Skin: Eczema over 70% body
I want to share with you a case study about an 11 year old girl who presented with severe eczema over 70% of her body. This is “Shay’s” story.
Presentation of Eczema
11 year old “Shay” (not her real name)—and her very concerned mum—came to see me in December 2017. Shay had eczema over 70% of her body. She was very itchy, exhausted all the time, and sore.
The eczema was over the face, torso, inner flexions of the elbows, backs of the knees, and down the legs. It had started about eight months earlier and was gradually getting worse. They had realised dog and cat hair made it worse, so they found a good home for their beloved dog, but it was still getting worse with going to school, and a low-histamine diet wasn’t helping.
The back of Shay’s knees before Naturopathic treatment and Kinesiology.
The top and inside of Shay’s leg before Naturopathic treatment and Kinesiology.
Treating the root cause of Eczema
Eczema conditions can be complicated, multi-faceted and different for everyone. That is, it is often a caused by a few key issues resulting in inflammation, histamine release, and poor clearance. From a Naturopathic standpoint, when we view eczema, allergies can be a big factor plus opportunistic fungal and/or bacterial infections. However, to treat it, we always look at the organs that have a close relationship with the blood. That is, the liver, kidneys, and gut and how well they’re functioning.
Old-school naturopathic understanding asks the questions:
How clean is the blood?
Which organs and/or systems need support?
What needs to change to help these organ and systems be more efficient? Internally? Environmentally?
If the blood isn’t being cleaned efficiently, the particles that need to come out will linger around for longer, can be trapped within cells, or come out through the other pathways of elimination ie. lungs and the skin, contributing to skin irritation and inflammation.
The role of stress in eczema
Stress always has a role to play in driving the condition. In Shay’s case, the eczema was over half of her face, and for anybody—in particular an 11 year old girl—it is confronting to go to school and out in public.
The atopic trifecta
Modern Naturopathy now sees eczema as one of the three atopic conditions that are very common in childhood and are often all related—by no mistake—via gut health and inflammatory tendencies. The three conditions are eczema, allergies, and asthma. In Shay’s case, she had a history of mild asthma as well, completing the trifecta.
Kinesiology – an individual approach
From a Kinesiology point of view, I have balances specific for immune system and allergies, gut protocol, and supporting the liver to efficiently detox what it needs to, plus stress. However, when it comes to Kinesiology—because it’s a way of asking the body where to prioritise treatment focus—it really does come back to what is happening for that individual.
Kinesiology outcomes
Over one year, Shay has gone from fortnightly kinesiology balances, a high amount of liquid herbs, probiotics, fish oils, and stringent diet, to kinesiology balances every 3-4 weeks; less herbs, fish oils, and probiotics; more of a patient understanding of what foods to eat; as well as what caused individual flares and how to address them. We have also reduced the reactions to animal dander to only dog hairs now, and reduced the sensitivity of inflammatory foods. Flare ups are happening less frequently, aren’t nearly as severe, and heal much quicker!
“Nothing else works as well to heal a flare as a kinesiology balance!”
—Shay’s mum—
Documenting Shay’s journey
Below is the journey we have taken through kinesiology balances and naturopathic understanding over the year to get to this point now. It’s a journey of discovery, patient self-responsibility and choices, and ultimately one of wellness for a lifetime. It was so rewarding to watch Shay’s healing and a joy to see her cheeky personality shine through again!
Before and after photos
The images on the left show Shay’s horrendously inflamed eczema. A year on, and the smiles on the right say it all!
Shay’s before and after photo’s. This is before she started Naturopathic treatment and kinesiology and after. A much happier girl after.
“I have my baby back.”
—Shay’s mum—
Kinesiology balances 1-2
Detoxing
For Shay’s case, the first balances were around general liver-detoxing balances. That is, the six detox pathways and supporting them to detox general, everyday particles and chemicals we come in contact with in our modern lifestyle. Although these are in small amounts when we come in contact with them every day, over time, they contribute to the liver’s ongoing daily to-do list. They include:
heavy metals, such as cadmium (which is in the air we breath from our car exhausts)
pesticides and insecticide residues found on our foods even after washing them
chemicals and perfumes we breathe in
plastics contributing to xenoeostrogen load
tap-water contents, including chlorine, chloramine, and fluoride.
Plus, there are the internal compounds we make on a daily basis that also need to be broken down and taken out with the waste product. This include hormones to wake, to sleep, female and male hormones, and a range of other hormones we need to function. If they aren’t broken down and taken out in a timely and efficient manner, then they will add extra load for the liver and the body as a whole system.
