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Acne Part I

Acne Part I

-What is making you break out and how to avoid it- 

 

Dr. Norris has been practicing dermatology for over 20 years and has seen her fair share of skin problems. From common conditions like acne and rosacea to rare conditions like Lupus and Leprosy. When it comes to treating your acne and preventing your next breakout she is the expert that you can trust! While some tips work for most skin types there are a few tips that are especially helpful for those with extremely dry or oily skin; so stick with us while we cover what is the best for your skin type.

Sometimes we think we are doing all of the right things: washing our face, avoiding certain lotions, or using the product that our favorite celebrity says they cannot live without, but what you might not know is how important diet is when it comes to the skin. According to the AAD, studies suggest that eating high glycemic foods such as bread, potatoes, candies, and desserts may cause or worsen acne breakouts. Along with those sweets and breads another thing to avoid is dairy. Dr. Norris has found that dairy products, especially nonfat milk, can actually worsen acne and cause more breakouts on your face. Minimizing these foods and drinks will help to keep your skin clear.

In terms of washing the facial skin (and the rest of your body), be sure you are not over-washing. Dr. Norris suggests washing with a simple pH balanced cleanser only once a day. She says that you should avoid harsh soaps and gritty face washes that have beads or exfoliating properties. Your skin naturally exfoliates and using products that claim to exfoliate may actually cause irritation and inflammation of the skin which could lead to darkening of the skin and even scarring if the acne is severe.


When moisturizing your face, steer clear of creamy or heavy moisturizers as they may clog pores which can lead to more acne.  If you have acne, you do not need a moisturizer as your skin has its own natural oil.  Cream based and lotion based sunscreens may also worsen acne. Get your skin under control and keep it looking its best!

 

-The AB Skincare Team-

 

 

Links for References:

https://www.aad.org/media/news-releases/growing-evidence-suggests-possible-link-between-diet-and-acne

Amanda Blakley Skincare – BLOG

Acne Part II

Acne Part II

-A few simple tricks to prevent and treat your facial acne-

After treating thousands of patients for acne Dr. Norris has found that there are only a few over-the-counter tricks to treat acne. While, there have been quite a few claims out there saying that the best home remedy for acne is the sun. The sun decreases inflammation and sometimes improves acne, but this is not a typical recommendation from Dermatologists since the sun speeds up premature aging and increases the risk of skin cancer over time. So while many people will tell you the sun helps with acne, sometimes the risks outweigh the rewards.


Mineral powder is a very good way to protect your face from excessive sun exposure without causing acne. In general, Dr. Norris recommends avoiding lotions, creamy moisturizers and sunscreens on the face if you are acne prone. When choosing a daily foundation makeup, mineral powder is the best choice for acne prone skin. Avoid liquid foundations, “cover-up,” tinted moisturizers, or bb and cc creams, as these products will have the same affects as a lotion or creamy moisturizer: clogging pores and potentially causing more acne. Mineral powders come in multiple shades that match your skin tone while protecting against the sun.
                                  
Another suggestion as mentioned in the last post is sticking to a simple daily skincare routine, washing your face only once a day with a pH-balanced cleanser, followed by a light moisturizer like the Amanda Blakley Skincare glycerin spray. If you have a blemish or are having a breakout you can spot treat with over the counter benzoyl peroxide gel (5% or 10%). If you use benzoyl peroxide you want to be careful with clothes and towels as it might bleach them.
    

If you cannot get your acne under control at home by simplifying your routine or trying over the counter benzoyl peroxide, which has anti-inflammatory properties to help minimize blemishes, then it is time to call and schedule an appointment with your dermatologist. Typically, they can prescribe topical and/or oral medication to help get your acne under control.

