Dermatitis Remedies Questions
*Ted, an independent contributor, offers information and opinions on Earth Clinic, not as a substitute for professional medical prevention, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your physician, pharmacist, or health care provider before taking any home remedies or supplements or following any treatment suggested by Ted or by anyone on this site. Only your health care provider, personal physician, or pharmacist can provide you with advice on what is safe and effective for your unique needs or diagnose your particular medical history.
SMALL RED BUMPS, RASH AROUND EYES
10/30/2008: Isabella from Boulder, CO writes: "I have developed small red bumps/spots underneath my eyes that have persisted for about 6 weeks. I attributed them to new allergies (I've never had a problem with them before), but now I'm considering the possibility of dermatitis. I have not seen a doctor, as I continue to believe that this will go away on its own with time. I've tried ACV (externally and internally-about 2 tablespoons diluted in at least 16 oz. of water/day) for about a week, but the condition has worsened and has even become itchy. Also, a couple new red spots have appeared high on my upper cheek. I have also started to take Cal/Mag/Zinc, Selenium, and Vitamin E. Tried washing my face with baking soda, but I'm not sure that helped or hurt my situation. Is this just a case of getting worse before things improve??
I've never had anything like this before. I will not consider steroid creams and wish to avoid oral antiobiotics, which is what I suspect a dermatologist will prescribe. Anyone have similar experience with this issue? Should I be tested for allergies? Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks for the great website!"
11/07/2008: Steve from Lexington, KY replies: "Hi, I'm glad to hear I am not alone with this ailment. I have had this problem for about 10 years and have been tested for every allergy you can name, I have been seen by dermatologists who are from Ivy League schools and none of them have been able to say anything except that I have a dermatitis. Duh!!! I am so frustated. The only thing that works for me to keep it at bay or not get worse is to wash my eye area at least 3 times a day with very warm almost hot water which feels good on it when it is irritated and i have a tube of elocon cream that i very sparingly use once about every 4th day or so being cautious not to get in my eyes. If i do not follow this regimen, within 2 days my eyelids are read and swollen and i get bumps on them and below the eyelash too and in the corners of the outsides of my eyes the skin is red irritated and swollen. Sometimes the outbreaks are mild but if I let it go, it gets really bad. From my research on the internet, the only self diagnosis that fits so far is blepharitis-which there is no cure for. If you find out any other info. please let me know. Good Luck, Steve"
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HEAD AND NECK CONTACT DERMATITIS REMEDIES NEEDED
09/06/2008: Karen from Ottawa, Canada writes: "Could you PLEASE help me. I wrote in a while ago but have not seen my post up yet. I was really hoping that someone would have a cure for me...they say it is contact dermatitis, but it won't go away with the steroid creams and I am nervous to keep on using the steroid constantly. Does anyone have a cure? It is on my head and neck and I itch constantly! Thanks for any help!"
09/07/2008: Joyce from Joelton, Tn replies: "Hello Karen, First thing I wonder about, what are you using on your head and neck that might be causing this contact dermatitis. It could be any lotion,cream,soap, cosmetic, makeup or cleanser. The best way to find out is to leave them all off and add them back one at a time to find what is causing it. While you are trying to determine the cause, Benadryl or its generic is sold over the counter now and it should help to control the itching as well as the dermatitis. It is available in 25 mgm caps or tabs and the adult dosage is 50 mgm. every 4 - 6 hrs."
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CONTACT DERMATITIS REMEDIES WANTED
09/04/2008: Karen from Ottawa, Canada writes: "Hi. I was told that I have contact dermatitis, probably from visiting the hairdresser!! My 2 children also have it as we all went together. Can you give me a safe cure that I can use on the children as well. I was prescribed a steriod cream which I am very hesitant to use---especially on the children. Any advice would be extremely helpful. I have read about ACV helping but am not sure how much and how to use! Thanks!"
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DERMATITIS AROUND THE NOSE
08/12/2008: DL writes: "I started to take flax seed oil every day (sometimes 2-3 times a day) and I noticed that the dermatitis around my nose has all but disappeared. I don't think this is a permanent cure, but the oil has probably provided enough moisture to my skin that it doesn't flake. Anything else I can do for a permanent cure?"
