Longevity: “I beat eczema by ditching steroid creams and healing my gut”

Sometimes, modern medicine does not provide all the answers, offering a bandage or sticking plaster to control symptoms rather than a cure for a chronic condition. We regularly hear of frustration with traditional prescribed medicines for dermatological concerns that can lead individuals to turn to natural healing methods and lifestyle changes that can transform their lives and improve skin health.

In this blog, Dr Tim Pearce talks to Alisha, a registered pharmacist who shares her journey to conquering eczema by taking matters into her own hands, exploring the root causes of her condition and how to beat it. Educated in the medicines used to treat eczema, she knew there had to be another way when the repetitious cycle of flare-ups and managed treatment started to fall short. Alisha began researching longevity practices and the importance of gut bacteria, discovering the key to managing and eventually curing her eczema.

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The backstory: what started your eczema?

Dr Tim wanted to hear Alisha’s story and asked when she first noticed the skin condition. She recalled that her eczema started towards the end of her training as a pharmacist when she experienced a small itchy spot between her eyebrows. She remembers the day well because usually when you have an itch, you scratch it and that is the end of it, but this spot kept on itching her to distraction, getting progressively worse over time.

Initially, she went to see her GP for help, by now the itchy ‘rash’ had spread across her face. Being on her face, she could not easily hide it, and it began to affect her day-to-day life, chipping away at her self-esteem. She sought medical help from various clinicians, but this only drew mixed information and different diagnoses from seborrheic dermatitis to rosacea and eczema – her final diagnosis.

Alisha was given steroid cream to control the flare-ups, a standard protocol treatment option. However, she found she used it as a coping mechanism. There would be a flare-up, she would apply some steroid cream, and the eczema would go away, but would eventually come back. The cycle would repeat, getting progressively worse, until it peaked with an incredibly angry flare-up and blistered presentation, unlike any occasion previously.

At this point, Alisha concluded that she was going to have to take matters into her own hands because nothing was helping; her face was itchy, red and blistering regularly, and she could no longer maintain the cycles of steroid cream because her skin ceased to tolerate it very well. Having already explored other medical pathways, including topical options like tacrolimus, she felt she had to stop using ‘sticking plasters’ to manage the symptoms and explore another way of addressing the root problem.

The mental struggle: how did eczema affect you as a person?

Dr Tim asked Alisha what life was like for her during this time. She was 26, in the prime of her life, but dealing with eczema, especially on her face, severely impacted her self-esteem and ability to leave the house. The condition made her skin bumpy, and flaky, and it was impossible to hide, even with make-up. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she found some relief, constantly able to hide behind a face mask, despite it aggravating her skin further.

She just wanted to hide her face, her eyes became swollen too and she was reluctant to make eye contact with others, even at work. She avoided social interactions and the judgmental looks of others, noting that the pandemic was a blessing in disguise because socialising was restricted. The skin condition not only affected her health, making her feel unwell and exhausted with every flare-up but also deeply impacted her confidence, leaving her ready to cry if anyone asked if she was okay.

This struggle was a driving force for change, Alisha did not want to continue living like that and missing out on enjoying her youth.

The journey: improving the gut microbiome to beat eczema

Alisha started to link what she was eating, and if this impacted the presentation of her skin; she began restricting certain foods. She admits there was little understanding and much confusion initially, but she was looking for the answers she could not get from medical professionals. It was a journey of self-experimentation, and she started to explore the connection between the gut microbiome and the skin, which positively impacted her eczema.

She recalled that her father suggested trying a “burp test” to check for low stomach acid, which can be related to a leaky gut. You mix water and sodium bicarbonate and drink it. This should initiate a burp within 3 to 5 minutes because the sodium bicarbonate reacts with the hydrochloric acid in your stomach producing carbon dioxide and making you burp.

When she did not burp after multiple tests, Alisha suspected hypochlorhydria or low stomach acid. To try and reacidify her stomach, she began taking betaine supplements with every meal for around a month, gradually increasing the dose from 1 to 12 capsules according to the instructions. This led to significant improvement in her eczema, a reduction in the number of flare-ups, and she started to go into periods of remission. Alisha noticed that when she stopped taking the betaine supplements, her skin would start to flare up again so for around a year, she continued with low-dose betaine supplementation.

After achieving good results with her initial self-experimentation, Alisha was driven to explore why her stomach acid had gotten so low in the first place. Her research into the gut microbiome showed that the microbiome can be disrupted by an ultra-processed diet, preservatives, or antibiotics.

Alisha’s next step was to change the way she ate, becoming a vegan, moreover, she was mostly cutting out a lot of the rubbish from her diet rather than embracing veganism itself, no longer having any processed foods, fructose or glucose syrups, inflammatory seed oils, or processed oils in packaged foods which she had already linked with itching reactions after consumption, even with chocolate which she was prepared to forgo to avoid a reaction.

Dr Tim concurred with the likely beneficial aspects of excluding certain things from the diet – whether you choose a vegan or paleo diet overall – especially industrially processed foods which the human body was not biologically designed to eat and process, and which can produce negative symptoms for some people within the population.

The journey: Vitamin D and eczema

Continuing her quest, Alisha turned to private blood tests for additional answers and was surprised to discover that her Vitamin D levels were low.

