wellness.  Honestly, to this day, the word still seems vague to me.  I still have to pause for a minute and try to remember what it means or why it matters.   But you can think of inflammation as a kin...