I suppose no activity on my blog in nearly 10 months is nothing short of shameful. Well…that’s not technically true—I did respond to a few comments here and there. Does that count? Probably not, eh?
I do want to apologize to everyone who was following me, as well as to those who were looking for more information about vitamin D being a cure for dyshidrotic eczema. My year has been a constant state of insane hectic-ness, with a few not so wonderful occurrences along the way. We’ve survived, though, and I’m hoping to get back to the business of writing my own ramblings with a bit more regularity.
The Topic at Hand: Dyshidrotic Eczema Cure
My most popular post seems to be the one I did about vitamin D being a potential cure for dyshidrosis, and there were several requests for a follow-up on the subject.
I stressed before and must do so again: I am not a doctor and do not have any medical training. The information I am going to relay is based on my personal experience only and should in no way be taken as medical advice. Please, please talk to your doctor if you need medical help or advice.
I stressed before and must do so again: I am not a doctor and do not have any medical training. The information I am going to relay is based on my personal experience only and should in no way be taken as medical advice. Please, please talk to your doctor if you need medical help or advice.
Now that the technicalities are out of the way, I’ll tell you about my experience. I have found vitamin D to be extremely beneficial in the management of my dyshidrotic eczema. Within a month of taking it daily, my hands were almost completely clear. As of right now, I have absolutely no signs of it on my hands.
My feet are a little bit of a different story. There is one single patch on the interior side of my right foot that simply will not completely clear. It gets better, and most of the time it causes me no discomfort, but it’s definitely still there. It will get to itching on occasion, but it’s not anything unbearable.
Dyshydrosis Before and After Vitamin D
Comparatively speaking, the difference in my skin before and after starting a vitamin D regimen is nothing short of amazing. I have read that taking magnesium aids in the absorption of vitamin D, and have considered adding that to my regimen. I wonder if it would give my immune system the extra boost it needs to finally clear the patch on my foot. Honestly, though, it bothers me so little that I can never remember that I want to try it when I’m shopping.
Whether or not vitamin D really is a cure for dyshidrosis is something I cannot say with certainty. I do feel that, for me at least, it has been a miracle. I have begun to get a little anxious with the dead of winter coming up, since that’s when all this flared to begin with. So far, though everything seems to be under control.
I do notice that when I forget to take my vitamin D for a few days, a very small patch of blisters appear. I have also noticed that as soon as I start taking it again, the blisters heal quickly, and I don’t see any more unless I forget my vitamins again. The correlation between these events has me absolutely convinced that, while there may be no technical cure for dyshidrosis, vitamin D may be as close as we’ll get.
Your mileage may vary, of course, but I would love to hear from you if you’ve tried this approach. I think it would be most interesting to see just how many people have been helped by such a simple solution. Who knows? Perhaps you and I could inspire researchers to look into this possible dyshidrotic eczema cure, which could go on to help thousands of fellow sufferers around the world!
Thank you for sharing some of your journey with dishydrosis. Mine started when my daughter was about 9 months old (over 8 yeas ago) and got so bad that I had to wear nitrile gloves constantly - 24/7. It was incredibly painful and itchy - I could open and close hands easily without it hurting and fissures bleeding. I had painful fissures and inflamed red hands and reacted to sorts of things (chemicals and such that I touched and even things I got in my system thru smelling it in the air). When I went to the doctor, my hands were covered in white blisters because I caused the blisters to get infected from repeated scratching. The doctor wanted to use a steroid cream but I refused because I was nursing my daughter. The itchy red part actually went up my forearms and I had some patches elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI wore gloves for one solid year and then was diagnosed with pretty bad anemia. When I started addressing the anemia, the symptoms on my hands got a little better and I could ditch the constant glove wearing but still had to be careful about exposure and used them periodically. I found out later I was very deficient in vitamin D but didn't exactly address it (forgot). There are numerous things that I have done and the dishydrosis is completely manageable now - even got rid of the patch on the side of my foot that showed up last summer. As a matter of fact, I actually had my hands completely healed up at one point a few months ago. The MOST beneficial thing that got me the BEST results was vitamin A from high vitamin cod liver oil (high in A & D) and liver. Yes, liver. When I eat liver, my hands almost heal up overnight. I really need to eat it on a regular basis for loads of reasons, including how great I feel when I do. Vitamin A is crucial in healing of the skin and LOADS of other things in your body.