Further research revealed a link between deficient levels of Vitamin D in the body and skin issues. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to low levels of an antimicrobial called cathelicidin needed to defend the skin from bacterial, fungal, and viral attacks. Vitamin D also contributes to the synthesis of filaggrin which plays an important role in the skin’s barrier function.

Alisha noted that when she supplemented her diet with vitamin D, the gaps between her eczema flare-ups became further and further apart with more periods of remission. She began researching different national dosing guidelines (usually set at 400-600 IU), how our bodies produce around 25,000 IU a day through sun activation, and peer-reviewed studies including one which followed a cohort of patients for seven years on long-term, high-dose (5,000-50,000 IU) Vitamin D supplementation, noting no cases of hypercalcemia (calcium mobilisation in the blood) and clinical improvements in psoriasis patients. With convincing evidence, Alisha chose to increase her Vitamin D dose beyond national guidelines for increased benefit.

Dr Tim adds a note of caution for anyone researching Vitamin D supplements to consider a few factors for additional research.

• If you have a malabsorption syndrome, like coeliac disease, you will not absorb supplemented Vitamin D.
• You should take Vitamin D alongside fat (e.g., avocado, nuts, seeds, full-fat dairy, or eggs) to increase absorption.
• Taking Vitamin D supplements in the morning is preferential to avoid affecting your circadian rhythms – high levels of vitamin D are associated with sunlight, hence if you take it just before bed, it may depress melatonin and affect your sleep.
• You can take Vitamin D alongside Vitamin K2 to ensure optimal calcium absorption into the bone and avoid hypercalcemia.

The journey: What else did you change to beat eczema?

Alisha spent almost 18 months self-experimenting with lifestyle changes and supplementation to improve her eczema, intending to cure the chronic skin condition.

She no longer used any steroid creams – which disrupt the stratum corneum and degranulate the skin – choosing to only apply emollients which interrupt the itch-scratch cycle. She avoided using any skincare products or hot water to wash her face to minimise drying out the skin barrier any further. Although we are often advised to drink lots of water to keep our skin hydrated, you need a functioning skin barrier to hold the hydration, so Alisha incorporated omega-3 and cholesterol-rich foods as supplementation to build back a lipid layer in her skin to support the skin barrier to maintain hydration and improve skin quality, which was also badly impacted by her long-term use of steroid creams.

Although still susceptible to eczema, Alisha has learnt to manage her condition by avoiding highly processed foods – the odd piece of cake, chocolate, or trip out for junk food does not immediately affect her skin but she knows she cannot eat it regularly or in large quantities for fear of relapse.

This approach has prevented major flare-ups since December 2022. When experiencing occasional triggers, like processed oils which can cause minor noticeable symptoms, her skin quickly recovers, and she feels empowered to make dietary choices that maintain her skin health – and she’s no longer vegan.

Alisha concluded that her journey with eczema was a mindset shift from putting a plaster on the problem to a determination to find the root cause and solve it.

Catch up with more discussions on longevity and ageing as a disease, the best and worst supplements to slow ageing, and why you don’t need 3 meals a day because fasting slows down ageing.

Catch up with more discussions on longevity:

• Ageing as a disease
• Best and worst supplements to slow ageing
• Why you don’t need 3 meals a day because fasting slows down ageing

Do not get left behind, become an anti-ageing specialist and learn how to introduce longevity to your aesthetics clinic with Dr Tim’s new eLearning course.

If you have any questions or want to see additional insight, you can find Dr Tim Pearce on Instagram.

Aesthetics Mastery Show

How I Beat Eczema by Ditching Steroid Creams and Healing My Gut

Dr Tim says:

“Alisha, a registered pharmacist, shares her personal journey of conquering eczema by taking matters into her own hands. Frustrated with traditional prescribed medicines, she turned to natural healing methods that ultimately transformed her life. Educated in the drugs used to treat eczema, Alisha knew there had to be another way. She began researching longevity practices and the importance of gut bacteria, discovering the key to managing and eventually curing her eczema. Join her as she recounts the challenges, breakthroughs, and empowering lessons learned on her path to healthier skin. “

Watch the full Aesthetics Mastery Show here.

The post has had some interesting comments from viewers, including:

@MattWilber-l6f

“Absolutely brilliant video! Thought this was gonna be another generic surface-level video, but props to both of you, you actually went into much more detail then I expected. Agree with Alisha on the gut biome comments – where can we find the research paper you mentioned?”

@RoseDennis-zk4up

“Loved the honesty and thought given to this and the time given to the patient”

@simoneantoniewicz3979

“Fantastic video! I cleared my psoriasis and eczema by massively increasing my vitamin d3 and k2 and cutting out dairy (and foods containing added calcium). I have the odd blip (as love chocolate) and this correlates to breakouts, but if I stick to the vitamin and dairy protocol as much as possible my skin is clear! also, good point about not taking taking D on a night time, thank you:)”

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Dr Tim Pearce MBChB BSc (Hons) MRCGP founded his eLearning concept in 2016 in order to provide readily accessible BOTOX® and dermal filler online courses for fellow Medical Aesthetics practitioners. His objective was to raise standards within the industry – a principle which remains just as relevant today.

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