 

-The AB Skincare Team- 

Amanda Blakley Skincare – BLOG

Eczema and psoriasis? THIS part of your morning routine could be triggering skin problems – Express.co.uk


Express.co.uk
Eczema and psoriasis? THIS part of your morning routine could be triggering skin problems
Express.co.uk
This type of water is supplied to 60 per cent of UK homes, including the south east and east midlands. However it's been suggested that it aggravates skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. There are currently 1.7 million people in the UK with

eczema – Google News

Eczema and psoriasis? THIS part of your morning routine could be triggering skin problems – Express.co.uk


Express.co.uk
Eczema and psoriasis? THIS part of your morning routine could be triggering skin problems
Express.co.uk
This type of water is supplied to 60 per cent of UK homes, including the south east and east midlands. However it's been suggested that it aggravates skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. There are currently 1.7 million people in the UK with

eczema – Google News

Why Scratch Mittens Are An Essential Part of Healing Eczema

By Laura Dolgy (see bio below)

Nothing is more annoying or painful as watching a loved one suffer from eczema and experience relentless scratching. Those of us who do suffer from eczema will agree that scratching provides relief (even if only for a second) but that it also causes a whirlwind of other issues like more itchiness, bleeding and infection. In fact, there is clinical term for it, the notorious “itch-scratch cycle.” Today, we’re going discuss to how to prevent scratching, specifically in babies and children. If you’ve never heard of scratch mittens, you’re going to want to keep reading on…

What are Scratch Mittens?

They are literally the saving grace for baby and eczema scratching. They can be found in both sleeves and individual gloves or mittens and help provide a protective layer between the skin and hands/nails. This decreases the chance of possible skin infections like Staph and can significantly reduce the healing period.

So which are the best scratch mitten options for you? Check out some of our recommendations below:

1) ScratchMeNot Flip Mitten Sleeves

These scratch mittens are a great first step in the healing of your baby or child’s skin. The best feature of these mittens is that they actually stay on and are very difficult for children to remove themselves because of their long sleeves. The soft, silk covered mittens can be worn either open for play and eating or folded closed (specifically at night time when itching is the worst!) to prevent scratching during the worst flare-ups. They also work great for preventing scratching due to post surgery stitches, chickenpox or poison ivy and have been used to prevent chronic hair pulling, rubbing and to stop thumb sucking too.

The Original ScratchMeNot Flip Mitten Sleeves are made out of organic bamboo, cotton, and lycra, which allow your toddler or child to move around freely and with flexibility. For those with extremely sensitive skin, you’re going to want to opt for the Cotton ScratchMeNot Flip Mitten Sleeves which is made out of 100% organic cotton.

scratch-mittens-scratchmenot

Original ScratchMeNot Flip Mitten Sleeves

Interested in finding out more about ScratchMeNot eczema mittens? Check out the video testimonial below about they how were the first step in healing Jennifer’s sons’ skin!

 

The Eczema Company offers a promotion! Buy 3 or more of the Classic or Cotton style and get $ 5 off each mitten!

2) Goumi Mittens

For the younger one who is currently going through their first bouts with eczema, these mittens work wonders! Goumi Infant Eczema Mittens help prevent scratching and protects delicate skin. These eczema mittens include a Velcro closure system to ensure they’ll stay put. They’re also made of organic bamboo and cotton and are naturally antimicrobial. Each mitten has two prints – just flip to the side you like best or rotate to match your little one’s outfit of the day, or in case of accidents, outfit of the hour, ha!

3) Eczema Gloves for Kids

For children who are a year to 10 years old, you’ll want to go with a piece of clothing that is flexible and not restrictive. These Eczema Gloves for Kids are meant to fit snugly on a child’s hand and help provide a layer of protection similarly to other scratch mittens discussed. Not only do these gloves work well for eczema, they can be used for psoriasis, allergic contact dermatitis and dermatomyositis as well. Because the gloves are made with organic bamboo, many people use them for dry or wet wrap therapy. Haven’t tried dry or wet wrap therapy on your child yet? Find out how to get started here with these two posts: How To Use Wet Wrap Therapy for Eczema in 6 Easy Steps! and Our Eczema Trials: Dry Wrapping.

4) Eczema Gloves for Adults

We couldn’t end this post without giving adults some scratching relief too! These Eczema Gloves for Adults (similar to those for kids) will help prevent scratching, as well as offer protection for eczema, psoriasis, contact dermatitis and more. Because most adults are active during the day, it’s best to use these at night along with a soothing ointment to help speed up the healing process overnight.

