Eczema: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Hello and a Happy New Year to everyone! It’s absolutely freezing in London at the moment. So given the current weather conditions, I thought a discussion about eczema would be highly appropriate. This topic is quite personal to me because, as you may already know from reading about me, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing eczema first hand.

Firstly, nobody really knows what causes eczema but experts seem to agree that it’s triggered by some sort of allergy. From what I’ve gathered, if the problem is within your body, e.g. allergy to dairy products, the eczema is called atopic dermatitis and if the problem is outside your body, e.g. allergy to soap, the eczema is called contact dermatitis.

To be honest, I don’t really know which type of eczema I had or why I had it. I just know I had it and it was a royal pain in the ass to say the least. When my daughter’s skin started to flare up at the age of about 6 months, the first thing the doctor told me was to stop giving her dairy products. I baulked at the thought. What? Milk wasn’t a problem because I was breast feeding her but no yoghurt? She absolutely loved her Petits Filous. How could I possibly stop giving her Petits Filous? Mon Dieu! This was a catastrophe!

What annoyed me the most was “stop dairy” seemed to be the standard response provided by these experts for anything that looked like eczema. Don’t get me wrong, experts are good. I love experts. But sometimes it just feels like these experts don’t really think things through before providing solutions. Or maybe they’re just not aware of or willing enough to educate themselves on the various solutions that exist.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I didn’t stop giving my baby her beloved Petits Filous or dairy milk for that matter (once she’d stopped breastfeeding). I decided unless feeding her dairy products was life-threatening, I wasn’t about to make her forego the benefits of including them in her diet. The only other alternative was to find a solution for the irritated skin. Fast forward a few years later and you’d never guess she’d ever had eczema. Or believe how bad it was.

Of course every parent has to weigh the options and decide the best course of action for their children, or indeed for themselves. I feel I made the right decision for my daughter.

In restoring her skin to its beautiful baby softness, I followed a simple regimen.

1. Eat healthy. I believe that for a successful result, eczema needs to be tackled from the inside as well as from the outside. Adopting a natural, healthy lifestyle will benefit your skin the most. Eat freshly cooked food, rich in omega oils, like fish, whole grains and legumes. If you’re allergic to seafood or your diet is limited, you can get omega oil supplements from your local health food store.

2. Pamper your skin. Dress yourself and sleep in 100% natural fabrics like cotton, silk and wool. Stay away from polyester and acrylic. Natural fibres allow your skin to breathe which is highly important, especially with weeping eczema.

3. Toss the chemicals. Get rid of commercial soaps and bubble baths and start using 100% natural soaps, preferably handmade.  To start with, I used a powerful blend of organic healing herbs, vegetable oils and natural clays to cleanse my daughter’s skin. This non-foaming cream wash soothed and healed her skin without leaving any scars. Once the worst of the eczema was gone and her skin was smooth again I started cleaning her with natural soap.

4. Moisturise. Use a natural emollient that is designed to soothe, nourish and protect irritated skin. If the skin is weeping or has become infected an intensive  organic ointment will help disinfect and heal it.

When it comes to steroid creams, only four words come to mind.

Stay. Away. From. Them.

Seriously, every GP you visit will more than likely prescribe some form of steroid cream to battle eczema. I’m pretty sure they get hefty commissions from drug companies to shove this evil stuff down people’s throats. Yes, you may find that when you put a bit of the steroid cream on your skin the patch will seem to disappear overnight. But I’m willing to bet that 9 times out of 10, that patch will be back with even greater vigour once you stop using that steroid cream. All the cream does is eat at the outer layer of your skin, making it appear as if it’s stopping the eczema whilst damaging your skin and possibly scarring you for life.

The chemicals inside steroid creams make the outer layer of your skin thinner. If that’s not enough to put you off, just think of it this way, thinner skin means fine lines and wrinkles before your time. Is that a price you’d really like to pay? Believe me, there are natural and safe alternatives out there. You just have to be willing to find them.

Always remember. Never forget.

You are what you eat. You are also what you put on your skin.

Beating those Winter Bugs

After a wonderful period of uncharacteristically warm weather it looks like winter is slowly descending upon us. Last night the icy chill outside and my painfully numb fingers and toes said it all. Still, I have come to love winter. The cosy evenings cuddled on the sofa in front of the fireplace with a warm cup of cocoa, the mouth-watering scent of homemade soup simmering away in the kitchen, the imminent return of Santa and his boxes of goodies. Ah, my idea of winter bliss!

Of course, like all things, winter isn’t always rosy. Days are shorter, for one and then more often than not everyone you come across either has or has just recovered from a cold or flu. Not a great time spent in the office for sure. If you’re battling one of these ailments and are looking for a natural way to get rid of it, here’s a recipe I’ve used for a few years now. It really is a powerful remedy and works extremely fast.