08/12/2008: Ted from Bangkok, Thailand replies: "For skin problems, a small amount (500 mg) evening primrose oil and fish oil would help, whenever they are needed. They contain different essential oils. An evening primrose oil contains GLA, a fish oil has Omega 3 type 2, but a flaxseed has omega 3 type 1. In research studies an omega 3 type 2 is generally more effective, and it seems women need more Evening Primrose oil for various skin condition. What is left over from the skin problem may have been some alkalization (ACV and baking soda, or lemon and baking soda), and vitamin A, mostly from eating some carrots.
Skin problems I take great notice, not because they look nice, but it indicates brain lipid peroxidation and other internal conditions that manifest externally before things get worse.
Ted"
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STRONGER REMEDY AVAILABLE?
09/25/2007: Stefiana from Saskatoon, Canada writes: "Ted, please help me: I recently developed very dry, itchy, flaky skin on my eyelids, cheeks, jaw line, neck, and scalp; as well as hair loss, since the birth of my baby 6 months ago. I don't know if it's Eczema or Dermatitis? And I don't know whats causing it. The doctors I have been to have prescribed all sorts of hydrocortisone creams, but they don't work. I tried ACV for about 3 days but stopped because of the negative results I got- it didn't help like I hoped it would. The ACV took away the itch on my face but my scalp is still itchy, it burned the skin on my face and eyelids- my facial skin is now very red and painful, and even more dry and flaky than it was before- like extremely flaky and dry. My eyelid is also swollen. I look like I have had boiling water thrown on my face! It's horrible, my skin hurts like crazy!! It might help you to know that I am breastfeeding, I don't eat carrots or carrot juice, I like to stay out of the sun, and I stopped taking prenatal vitamins once my baby was born. I suffered from eczema as a child on my arms and legs but it was never on my face or scalp.. Ted: What can I do/take to get my skin back to normal?? My face needs some serious moisture! What can I use to moisturize my face? Do you think that coconut oil will work for me??"
Ted from Bangkok, Thailand replies: "Dear Stefiana: ACV alone won't work, whenever dry skin occurs, it is usually acidosis and lack of magnesium and certain dietary oils are lacking.
Hence, a simple remedy a more stronger one, might have been 2 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar plus 1/2 tablespoon of baking soda in 1/2 glass of water taken twice a day. If that was already tried, with the baking soda of course, but doesn't work, then just the 1/2 tablespoon of baking soda in 1/2 glass of water twice a day might be a more workable one.
The remedy of dry skin that has helped is evening primrose oil, 1000 mg and 1000 mg of flaxseed oil, some vitamin A 25,000 i.u. fish oils from omega 3, and 1000 mg of cod liver oil, and 2000 i.u. of vitamin E. Those can be taken once every other day or every day for 5 days out of a week. It takes about 2 weeks to notice some change. This will at least resolve some problems of the dry skin. Most skin lotions, should help moisturized, but I prefer aloe vera oil and allantoin added. Vitamin E that works most effectively on the skin are not the ones that is designed for the skin (e.g. tocopheryl acetate). The one that has worked extremely well turns out to be the natural vitamin E in alpha tocopheryl that people take and those softgels can be cut opened and apply thinly to help with the skin drying too, at least it helps with skin repairs, critically with the aloe vera oil, that is added in skin lotion, in small amount. It should be noted that most commercial vitamin E skin lotion do not use natural vitamin E and those need to buy them separately where it is designed for taken internally that can help the most."
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ACIDOPHILUS OR ACV?
12/10/2006: Nancy from Chicago, IL writes: "I am confused - some of your contributors say they went off their "yeast medicines" while others swear by their acidopholus. As it turns out, I had great success for yeast infections from Jarro Acidopholus, but I am suffering from reoccurring contact dermatitis on the palms of my hands and dry, red, itchy patches under my eyes and around my mouth. In the beginning it occurred from touching geraniums. Then contact with angorra. And now, god knows what! Do you think I should first go off the acidopholus, try the ACV cure and see what happens? Or should I stay on the acidopholus? Any advice would be most welcome! N"
Ted from Bangkok, Thailand replies: "Nancy: Alternative medicine has a tendency to be holistic in nature and synergistic. Everyone have different body chemistry and yours is no different. You can try both or one or the other, to know which works. There is a general rule of thumb for me: it takes 3 days to know, whether ACV + baking soda works, or acidophilus works or both. If you are a purist and want to know what is best you may need to compare one each, then do both at the end. If you are in a hurry, you will try both then after you are cured, but will never know. In principle a purist approach is to try all three combinations, acidophilus 3 days, ACV+baking soda 3 days (with baking soda works the best), and finally both for 3 days. And see how it goes to settle the debate.
suffering from reoccurring contact dermatitis on the palms of my hands and dry, red, itchy patches under my eyes and around my mouth.
