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« on: April 10, 2014, 06:05:36 am »
Hi everyone. I've been a lurker for a while now and just finally made an account. My boyfriend and I both started eating a little under a year ago, but sometime during Winter we screwed up and ended up eating almost entirely cooked food again. We have always eaten primal/paleo and really thrived once we got off of SAD (seriously). We're back to 100% raw now, though. I've been using recipes (I know, mixing is frowned upon by some here) to keep things interesting so that we DON'T stray away again. I've been enjoying it even more now than before. I feel like a new person.
I'm writing here to document everything and also to get suggestions from the community. I've read about eczema on here already, but I wanted to make a personal post.
Background:
My boyfriend has had eczema for his entire life. His childhood was all about covering himself from head to toe in steroidal/topical creams and using lotion at all times. It wasn't until I started really studying nutrition and learned about leaky gut and all that stuff that he even considered that eczema was an internal problem - not some skin disease you're permanently born with as the dermatologists always say. One of our visits to a derm actually concluded with her saying "There's nothing you can do, your body is just lacking topical creams, which is why you need to use them." I was stunned. His skin got better when we swapped from SAD to Paleo/Primal (still cooked). He was still using Aveno lotion (not the worst but still), though. When we went raw back last Summer, his skin did get better. He noticed that flare-ups would go down much faster especially right after a meal of raw beef or salmon. There wasn't any serious bad changes when we ended up eating cooked food again. It was during December that things just suddenly went downhill. But, he did stop using Aveno, and he was using Dr. Bronner's organic lotion. Once things got REALLY bad, even Aveno didn't make things better. Nothing would, but we weren't going to turn to topical creams.
Symptoms:
- Extremely itchy skin
- Inflamed skin (puffy/swollen and red)
- Very dry, sometimes cracking skin
- Extreme shedding (we have to wipe dead skin off of the bed multiple times a night)
- Sweating/oozing when skin is against something for a long time (i.e. if I end up against him during the night, it was be burning hot and wet)
- Bad dead skin smell EVERYWHERE
Before going back to 100% raw, he was eating pretty basic foods - veggies, some fruit, lots of meat (primarily red meat), fats, and minimal dairy. Now, we're eating nothing but raw meat (grass-fed beef and seafood/shellfish) with minimal amounts of fruits and veggies, lots of animal fats when it's included in our meat, some oils, and beef liver and bone marrow when we can get ahold of it. Everything is raw. We were going to do raw goat kefir for the probiotics, but we've just cut out dairy completely. He also eats a bit of fermented vegetables (kimchi/sauerkraut) daily. No kombucha, though.
He's also taking some supplements to help with his gut. Enough research on probiotics made me feel like they were a good idea, so the one he is currently taking is called RAW PROBIOTICS Ultimate Care 100 Billion with 34 probiotic strains. The guy at the health food store that we go to (who we know pretty well) highly recommended a supplement called IntestiNEW. It contains: L-Glutamine, N-Acetyl D-Glucosamine, Gamma Oryzanol, Cranesbill root, Ginger root, Marigold Extract 5:1 flower, and marshmallow root, along with the capsule (veggie fiber and water). I didn't see anything wrong with it, and I've read good things about L-Glutamine and Glucosamine, so we included that.
Also, he stopped using all lotions at this point. He was using coconut oil, but noticed a slight irritation (nothing visible like a rash, but he would feel an unpleasant tingling), so he's since switched to olive oil. That's been working out just fine.
Since taking these things (it's been 2 weeks now), and going back to raw (1 week in now), we've seen improvement. It's very, very slow, though.
Improvements:
- Legs are very cleared up (skin is smooth but still dry, and it itches occasionally)
- Hands appear to be healing (skin will shed off, revealing healthy skin, but then it dries up quickly and repeats the cycle)
- Face and arms are significantly less inflamed
Changes:
- The sweat got significantly worse for a few days. I actually thought he wet the bed because the sheets were soaked.
- Feet are VERY swollen to the point of not being able to wear certain pairs of shoes. This is still ongoing.
Even though there's a lot clearing up, he's still very miserable. He itches 24/7, sometimes getting less than an hour of sleep at night because he is so uncomfortable. The shedding is insane, we had probably 2-3 lbs of JUST dead skin in our vacuum. The sheets, chairs, linoleum floor, and just about everything are covered in this dead skin shed. And we vacuum 2-3 times a day now. Still covered. I feel like he's improving. Certain areas are definitely clearer. But the swollen feet and inflammation hasn't gone down, and I'm wondering what swollen feet means. I've read that this could all be signs of die-off (bad bacteria, candida, etc) from having such a messed up gut.
Can anyone give any info? Any advice on what else we can be doing to help? Does this sound like it's getting better or worse? All inputs are welcome and appreciated! I'm literally doing everything all day and night for him. I really hope we'll be able to put his eczema to rest once and for all.
TLDR: My boyfriend suffers from eczema, and is hoping that a 100% raw diet of mainly animal meats, fats, and some organ/marrow along with a supplemented probiotic, intestinal healing supplement, and fermented vegetables will help. Suggestions, advice, tips, and any other inputs are greatly appreciated.
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