It took two balances to get through the whole detox protocol, as the body indicated its upper limit for each balance. After the first balance—plus prescribing a specific probiotic and liquid herbal mix to suit Shay’s needs—Shay experienced remarkable improvement in just two weeks.
Kinesiology balance 3
Stress
Stress can produce a major inflammatory cascade. Inflammation can interfere with many processes around the body. Therefore calming the stress response is always a major priority. Stress can activate neurotransmitters like noradrenaline, acetylcholine, and glutamate. Although these have a very important role in the body, when they are in a high amounts up-regulation of other functions in the body results in demanding more anti-oxidant and nutrient support. When the support is not met, this can create a deficit, in turn driving more inflammation, thus worsening any inflammation already in the body.
Kinesiology balance 4
Allergens – cat and dog hair
Shay’s body started to indicate we could explore what it was reacting to. It was becoming increasingly clear that the reactors were cat and dog hair. Shay was so sensitive, that dog or cat hair on the clothes of a visitor would cause a flare up. Shay would regularly travel to school in a car that often carried a dog, further explaining why she was flaring up at school. This was a huge step forward in navigating and managing her health and flare ups. However, it didn’t explain everything.
Kinesiology balance 5
Food and Diet
We began to explore what else was contributing to Shay’s flare ups. We had already developed a low-allergenic diet which Shay was thriving on. It’s pretty hard for an 11 year old though, and there were occasional slip ups with food. The major foods contributing to inflammation and flare ups were:
Sugar – all sugars, including the sugar found in fruits, high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose, glucose, and maltodextrin.
Dairy: although on minimal intake, cheese caused flare ups.
Gluten: Already kept to a minimum, Shay’s mum became more savvy about hidden gluten in the groceries and other foods that were kept in the household.
Trans glutenase: This is an enzyme which is often added to gluten-free products such as breads, which many people react to like it is gluten.
Deep-fried potato chips and other starches: These convert straight to sugar for the blood, but also more often than not, they are cooked in poor-quality oils.
Kinesiology balance 6+
Histamines
The next wave of balances were related specifically to histamines.
Did you know there are five types of histamines receptors in the body? Whilst we do use histamine as a neurotransmitter for positive use around the body, our modern lifestyles trigger more histamine activations than the body can often clear.
When the cells can’t clear the histamine efficiently, it lingers around the cells and organs causing more and more sensitivity to inflammatory cytokines (small proteins released that cause more inflammatory damage). This can affect any organ. When generalised it is known as Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). This can contribute to symptoms such as painful periods and disrupted women’s health, chronic headaches and migraines, digestive issues, and of course eczema and allergies, to name a few.
This was a great step forward with less flare ups when in contact with allergens and the inflammatory foods. The flare ups weren’t as severe and took less time to clear. When there was a flare up, it calmed down within hours after a kinesiology balance, every time! Still to this day, Shay’s mum says that nothing helps better than the kinesiology balances.
Fungal and bacterial infections
A major contributor to skin flare ups is fungal and bacterial infections. The allergens cause massive inflammation, which weakens the skin cell membranes. Dietary components adding to the inflammatory over-load and poor liver and kidney filtration, for many, results in eczema outbreaks. The red and round welts, bubbles under the skin, red spots, skin weeping, dryness and cracking, are all often part of the process the affected skin goes through when moving from internal inflammation to topical bacterial and/or fungal infections.
As the topical infections aren’t the actual cause of the problems, it is still very important to treat the internal functions. Where there are patches of skin internally compromised by inflammation, the topical epidermis layer is compromised thus allowing opportunistic fungal and bacterial infections to grow. Therefore, although topical applications can help, it is the internal inflammation coming through the skin layers that needs to be addressed.
With treatments, flare ups became less, and it became obvious whether it was a “fungal flare” — often from too much sugar or starches in the diet — or a “bacterial flare” (staph being the most common).
Thumbs up for Naturopathic treatment and Kinesiology balances from this happy girl.
Treatment for infections
Herbs: including anti-histamine, mast-cell stabilising, liver support, kidney and lymphatic support, nervous-system and adrenal support, and antioxidants.
Probiotics: as the immune system matures into different immune cells at the gut lining, it is really important to stabilise any inflammation along the gut lining. There are specific strains of probiotics which have been clinically shown to reduce the tendency towards inflammation, eczema, and allergies.
Fish oils: Omega 3s help to stabilise and keep the cell membranes fluid and flexible, which is imperative when addressing inflammatory factors such as allergies, asthma, and eczema. A good-quality fish oil—high in DHA—is imperative.
Topical: Anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-inflammatory topical ointments to flare ups.
Georgia x