Although eczema can be a difficult skin condition to heal or cure, there are easy first steps you can take to prevent further irritation and infection. Scratch mittens are the best first step in healing your skin. Don’t believe us? Jennifer, founder of this blog, swears by them after they radically helped healed her son’s eczema. Want to read more about her and Tristan’s story? Take a look her post: Natural Remedies for Eczema – What Worked For My Son.

Do you use eczema mittens or know of any other tricks to prevent scratching? Let us know in the comments below!

Pin this post to share with family and friends:

scratch mittens - girl blowing bubbles in scratchmenots

Bio: Laura is a contributor and content developer for It’s An Itchy Little World. She is in no way a medical professional. Her comments, suggestions, and reflections are not intended to replace any medical advice. Always seek the help of a medical professional before undertaking any diet or lifestyle changes. Please see It’s An Itchy Little World’s disclaimer for information about affiliate links and more.

The post Why Scratch Mittens Are An Essential Part of Healing Eczema appeared first on itchylittleworld.com.

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Why Scratch Mittens Are An Essential Part of Healing Eczema

By Laura Dolgy (see bio below) Nothing is more annoying or painful as watching a loved one suffer from eczema and experience relentless scratching. Those of us who do suffer from eczema will agree that scratching provides relief (even if only for a second) but that it also causes a whirlwind of other issues like […]
It’s an Itchy Little World

A SolveEczema Perspective: “The Cure for Dishpan Hands” – Part 1

Over the years, I have been thanked by many people who used SolveEczema.org just to solve a dry skin problem, even if they did not have eczema. I have been thanked by many parents and more than one doctor who realized they could wash their hands frequently when necessary, without drying their skin out. As I am very clear about on my website, I am not a doctor, this is based on my own personal observation and research. Getting results relies on capitalizing on that new perspective.

I am writing this to share what we — and now many others — have done using the Solveczema.org perspective to get unexpected, out-of-the-box results with ameliorating dry skin, for those who maybe can’t seem to find any moisturizing cream thick enough to prevent painful cracked skin during the winter or on travel, or who struggle with washing the dishes even with gloves.

Obviously, I can’t promise a “cure” without a traditional medical study, the title above is just a restatement of the usual idiom and my opinion about its applicability, although this is a perfect set up for a clinical study. I believe this perspective could not only improve the health of health providers’ skin, but also improve compliance with handwashing, and thus help reduce hospital-borne infection.

If you are ready to try this, first read the SolveEczema site disclaimer, watch the SolveEczema site video linked from the home page (note, I made it for a long-concluded crowdfunding for my book and haven’t been able to update the ending, it’s an amateur effort — sorry, it puts me to sleep, too — but it’s only about 45 minutes and is still a good summary of the site).  Read everything here, use your judgment, talk with your physician as needed for health and safety issues, and don’t make any changes until you understand how different this is. It’s not about individual products, it’s about learning how to have optimal skin health without treatments or moisturizing, by understanding what, in my observation, is really going on.

I need to mention here again an open source paper I posted online about SolveEczema, giving a rough description of how it relates to the eczema and allergy epidemic of recent decades, and summarizing many of the novel observations:  https://thewinnower.com/papers/3412-abnormal-ampli-fication-observations-from-applying-the-engineering-method-to-solving-eczema-and-atopic-disease

It’s only two pages — please refer to the Analysis and Observations section for essential novel observations.

Again, with my apologies for the presumption of giving this a personal, alliterative name like this in hopes of making it more memorable, I also need to restate this very different-from-traditional view of why skin becomes dry after washing, per my own observations, because it’s crucial for getting results:

Lumsdaine’s Law: For most people, under most conditions, eczema and dry skin are more the result of what is left on the skin than what is stripped from the skin by washing.