My D levels were around 27 about 4 months ago so I got much better about taking it regularly. I took 10,000 iu daily for a solid month and it helped my overall health tremendously. They also said I was dealing with anemia again which I'd been dealing with on and off for at least 8 years. The raw desiccated grassfed liver I take is fantastic but I only take the equivalent of 1oz (before desiccated) a day and need to be eating beef liver or at least chicken livers at the very least weekly. I HIGHLY recommend you get a hold of high vitamin cod liver oil and desiccated liver and watch the healing and great overall health. Liver is high in nearly every vitamin and mineral and is literally like taking a whole food vitamin in a very assimilable form.
Take care and blessings,
~Bethany
pawz4christ @ yahoo
Oh I forgot to mention that I tried so many natural creams all those years ago and the only one that really worked was a cut and burn cream that contained zinc. Zinc is important too for healing and liver is high in it also. I haven't had to use creams or anything for quite a long time now. ~Bethany
ReplyDeleteHi Bethany! Thanks so much for sharing your story! I have indeed been looking into some high vitamin cod liver oils, but the one I really want to try is pretty pricey. I'm hoping to be able to save up enough to go for it soon. Just a bit terrified that I'll lay down the cash and then it will taste so horrible that I won't be able to take it up--lol. I hadn't really thought about zinc too much...I will definitely look into that. Thanks again for sharing with me! This is such a terrible, tormenting condition and support and tips from fellow sufferers are so important. :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting reading - thank you very much for posting this Rachel!!!
ReplyDeleteAdding to the anecdotes here:
Background: 40 yr male. Married to a MD. Always had various food allergies (because prematurely born and not breast fed? Two siblings w/o problems).
I've had minor problems with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seborrhoeic_dermatitis for a few decades (siblings do have these!). Recently I discovered this got a lot better if I cut down on sugar, something I've always had a weakness for.
Over the past few years inflamed joints - not severe but constant aching and at one point I did need to take cortisone injection in a knee. Still, it's generally not worse than that I can take full contact martial arts classes a few times a week (...actually, that's when I feel the least joint pain!)
Apropo cod oil: I probably have a milder form of ADD which made me start taking Omega 3 supplements (a very high quality brand). This, I believe, is normally the desired substance in cod liver oil as Bethany mentions. Supposedly it is anti-inflammatory but I'm not really sure it works in that respect for me, at least not for the joints. It does however, definitely help with the ADD symptoms (I don't have the same problems finding words/names and I don't have the "spikey" aggressive outbursts, to name two things).
And, to Rachels main point about vitamin D; I have previously been diagnosed with having low vitamin D.
Now, a common factor for possibly all these problems listed is *inflammation*. Possibly even the ADD, according to recent studies. I'm thinking, just maybe dyshidrotic eczema is also related to this (I have no idea).
Anyway, the inflammation issue has made me look at what I can do about it and I found some info on how various diets supposedly drive or prevent inflammation. Anti-oxidants etc. Unfortunately a lot of research is still needed here. Anyway, I found research done on oxidant levels and ORAC values and while the later research has found that it's not(!) as easy as "high ORAC = high antioxidative effects in your body" (because different foods have different bioavailability) I figured that if I take the highest orac's I can't be all off...
...well (and here comes the tie-up of my rant) I tried with rose hips (extremely high vitamin C, an anti oxidant) a few months ago - and this is when I got my first dyshidrotic eczema! I can't say for sure that this is what caused it, only that it coincided in time.
My point? Well, not really any point. Just adding to the puzzle. One hypothesis though is that about inflammation. Just maybe there's a relation and more people reading this have such other inflammation problems as I give example of here.
...But then why did the supposedly anti-inflammatory supplement coincide with the outburst of the dyshidrotic ec - should be the other way around if anything. I have no idea, just sharing what happened.
Again, thanks for the vitamin D tip. Starting with it now! :-)
/Mat
Thanks so much for this! I have pompholyx covering most of my palms and fingers and have done for years - it's horrible and completely debilitating. I'm getting married in a couple of months and so want it gone! I'm currently having PUVA light treatment at the hospital which has helped the scaling and cracking but not the little blisters. I also use Elocon. Will try vitamin D asap :) Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the writer here that Vit D helps tremendously with dyshidrosis. I was suffering from that disorder for about 8 years before finding out that I was deficient in Vit D. Was prescribed the 50,000units once/week and the dyshidrosis was practically turned off overnight. I wouldn't exactly call vit d a "cure" for it, but it seems that being vit d deficient makes it easier for the dyshidrosis to take hold. Caffeine and/or chocolate seem to be my triggers and I will still get blisters if I consume those things but it doesn't get near as bad and heals quicker. I now take OTC vit d3 2,000units/day. It took almost a year for my feet to completely heal and for the dry skin to be shed off which I helped along with filing and lots of eucerin cream but they now look normal. Good luck to you all and if you haven't had your vit d levels checked do so.
