Eczema affects an estimated 35 million Americans. While it can be effective, conventional medicine tends to only treat symptoms and outbreaks. However, in the field of alternative medicine, there are three major breakthroughs in the treatment of eczema.

1. Get rid of toxins in the body

Natural treatment begins with detoxification. A naturopath or your local health food store can recommend a gentle colon cleanse to clear toxins from the body and jumpstart a sluggish digestive system.

You’ll be amazed at how great you feel overall.

Sweating also helps detoxify the body. Regular time in a sauna or vigorous exercise is helpful.

Many people who suffer from skin problems find relief in hot yoga. Bikram Yoga combines a heated room and 26 yoga postures that isolate and give fresh blood flow to your essential organs.

It’s also a great way to relax and find your breath. Reducing stress is an important part of healing skin conditions.

2. Eat a healthier diet

Adopting a healthy diet is the easiest... and hardest thing to do… isn’t it? We know WHY we need to eat more vegetables and less processed foods. There’s a laundry list of benefits. But our lifestyles and the food industry don’t make it easy to eat healthy.

So it’s important to do what you can. Start by eliminating sugar and refined and processed foods from your diet. The goal is to limit table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, baked goods, anything that comes in a box, and most white food, like white bread, pizza dough, and biscuits.

Slowly make these changes, and you’ll see amazing benefits in your skin.

The next step is to avoid food irritants and allergens. It turns out, if you have craving for a certain food, you may be allergic to that food. Stop eating the foods you suspect you’re allergic to, and then gradually reintroduce them. Observe your body’s reactions carefully to see if you do have an allergy to the suspect food.

Dietary Recommendations

• Eat more foods that are rich in vitamins A and B-complex – green leafy vegetables, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes and dried beans.
• Eat more foods that are high in magnesium, including nuts, seeds, whole grains, and organic green vegetables. A magnesium supplement (300 mg of magnesium citrate, taken twice daily) can help to prevent allergies, detoxify the body, and improve skin quality.
• Increase the healthy fats – omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in your diet by adding wild salmon, walnuts, vegetables, nut and seed oils. Seed oils to try are flaxseed oil, evening primrose oil and black currant oil.

?3. Add natural supplements to your diet ?

Probiotics: Buildup of yeast in the body can cause eczema. Probiotics put the good bacteria in your gut, and keeps bad bacteria from taking over. Correcting the imbalance in intestinal flora often causes systemic problems to resolve themselves. ?In fact, there is a growing body of research that suggests that people with unbalanced intestinal flora have a higher risk of developing skin conditions like eczema, but probiotic supplementation diminishes or even eliminates the problem. ?

Digestive enzymes: These enzymes have been found to digest the types of inflammatory proteins that cause skin irritation or other inflammatory conditions.

Dandelion: You may consider this a pesky weed, but herbalists use dandelion to detoxify the blood, and eliminate allergens, toxins, and chemicals from the body. A great way to add this to your diet is by drinking dandelion tea. Or in supplement form, take daily 250-500 mg. of dandelion extract.

Omega-3 fatty acids: As we discussed in the dietary recommendations, seed oils are a great source of omegas. Your oil supplement should contain both DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). Ideally, your supplement should also include omega-6s to achieve a balance of the two oils. For children, a great option is Go Fish Kids Omega-3 DHA.

Essential vitamins: Studies have also shown fewer eczema outbreaks in people who take supplements of Vitamin B6 (125 mg -sublingual) and Vitamin B12 (500 mg) daily.

Be sure to also take an organic, food-based multi-vitamin with beta- carotene and Vitamin A to promote tissue healing. Selenium and Vitamin E work well together by moisturizing skin from the inside out and promoting healing of skin tissues.

Finally; include Zinc in your vitamin regimen. Chronic inflammation can deplete your body’s natural Zinc reserves, but proper replacement helps with wound healing.

As you dramatically improve your health with detoxification, making healthy changes to your diet, and adding a few key supplements to your daily routine, you’ll notice a marked difference in your skin.

Until the outbreaks go away, your skin will need moisture. Some of the dry spot can be tricky.... Often needing to be dried out and moisturized at the same time.

You’ll want to use a natural cream to relieve the dryness. The Environmental Working Group’s website has a database where you can check hundreds of brands of personal care products for toxins.

Topical Relief?

Calendula and Chamomile: Creams made with calendula are very popular in Europe for giving relief to the itching and dryness of eczema.

Topical chamomile treatments can reduce inflammation and allergic reaction activity. Look for a cream containing 3 to 10-percent crude drug chamomile content and follow the label for dosage directions.

Avoid petroleum-based products: Petroleum comes from fossils fuels. The biggest problem with petroleum is that it sits on the surface of the skin and doesn’t allow the skin to “breathe” properly.

The thick layer slows the skin’s ability to eliminate toxins. Remember, the skin is the body’s largest organ and plays an important role in maintaining overall health!

Petroleum products and mineral oils can lead to nutritional deficiencies.

The body absorbs the oil through the skin, liver and intestinal tract, where the oil absorbs (steals) essential fat-soluble vitamins from the body.

10 Simple Tips for Controlling Your Eczema

Our grandmothers always said an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. For many years, modern medicine thought our grandmothers were hopelessly out of touch. But now there’s a return movement toward that wise, old advice.

You don’t need anything hi-tech, or even a lot of money, to follow these simple steps to keeping your skin in its optimum shape:

1. Sweat it out! Spend some time in a sauna. Or try a session of hot yoga.
2. Eat your fruits and vegetables – it will help with more than just your skin!
3. Incorporate probiotics into your diet by taking a supplement or having a ?serving of yogurt a day.
4. Drink plenty of filtered water. Hydrate your skin from the inside out!
5. Avoid long, hot showers or baths and use a humidifier to prevent dry air in ?your home.
6. Keep your skin moisturized with a healthy, topical product you trust.
7. Limit your exposure to chemicals and allergens whenever possible. Avoid ?parabens and sodium lauryl sulfate in soaps and shampoos.
8. Add the essential Omega fatty acids to your diet.
9. Strive for 15 minutes of sunlight a day.

10. BREATHE – make time to relax or meditate. Relaxation can work miracles for your overall health.