Water alone on the skin increases the membrane permeability. Membrane permeability is basically just how easily certain substances — like water molecules — can pass through the membrane, from within and without.  If you wash your hands in the winter and don’t dry them well afterwards, your hands chap even if you only washed in water, because the water left on the skin increases the permeability and accelerates water loss.

Under normal conditions, the restoration of water in the skin is quite rapid; if someone washes and it takes days for the skin to rehydrate, my contention is that it’s because of what is on the skin in the meantime, not usually from what was stripped from the skin by normal washing. Detergents on the skin (see the paper) in combination with a small layer of water, including from sweat, dramatically increases permeability and subsequent water loss.

Continued in Part 2…

Solve Eczema’s Blog

Letter to a Medical Student — What % of Cases are From Detergent — Part 2

This question was such a good one and needed a more complete answer than I could give in a short blog post.  I will be rolling out the entire letter in 3 or 4 parts, and refining it as I go.  I will be asking more than one doctor I know for feedback, and revising as needed.  Here’s the link to Part 1 of the letter.  I hope the information is helpful. 
AJ

 

Question from a medical student:

“On your website, you write that detergents may be responsible for eczema 25-60% of the time. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing with me how you found this number. It is very interesting that so many people have had relief from eczema after eliminating detergents and I was wondering if you could direct me to any literature corroborating this finding so I can look into it further.”

My Answer — Part 2:

This is a good question, and the answer not a simple one. The estimate is not really equivalent to a traditional epidemiological statistic, but rather it encompasses circumstances related to outbreaks, per my empirical observations and ideas, and a view of the relevant medical literature through this new lens.

On my website, I wrote that detergent-reactive eczema “likely accounts for 25-60% of eczema, depending on the age group and locality, higher if other allergies and an inherited predisposition are factors.” I believe I can now propose a revision of the Hygiene Hypothesis that not only accounts for the rise in eczema and atopy, but can satisfy conditions of causality and leads to solutions consistent with the underlying basis. However, the issue is more complex than saying one thing underlies a certain percentage of cases and another thing underlies others.

Eczema as a Signal — “Normal” and “Abnormal” Eczema

First, I should point out that I do not see eczema as a “disease” that some people have and others do not, in the way that a person might have dysentery or chicken pox. I believe eczema (and other allergic symptoms), under normal environmental conditions (such as we evolved with), is a helpful signal from the immune system to the conscious brain, in the way that pain is an unpleasant but helpful signal from the nervous system to the conscious brain.   (I have a stack of research papers that I believe directly supports this contention, but that’s a discussion for another day.)

At any given time, some people may experience no pain, some may experience more pain than others under similar circumstances, others more chronic pain than others for a variety of reasons. The percentage of people experiencing pain depends on the circumstances. Some circumstances happen more frequently than others. Sometimes accident or disease processes that trigger pain unnaturally cause the pain itself to essentially be a “disease” problem. But fundamentally, pain in our bodies is a signal that everyone can express.

I believe eczema and allergies, too, are signals. The signal of eczema is triggered under certain conditions. Actually, let me be very careful in how I use the word “trigger” here. I believe the signal of eczema can be expressed when a certain threshold is crossed. That threshold depends on a number of factors having to do with the environment and the immune system, membrane health being intimately tied up with these. Once that threshold is crossed, outbreaks may happen continuously, or every time a traditional “trigger” is encountered, such as dust mite exposure or certain pollens, for example. If one is below that threshold, then exposure to the traditional triggers won’t cause eczema, or won’t cause it unless there is a very significant exposure. (I discuss this conceptually on my site as the bucket analogy of allergy.)

This is worth restating:   I see allergy, “normal” allergy — I consider anaphylactic allergy as different — as an adaptation, not disease pathology. Given the historic prevalence of allergy even before allergy rates saw such precipitous rise after WWII, this makes sense. As with pain, virtually anyone can develop an individual allergic response at some point in life under the right circumstances. For any inherited condition to maintain such significant prevalence in the population, there must be some compensating benefit. Given the rapid rise in eczema and atopy since WWII, the cause of this “abnormal” allergy must be primarily environmental. Per Klueken et al (review, from Schultz-Larsen et al), “This continuously increasing frequency of [atopic dermatitis] during the past 30 to 40 years suggests that widespread environmental factors in the industrialized world are operating in genetically susceptible persons.”

