Wisdom of Healing

For more than thirty years, I experienced itchy, oozing, rough, red, blotchy, scaly, irritated, cracked skin. Early in adulthood, I was diagnosed with both eczema and psoriasis, probably linked to food sensitivities. I also experienced other auto-immune conditions during that time, including multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) and sporadically chronic fatigue (CF).

My shins and calves would itch so badly during the night that I would scratch them until they bled. I used both topical products and supplements that would help for awhile, but the pain and itching never fully left my body during all those years. I also found acupuncture to be fairly effective, having gotten treatments for several years. Although my skin improved, it never cleared completely. Wintertime was always the worst time of year, and summer was only marginally better. And then something wonderful happened!

For the past ten or twelve years, I have freed myself of the daily (and nightly) discomfort, irritation and pain that I’d experienced with my skin throughout most of my life. I will first share with you how I relieved the discomfort, and at a later date, I will explain how we can all find long-term relief from the distress of auto-immune conditions, including eczema and psoriasis.

Many holistic health practitioners believe that all skin imbalances are linked to the liver and often the colon, as well. The liver is the master detoxifier of the body, and with tens of thousands of new chemical compounds produced in these last few decades, our livers are overwhelmed with the burden of ridding our bodies of these toxins, to say the least.

The liver may literally work for weeks or months, attempting to produce an enzyme or agent to break down one of these chemical compounds. Meanwhile, it will store the assumed toxin in fatty tissue. The fatty tissue protects the toxin similarly to an egg carton protecting the fragile eggs. We would all do very well if the toxins were stored in our hips or behind, but fatty tissue may also be found in the brain, eyes, skin, etc. and the liver may choose one of these storage locations.

Once the liver has rendered the toxin harmless, it is sent to the colon for elimination. The problem here is that most people’s colons are a mess, and the structure of the intestinal lining is stressed and leaking. These unhealthy intestinal conditions are called by many names; IBS, constipation, leaky gut, Crohn’s, colitis, etc, but the bottom line is that those toxins that the liver sent to be expelled via the colon end up being reabsorbed into the bloodstream, where they can wreak havoc.

This pattern of imbalance is believed to be the underlying problem that leads to many, if not all, of the auto-immune conditions. The liver may use the skin (or eyes or brain) to dump or store excesses, leading to either dry or oily conditions.

So, you must be noticing by now that there is a great need for effective detoxification. Most cultures of people throughout the world have used the changing of the seasons to cleanse the body and mind of accumulated toxins. Today, we pollute our food, water, air, bodies and minds on an unfathomable scale, but many of us no longer take the time to reduce or eliminate the accumulated waste from our cells and organs with proper detoxification.

Before any liver detoxification is to take place, it is crucial to get the colon working effectively. Regardless of what doctors often tell patients these days, it is NOT NORMAL to only have a bowel movement two or three times per week! This could not be more wrong if we want to be healthy and prevent disease. For thousands of years ‘normal’ elimination has been a bowel movement at least once, and up to three times daily, (and at times, such as during detoxification periods, even more often).

If this is an issue for you, you may want to increase your consumption of vegetables (and not necessarily fruits, as they can feed candida, a story for another day). You may also want to add flax seeds. Please, don’t buy the flax meal that is already ground up for you. The oils are rancid in these products, and they’ll charge you four times as much for this inferior form of flax. And please be sure to buy organic! There are some silly scientists now messing with flax and genetic engineering.

Now, I’ll address the program that I’ve found most effective for very dry skin. There are probably two dozen other excellent products for these purposes, but for every great product on the market, there are 50 or more that are of very poor quality. Choose wisely if results are what you desire.

We need good fats for every cell in the body, and the omega 6’s and 9’s are the ones our skin desires. Don’t think that because you’re taking the omega 3’s in fish or flax oil, that you’re all set. Those fats are not what our skin needs, so you may want to find a product containing all three or add an oil such as black current seed oil.

My favorite combination of the omega 3’s, 6’s and 9’s is the Renew Life- Oil Smart. It contains an abundance of lipase, the enzyme needed to break down fats in the digestive tract for much better absorption and utilization. In a liquid form, my favorite is Udo’s Choice Oil Blend from Flora. This is delicious on salads, in smoothies, etc and is sold in glass bottles, just as all good oils should be.

To address liver and blood detoxification, there are a few excellent choices. If you can find it, the product made with organic freeze-dried herbs by Eclectic Institute called Blood Support is superb. To this, one might choose to add a tincture of burdock seed. The one I often use is Herb Pharm’s Burdock Blend.

Neem, a tree found through much of the subcontinent of India, has been used for a wide range of skin conditions, including eczema and psoriasis. Dozens of studies have confirmed what the people of that region of the world have long known; the leaves and oil of the neem tree are rich in compounds that offer powerful and safe anti-inflammatory activity. Neem has been used both internally and externally for skin conditions for thousands of years.

The most therapeutic neem products in the US are from a company called Organix South, and go by the brand name Thera Neem. You may want to try their soaps, especially the maximum strength one with sweet orange and ylang ylang. They also make a rich, nourishing cream, which was voted as one of the top 10 creams in the world for dry skin by the Independent Newspaper in London.

I’ve long understood that issues of the skin must be addressed internally, and although I do have my favorite products to apply when my skin is dry and chapped, long-term real relief will come from within. The Thera Neem folks also offer some very potent organic neem capsules. Neem, taken internally, is quite bitter, and helps to neutralize some of the excess sugar that most of us have in our blood. This is believed to directly support healthy, beautiful skin.

If you have experienced rough, dry, irritated skin, it’s time to help your body heal itself so that the next time you pass the mirror, you will be looking at a more soft, supple, beautiful you!

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