What you need

½ fresh organic lemon (medium)

1 fresh and juicy organic orange (large)

Organic honey

1. Boil some water and let it cool down until warm enough to drink.
2. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice from both halves into a medium-sized cup.
3. Squeeze the lemon juice into the same cup and add the warm water. You don’t want the water too hot or it will destroy the vitamins in the fruit juices.
4. Add a teaspoon or more of organic honey to sweeten

Stir and voilà – a very simple yet powerful boost to your immune system. Make sure you allow yourself to get as much sleep as possible. You don’t want to waste the energy your body needs to fight off the infection. It will allow you to recover much quicker. If you have a blocked nose one way of knowing that the remedy is working is your nose will clear up and become runny very quickly, nature’s way of ridding your body of those nasty bugs. Stock up on a few boxes of tissues because you’ll need them.

When I feel the symptoms of an impending cold I start drinking this remedy immediately, one cup in the morning and another at night. The cold is usually out the door within 3 days max. Absolutely love it! Hope you find it useful too.

Is that Skincare Product REALLY Organic?

I recently received an email from a confused client. She’d spent a lot of money on “organic” skincare products that she couldn’t use because her skin was reacting to them.

She isn’t the first person to be duped. I too, along with a majority of others, was drifting away aimlessly in that same boat before I became a little more skincare savvy.

It’s true. Some organic skincare products are more organic than others. The sad fact is that most countries do not have guidelines for beauty products. Companies can call any skincare product natural or organic even if the product is composed of less than 10% organic ingredients.

The good news is that if, like me, you have sensitive skin you’ll be able to spot a fake better than any other skin type. The bad news is that there’d probably be a dent in your purse before you reach that eureka moment.

So with all the half-truths being propagated by large companies using multi-million pound marketing budgets to promote these so-called “organic” skincare products, how does one know how to pick the wheat from the chaff?

Simple. You need to teach yourself to read the labels. Product ingredients are listed in descending order. In other words, the product is made up mostly of the first ingredient on the label, followed by the second ingredient on the label, followed by the third ingredient on the label and so on.

There are various ingredients you need to look out for that are found in a lot of “organic” skincare products but are really just synthetic fillers. Once you see any of these ingredients on an “organic” skincare product, drop it like it’s hot – and find the nearest exit.

Making a truly organic skincare product, and by this I mean 100% organic, is not a cheap task. This is why most large companies will not make truly organic skincare products – especially when there’s no industry watchdog urging them to do so. Their focus is on the bottom line. If they can make skincare products with minimal organic ingredients and still be able to call them organic, then why would they want to spend a fortune making 100% organic (or at the very least 100% natural) skincare products?

We’re currently living in a world of fakes – fake hair, fake nails, fake eyelashes – the list is endless. If you truly want organic skincare don’t settle for fakes.  Your skin won’t appreciate it. Just read the labels. That’s all it really takes. Happy reading!

Natural Ways to Detoxify Your Body

If you’re anything like me then you’d have grown up hating green vegetables. My mother was always shrieking “Eat your greens!” at the dinner table or attempting some form of blackmail to get me and my siblings to ingest those “nasty” things.

Let’s face it, no matter how much you try to disguise the taste, greens are bitter and getting a child to understand the benefits of eating them is a task in itself. Thankfully, my daughter doesn’t need any blackmailing. She absolutely loves her veggies. I’m always teasing her that she’s from another planet – well at least not the same one that mummy came from when she was a child.

So why then did mother always insist on us eating our green veggies and what were the benefits?

The answer is quite simple. We expose our bodies to toxins from food and drink as well as those from the environment, on a daily basis. If we allow these toxins to build up they prevent our digestive systems from working efficiently, thereby reducing the absorption of vital vitamins and minerals. This ultimately leads us to feel constantly tired, sluggish and stressed out.

Our skin also gets affected, starts to look dull and becomes more prone to spots and pimples.

A good natural purifier will rid the body of these toxins allowing it to function at its best. This is where the green veggies come in. Nature has provided us with various miracle plants that help detoxify the body and are safe enough to eat everyday. One of these miracle plants is wheatgrass.

Raw, organic and fresh is always best. However if you can’t get fresh organic wheatgrass from your local supermarket and are not fortunate enough to have your own little vegetable garden in your backyard, have no fear. You can still reap the benefits of eating organic greens in powdered form. You can mix them into your favourite juice or smoothie and drink them anytime of the day. I prefer mornings because this is when I need a good energy boost the most.

As the toxins are gradually released from the body you’ll start to feel more alive and energetic. Your skin will also start to look more radiant. Remember to drink plenty of water and/or herbal teas to help with the detox process.

To minimise your toxin intake reduce the amount of alcohol and caffeine you drink and cut processed foods out of your diet.

There are many other detoxifying plants including barley grass and the two Asian favourites, chlorella & spirulina. The latter two are algae so if you’re allergic to seafood, I wouldn’t advise eating them.