Let me also be very clear by restating once again that I am differentiating historically “normal” allergy from the modern manifestation of eczema and allergy, which are not normal. If eczema is a signal, most eczema today is almost certainly the result of unnatural environmental conditions inappropriately triggering that signal — or, modulating down thresholds to reacting — with a genetic component to the susceptibility. I believe based on my present understanding that the people with naturally lower thresholds to reacting in normal environments would otherwise have a genetic advantage.

Allergens are similar to pathogens to the immune system. To the extent that harmless allergens take more energy to differentiate from pathogens, there is probably a survival advantage to people (or — speaking to possibly evolutionary roots — to migratory groups that have such people among them) whose immune systems can tell them to reduce exposure to certain benign substances that make the immune system’s job more difficult.  An interesting aspect of allergy is that “normal” allergy makes sufferers miserable in a way that often points to the source of the misery — aeroallergens relate to breathing symptoms, contact allergens to skin, etc. — but without incapacitating.  Allergy concurrently increases adrenaline, giving sufferers the ability to move away from what is making them miserable.

I believe there is probably a survival advantage in the more ready expression of this signal under normal environmental conditions, and that there is likely a way to support my overall perspective on allergy using genetic archeology.

Restore more normal environmental conditions, and the signal is still triggered under the right conditions, only far less often and in a more “normal” and helpful way (giving the conscious brain important feedback). But the signal can be triggered in anyone, I believe, under the right conditions.

The ISAAC studies (I’m remembering off the top of my head, please correct me if it was another source — after I post this, I will go back and put in the citations in a few days anyway), showed a fairly linear relationship between atopy rates and eczema rates by nation. If you accept that the expression of atopy is mainly the result of abnormal modern environmental conditions in recent decades — given the rapid rise, significant prevalence, and genetic aspect, most serious researchers take that perspective — then nations with the lowest rates of atopy would be most likely to demonstrate historically natural rates of eczema.  Off the top of my head, rates of eczema might be low single-digit percentages, or even a fraction of a percent.

I think there is a relatively short list of threshold modulators and a longer, well-known list of triggers. Threshold modulators are where I believe the solution to the eczema problem lies; they seem at first glance to be unrelated, but I think they can be tied together in a simple and logical way. (Also a long discussion for another day.) Detergents — which my site deals with at length because their role is as yet poorly recognized and they are a relatively new environmental issue — abnormally modulate that threshold. I believe high levels of environment mold exposure (to be more precise, dampness-related exposure), or abnormal internal fungal involvement, is one of the more significant normal modulators of the threshold, in fact, may be primarily responsible for the adaptation.

The World Health Organization report on Dampness and Mould/Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/43325/E92645.pdf notes that atopic individuals experience increased susceptibility to dampness-related health effects, and according to NIOSH, “a more recent epidemiologic review published in 2011 reported that indoor dampness or mold was consistently associated with bronchitis and eczema [Mendell et al. 2011].”

In other words, eczema is more readily expressed in the presence of increased indoor dampness/mold, and atopic individuals are more susceptible under the circumstances. In regard to internal fungal involvement, much research has been published over the years in regards to the use of antifungals with eczema. (Again, big topic for another time.) Some viral illnesses can, in the short-term, do the same. (I discuss this on the blog, I think.)

Certain protein foods associated with full-body eczema outbreaks, too, can modulate that threshold, or be both modulator and trigger, under different circumstances. As I said, I believe there is a connection between these and detergent effects, but that’s a complex discussion for another day.   (Discussed briefly in several posts on the blog.) Basically, I suspect compromised gut barrier leading to proteins in the blood stream — and consequently increased levels of circulating endogenous detergents to denature them — has a similar impact to abnormal environmental detergent exposures. Associated outbreaks could run the gamut between normal and abnormal and/or amplified by other abnormal threshold modulators.

