Continuing a series of articles on Integrative Medicine, Nutritionist Belinda Rennie looks at nutritional approaches to skin problems such as eczema.

Integrative medicine holistically blends western medicine with complimentary therapies to maximize the body’s innate potential for self-healing. A spectrum of healing remedies can help alleviate skin problems including herbs, homeopathy and nutritional therapy in combination with topical creams.

The skin is the main organ of elimination and is a mirror of the internal environment of the body. It is true to say that healthy skin covers a healthy body that eliminates wastes and toxins efficiently. To only apply topical cream containing cortisone or antibiotics is a band aid approach to skin problems, ignoring the underlying imbalances within the body.

In integrative medicine, eczema, a common skin condition in children is seen as having a number of causative factors including food and chemical sensitivity, leaky gut syndrome, bowel flora imbalance and hypochlorhydria (low stomach acid). Poor diet and stress can also leave people prone to nutritional deficiencies.

Food sensitivity is one of the most common factors associated with eczema. Foods implicated can include cow’s milk protein, milk sugar (lactose), sugar, yeast, peanuts, seafood, soy, wheat, citrus, chocolate, food colourings and preservatives. If you notice a flare up in eczema after eating certain foods, blood tests can help you to pinpoint which foods to avoid with an elimination diet. Blood tests for IgE (immunoglobulins released immediately by the immune system) can give provide useful results. However, if food sensitivity is delayed or masked, IgG tests are more appropriate which test over 100 foods. A wholefood diet with minimally processed foods high in essential fatty acids is recommended.

Breastfeeding offers a high degree of protection from eczema. Yet, some babies can still have eczema and be breastfed as they can be sensitive to cow’s milk protein in breastmilk from the mother’s diet. This can be remedied by her excluding cows milk products from her diet whilst breastfeeding. Introducing solid foods too early in infancy (before 5-6 months) when the digestive system is not mature enough to handle foreign proteins, can increase the risk of eczema especially in children with a family history of food allergy.

back to top

Leaky gut is a condition in which large proteins can leak from the intestinal wall into the blood stream. Studies on children with eczema showed that they had increased gut permeability often due to many courses of antibiotics disturbing the beneficial bacteria and damaging the gut wall. A nutritional program supplying Vitamin B5 and B6, glutamine (an amino acid) and high strength probiotics and prebiotics can help to heal the intestinal wall.

In chronic eczema, the severity seems to be linked with the extent of stomach hydrochloric acid (HCl) deficiency. If there is a deficiency or absence of HCl in the stomach at the first stage of digestion, undigested protein fragments are more likely to leak across the gut wall causing allergy problems. HCl also protects us against foreign pathogens like candida, so deficiency can affect our resistance to infection and ultimately the health of our skin.

Complimentary treatment involves a combination of nutritional supplements and topical treatments:

E – Essential fatty acids are the cornerstone of eczema treatment. Omega 3 essential fatty acids found in fish and flaxseed oil reduce the inflammation and thus the scaling, itching and severity of eczema. Omega 6 oils from evening primrose oil, starflower, borage or blackcurrant oil are required in large doses to help the conversion of essential fatty acids to useable forms.

C – Vitamin C is essential for breaking down and removing histamine and therefore decreasing allergic reactions.

Z – Zinc is an important booster of the immune system.

E – Vitamin E is a great skin healer and can be applied topically and as an oral supplement especially when using high doses of omega 3 and omega 6 essential fatty acids (to stop oxidation of these oils).

M – multitopical treatments including those containing chamomile, licorice, zinc oxide and evening primrose oil directly on the skin.

A – Vitamin A and hydrochloric acid. High doses of Vitamin A can be beneficial along with betaine HCl to replace stomach acid. A also stands for removing food and chemical allergies, highly prevalent in people with eczema

Eczema is a multifactorial problem that needs to be tackled from within. Hering’s Law of Cure formulated by a nineteenth century European homeopathic physician explains the natural principles of healing. “All cure starts from within out, from the head down, and in the reverse order as the symptoms appeared.”

back to top