Over the past few years, I've been battling skin allergies. It all started in Seattle while living in Greenlake, coincidentally the same time I started dating J - I swear at one point, i thought I was allergic to him. Skin allergies or Eczema is extremely dry and sometimes itchy skin. I've been on all kinds of allergy medication - seen several dermatologists and several allergists - all with the same monotone response of "there's no cure". I have shelves and shelves of different hydrocortisone creams, lotions, sprays and ointments. If you have a skin ailment, I most likely have a cream that can put it to rest. My eczema was never put to rest though.. it go away and come back in some random cycle that was neither food related or seasonal. Moving down south from Seattle seem to resolve some issues, but the symptoms came back.
While I believe that a lot of progress has been made in Western medicine, it's always left me disappointed and drugged up. Finally I made the switch to try out Eastern medicine, after a fellow allergy-sufferer had some good results with acupuncture. I found an office not far from my own office and started going there weekly.
After three months, a lot of progress has been made.. The itching has stopped - atleast 85% of it. And now, I just have dry skin which (thank goodness for Aveeno and Kiehls) I can easily find good non-cosmetic creams for. The doctor also suggested that I do less intense gym regimens so I've taken up Yoga and Pilates... and I've been trying to run outdoors (I still have to train for NYC). She also mentioned that I should avoid eating seafood (esp Shrimp) and spicy food and wine - anything that causes my blood temperature to rise.
Currently, I'm on my second week drug free, and itch free. Hopefully this continues on..
2 comments:
Make sure you read the book that I gave you... on page 296, 297 tells you all about causes of eczema.
Read it and you will find it very helpful and understand how to control your eczema. xo, M
It would also be a good idea to avoid wheat. A lot of skin issues are related to a wheat allergy. Try not eating wheat for 10 days. But really don't eat any wheat, no bread, pasta, cookies, etc., and doublecheck ingredients to make sure there's no hidden wheat, like "food starch" or "vital gluten". I've seen this work like a charm for a lot of people. If not, it's free and has no side effects, which is more than you can say about almost anything else.
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