ReplyDeleteFrom my personal experience and experiments, I've found that my "DE" ALWAYS flares up right after high sugar content - excess candy, etc... I've been doing a low carb diet for a while now, with no issues, and recently gave in and bought a 1lb bag of candy, and within 3 days, finally had another flare up.
ReplyDeleteConsidering Vitamin D is said to control blood sugar levels, it seems it fits with my experience.
Look into how high in sugar your diet is. Keep in mind it's not just candy, but breads, pasta, etc... that all convert to sugars once digested.
Hello to all,
ReplyDeleteI was recently diagnosed with dehyrotoic eczema about 2 years ago by a dermatologist at Rush Medical Center of Chicago. At first I thought it was poison ivy, but the dermatologist told me it wasn't and he was certain it was. Needless to say, two years later I coping with his findings. (Sigh) Nevertheless, these last two months I was sent to the ER for prednisone to quickly try to get the inflammation down bc of the pain with the blisters. It was a nightmare bc the ER doctors only gave me 4 days worth of prednisone. As one could easily guess it came back the next two days with me being off the meds. So before I took a knife to chop off my hands. I looked up vitamins that aid in the cure of dehyrotoic eczema. (Keep in mind I researched and researched until I came across this article )
Guess what I started taking vitamin d3 along with echinacea every day and guess what my blister are quickly dissolving. I didn't have to go to the ER or anything just taking my vitamin d3 and echinacea.
I believe my cause of dehyrotoic eczema is due to excessive stress in my life bc it's one going and my body doesn't know how to filter it. I don't exercise or anything bc of my busy schedule.
I learned to read more and go back to writing and now I'm going to join the gym :)
I know I'm on the right track and so can we all by doing the vitamin d3 and you may want to add a little echinacea it won't hurt it's all natural any way.
God bless
Vitamin d3 is for me a cure. At first I typed in this lengthy comment here, however it didn't save :(
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I'm not going to retype everything I said. Nevertheless, I will say this...Vitamin d3 and add a little echinacea. Echinacea is all natural so it won't hurt as a matter of fact it helps build you immune system.
God bless,
Hello to all,
ReplyDeleteI was recently diagnosed with dehyrotoic eczema about 2 years ago by a dermatologist at Rush Medical Center of Chicago. At first I thought it was poison ivy, but the dermatologist told me it wasn't and he was certain it was. Needless to say, two years later I coping with his findings. (Sigh) Nevertheless, these last two months I was sent to the ER for prednisone to quickly try to get the inflammation down bc of the pain with the blisters. It was a nightmare bc the ER doctors only gave me 4 days worth of prednisone. As one could easily guess it came back the next two days with me being off the meds. So before I took a knife to chop off my hands. I looked up vitamins that aid in the cure of dehyrotoic eczema. (Keep in mind I researched and researched until I came across this article )
Guess what I started taking vitamin d3 along with echinacea every day and guess what my blister are quickly dissolving. I didn't have to go to the ER or anything just taking my vitamin d3 and echinacea.
I believe my cause of dehyrotoic eczema is due to excessive stress in my life bc it's one going and my body doesn't know how to filter it. I don't exercise or anything bc of my busy schedule.
I learned to read more and go back to writing and now I'm going to join the gym :)
I know I'm on the right track and so can we all by doing the vitamin d3 and you may want to add a little echinacea it won't hurt it's all natural any way.
God bless
I was diagnosed with Dyshidrotic Eczema about 4 years ago. I tried EVERYTHING, no help. My doctor noticed recently that I was deficient in vitamin D. Started taking Vitamin D daily and to date.....NO ECZEMA!!! I just noticed the connection the other day, noting that it had been about 6 weeks with no break outs. I then realized the only change I had made was taking vitamin D supplement. May be short term, but its working for now!
ReplyDeleteOMG I am in the same boat. So glad you found some relief. Do you mind telling me how much you took to stop the outbreaks? I just ordered some.
Delete