Abnormal environmental conditions today lead to abnormally lowered thresholds to reacting, especially in those with a certain genetic susceptibility. Abnormal environmental conditions also effectively amplify traditional triggers (for example, detergents are known to increase antigen penetration).   Again, this isn’t necessarily a topic I can cover in this letter, but I believe all of these seemingly unrelated factors tie together.

There is a proportionality to the reaction to detergents — a proportionality to the impact on permeability — but the reaction itself is not a simple irritant or an IgE-mediated allergy to detergents, as I discuss on my site. The eczema, I believe, in its abnormal manifestation resulting from abnormal environmental influences today, is an amplified, unnatural triggering of a normal signal.

So when I say 25-60% of cases result from detergents, I’m really considering the commonality of circumstances under which detergents would likely be the overwhelming factor in the outbreaks. These circumstances vary.

 

To be Continued in Part 3:

“… — I think generally it’s possible to estimate how often the different major modulators dominate.”

 

This work by A.J. Lumsdaine is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

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Letter to a Medical Student — What % of Cases are From Detergent? — Part 3

I’m afraid I don’t keep track of citations electronically; I will add in citations after the last post.  There will be at least 4 parts.
AJ

[Part 1]    [Part 2] 
Part 3:

So when I say 25-60% of eczema cases result from detergents, I’m really considering the commonality of circumstances under which detergents would likely be the overwhelming factor in the outbreaks. These circumstances vary.

Because adults often have more complicated health pictures, and because they have naturally less permeable membranes, I would expect detergent as the overwhelming influence in a smaller percentage of cases than for infants or children. For infants, with their far more permeable skin and their still-training immune systems, the percentage is far higher.

Although, as I said, sometimes people can resolve the outbreaks by addressing one modulator or another, or all of them at once if relevant — the primary ones being detergents, environmental (or internal) mold/fungal/yeasts (or, for the internal, let us say, significantly imbalanced microbiome and consequences), or (typically certain protein) foods, or even in some cases the state of the immune system or membranes (skin, lung, and/or gut) health, because it’s all related — I think generally it’s possible to estimate how often the different major modulators dominate.

As you know, a number of studies have shown that pregnant women given beneficial bacteria (probiotics) during pregnancy reduced the rate of eczema in their infants by roughly a third. [refs]   It is my belief that these cases are the ones in which an imbalanced microbiome /fungal modulator would dominate had the eczema developed. Probiotics do more than just compete with fungal organisms, Lactibacillus has also been shown to repair the gut barrier. [ref] (Also an important tangent I won’t go into, but this relates to the role of bio-surfactants and how environmental syndets interact.) Not that removing external detergents wouldn’t help those who would have developed eczema absent the probiotics— and there is overlap in the environmental strategies, relating to gut/membrane health as well — but for this segment of infants, about 30%, I feel the evidence suggests the fungal modulator dominates.

My observation from experience is that those for whom food is the overwhelmingly dominant factor is about 10% of cases. This is not a hard and fast number, it’s just based on experience, and could change based on conditions. As you know, even the rates of eczema around the world continue to change rapidly.

Other studies tangentially suggest roughly the same proportions: “…two-thirds of patients with atopic dermatitis have no measurable allergen-specific IgE. Are we not just measuring the right IgE? Perhaps, but not likely, considering patients with X-linked agammoglobulinemia (a disease in which patients have almost no IgE) commonly develop atopic dermatitis.” [ref #107] [Note: IVIG, at least at the time of this paper, is normally processed with detergents and patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia, I believe, need regular infusions. Again, not to go into a long discussion, but write back if you don’t see the applicability here.]

Noted Harvard pediatrician Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, whose writings in his book Touchpoints gave me the spark that led to my own solution, observed in his book that he could prevent most cases of childhood eczema by identifying atopic parents and having them implement general allergy-healthy-home practices and avoid using detergents with their infants. I asked him just as you have asked me, on what research he based his recommendations, but he said it was just based on decades of medical practice and observation.