If it is a contact dermititis, it would be much easier to just use topical application to work the best. So apply lavender + tea tree oil 6 times a day and if this doesn't work out after three days, just try a hydrogen peroxide 1% plus saturated solution of borax.
If you are in a hurry, often a simple bottle of plain old vinegar applied to the skin in question often enough will stop the problem, so no need to go a long way such as yogurt, or acv or other things. Try the simplest possible approach first: keep appling vinegar for 6 hours (this is the time to get a 100% kill for most viral organism in practice but this is applied every 15-30 minutes), with many applications during that period and see how it goes. And if it works find keep doing it for a couple more days just to be sure. Should you have problems during application of vinegar in the first couple of minutes or an hour, just stop."
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PSORIASIS CURES?
10/30/2006: Bob from Marshalltown, Iowa writes: "Any of your contacts have help on skin disorders? have psorriasis, skin blotches. tried apple vinegar, honey.vitamin C, E, etc. was wondering about fish oil. sorry I couldn't contribute."
Ted from Bangkok, Thailand replies: "Dear Bob: While there are several simple ways to stop psoriasis it does come back now and then. Pure vinegar seems to work just fine, and so is 100% ethyl alcohol (the ones they put in alcoholic drinks). Vitamin E seems to help only on just skin repairs, but not on psoriasis.
As for me psoriasis seems to be helped a lot by lavender oil, camphor powder with a suitable carrier oil (grape oil), and to some extent vitamin C ester. Lately I have suspected these skin problem were of fungus in nature, so 2% copper chloride solution seems to help a lot, at least i don't have to be bothered with the number of times I apply it and seems to heal skin problems. In most cases a weekly application, but lately the fungus has been going stronger due to changes in the weather here.
Copper chloride will react with the skin proteins to initiate skin repairing it seems. So this may be a simpler solution than the use of copper peptide that is all the rave on hair growth formulations, but without the patent. More advanced formulation for fungus may require a trace chromium chloride, but this is still in the backlog of my experiments.
Hydrogen peroxide of 1%-1.5% solution seems to be helpful in certain cases of red spots and some cases of psoriasis, especially if it is large enough. Apply using cotton balls is best way. Do not exceed over 2% as this will leave your skin purple. The blood if it has way too much peroxide, will cause the skin to turn this color. Frequency of application and taking internally seems to be helpful. But I suspect a more lasting effect is the certain mineral deficiency behind it. Haven't as yet found a permanent cure for psioriasis, but I suspect that manganese and molybdenum might be helpful, at least it did reduce some incidence in skin irritations. If I don't take it, it certainly did come back!
Fish oil is somewhat limited certain skin bacterial infections, but not well placed on psioriasis, as it is more to do with fungus. However if the fungus is gone and skin repair is needed, flaxseed oil and primrose oil seems to work the best, especially when mixed with vitamin E.
Again if you suspect psoriasis is due to crawing insect creatures under the skin, a hydrogen peroxide 1% and saturated solution of borax does it everytime. The key is not to rinse it dry and let it evaporate and apply often enough. It seemed to work great for mange, but then it seems to work well in lyme and lupus related skin problem also."
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BURNING, ITCHING SKIN SOLUTION?
A Reader from Lancaster, PA writes: "I am reading all the feedback, but most of it seems to be about dandruff. I dont have dandruff but have been told by doctors that I have seborrheic dermatitis on my face, it is very itchy and sometimes burns. I have been using head & shoulders and scrubbing the suds into my face. This seems to help the itch, but my skin is now so dry, it is cracking and peeling like a bad sunburn. I have tried ACV also, as a topical and drinking it, to no avail. Any moisturizer I try burns my face even more. Is there a moisturizer without alcohol, I think this is what is burning my skin. I am currently using jasons 98% aloe vera and it burns like mad. help!!"
Ted from Bangkok, Thailand replies: "Try washing your face in baking soda or borax, this will reduce the burning. Try using vitamin E on face instead of aloe vera. The product you are using that causing the burning might have to do with the fragrance they have added. If nothing works, use fulvic acid. As to get your face to have enough moisture, glycerine mixed with borax might do the trick too.
[Read more eczema cures here.]"
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