In his day, of course, there were fewer sources of syndets in home environments, and they tended to be less powerful. Given the instructions he gave, he would have been addressing the two most significant modulators. Given that this eliminated most cases of eczema — and considering the environmental differences between then and now — I feel his experience further corroborates my observation that the cases in which a food (usually a protein food from a short list) is the primary modulator and removing it completely resolves full-body eczema as well as fluctuations from various triggers, represents the smallest percentage of cases from these main modulators. (Let me repeat that none of these factors occurs in isolation, the food modulation relates to the state of the gut barrier, which can also relate to detergent ingestion and unhealthy balance of microflora.)

Although my perspective and problem-solving heuristic are novel, there are researchers who have been publishing along similar lines and whose work supports these contentions. The most notable is probably respected dermatologist Dr. Michael Cork in the UK, who has for many years had success when his patients remove all surfactants entirely. He does not make the distinction between soaps and detergents as I do — he writes about not using “soap” because of presumed consequences to the skin, but then goes on to underscore it by saying many “soaps” have detergents in them anyway. [ref] I wasn’t aware of his work while we were problem-solving, but I think he has been publishing along the lines of surfactants playing a role in the eczema epidemic for years prior.

So our views are very similar. The main difference and a significant limitation of the no-surfactant approach is that it’s not really very acceptable to most people to refrain from getting clean — Dr. Cork’s assistant said this to me, the trouble is getting people to do it — and in my experience as well as my understanding of the problem, it’s not really necessary to refrain from washing. In fact, many of my site users (including doctors using the site) have commented on how healthy their skin remains even when they engage in frequent hand washing.

The main difference stems from perspectives on how skin is affected by washing. From empirical observation, I have come to see dryness and other impacts from washing as resulting from the residues of highly hydrophilic compounds ON the skin, because of the molecular properties of those residues and how ubiquitous those exposures are in modern environments, rather than the stripping of lipids from the skin by washing, which is the traditional view.

In fact, avoiding the use of traditional soaps with molecular properties that do not cause the kind of increased permeability that most modern syndets do, actually makes it more difficult to get results in typical modern environments. Where most people with uncomplicated histories can see results in as little as a few days to a week with my site strategies, and those with more complicated histories on the order of a few weeks to a few months, these no-surfactant-at-all approaches seem to take on the order of 6 months to 2 years, and the outcomes seem less satisfactory.

In relation to the abnormal influence of modern syndets, in my observation, everyone experiences a change in circumstances because of this environmental influence — degraded skin quality, often dryness that most people believe is inherent, otherwise increased susceptibility to allergic symptoms or amplified symptoms where an allergy already exists, exacerbated asthma — even though not everyone experiences eczema. Anyone under the age of 5 and over the age of 50 especially benefits from minimizing this influence just in skin quality. I believe virtually anyone has the capacity to express eczema under the right conditions, though. Certainly, worldwide eczema and atopy rates continue to rise, seemingly without bound. And in Sweden, which has some of the highest rates, researchers have noted the environmental factor seems related to something in the indoor environment. [ref #88a]

In any given situation, removing detergents, or changing another threshold factor (mainly environmental mold or certain protein foods, including via gut barrier health), or both, might bring a given person’s circumstances below the threshold of any potential for triggering the reaction.  If a person’s outbreaks could have resulted because of more than one factor, but that person removed only one of them and stopped reacting because of bringing a threshold up, that person would blame the eczema on that one thing, when they might as easily have achieved the same result, at least in the short-term, by removing the other factor.

I have had the experience with the site that some people will work very hard in their daily lives to remove triggers that cause outbreaks with each exposure — a pet, for example — only to find that when they follow the site strategies and go detergent-free, they can bring the pet back without the same breakouts or other allergic symptoms. (This is simpler with a dog; many cat litters have significant amounts of detergent in them or are otherwise highly hydrophilic compounds, but with the right awareness and choices, that influence too can be avoided.)

 

To be Continued in Part 4:

“To the question of estimating what percentage of the eczema/atopy problem relates to detergents … implies a broad understanding of the problem across the population …”

 

This work by A.J. Lumsdaine is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

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