Soon The Sun Will Come

It's been cold, it's been grey.
Am waiting for the sun to shine.
I haven't seen no buds on trees
And soon it will be March.

Come Spring, Come Spring
Warmer climes and sunshine
My skin, it longs for thee
To churn out lots of Vitamin D

.....can someone please put the plug back in the sky!

Work Distractions

My worst stress is lack of sleep.

I want more sleep, but have to balance this with work demands. My work has ramped up and so it has been easy for me to spend less hours sleeping, especially when have had to spend time in hot hotel rooms. I like cold hotel rooms! The colder the better and hotel staff don't seem to understand that and repeatedly close my windows and turn up my heating.

So now a flare up has occurred under my eye. I felt a slight irritation but ignored it, or thought I'd been ignoring it, but in truth I'd been touching it and then giving it sneaky short scratches. It feels like I have an insect moving around under the skin. Grrr. The skin is now a little inflamed.

And when am tired my scalp also likes to join in the itch party.

Have also noticed a small patch on the crease of the bum and thigh.

Can't let up even for a little while! GRRRR

Dear work - I need sleep in order to remain healthy and focused.

Right now that I've got that off my chest - time to get sleep back into order.....

Eczema On Hands

I am responding to someone's posted query about eczema on their hands:

i have eczema on my my hands im not sure what food causes it or how to stop eating that which provokes it but i have two questions

1. what foods did you cut out,and did it go on your blood group?

2. does exfoliating help? beacuse my hands seem beter after moisturising but now is flaky??


Firstly I am not a doctor so what ever advice you take from my blog is from observations about healing myself. Not all eczema conditions are the same.

I had eczema from my face and scalp to my ankles. Thankfully the palms of my hands and under my feet did not have eczema.

Focused Areas with Eczema
To me eczema in concentrated areas of your body such as only on the hands or on the feet could mean other things other than food and sleep. For example a friend had eczema on his foot (that's what the doc told him). I observed he always had socks on. I told him to try to air out his feet. His condition improved when he began to walk around in sandles and let his feet breathe!

So perhaps the eczema on your hands could be either from:
a) chemicals that you are using - e.g. soap, dishwashing, shampoo, etc
b) excessive washing of your hands
c) dust
d) or just plain stress. I have noticed people who have eczema on their hands scratch it more intensely when they are getting emotionally stressed or tired.

Food and Eczema
For me, I identified food as being part of my problem because my condition is widespread. I do like eating junk food (crisps, biscuits) and plenty of it especially in the job that I do. If you want to try this, then perhaps you might try excluding cooked oils first which will include meat! I also cut out eating most fruits for a good long while as I observed that I was sensitive to fruits like kiwi, peaches and cherries. That's why the raw veggie diet was convenient for me and is one I return to when my skin feels it wants to be itchy. It has worked for me but certainly has taken a while to prove itself.

Exfoliating and Eczema
I wash with salt and don't use soap. In the latter healing stages of my skin, I have definitely found exfoliating with salt has helped. Only because if I didn't exfoliate the dry flaky skin, I'd either pick or scratch it off instead. I'd then apply loads of moisturising creams/emollients which the skin would be able to receive better without the interference and obstruction of skin flaking off.

Do note when my skin was raw and sore, applying salt straight on the skin felt like it was burning it and then made it even itchier!!! Using salty water was easier when my skin was really bad.

Moisturising and Eczema
This is an important step and the amount you apply depends on how dry your skin becomes.

Good luck to you and hope you are able to find the root of the problem of the eczema affecting your hands. Do let us all know if you find a total cure!

My Friendly Advice to First Steps

I saw some friends today and was sad to see that one of them has a worsened eczema condition that has had side effects on her physical health. On talking about actions that I have taken to dramatically improve my conditions, it became apparent that there were similar things that were affecting both of us. The difference is, is that I became determined to do something about it.

My dear friend who I think is a wonderful humble person has put everyone and everything before her own health. We have chat before in the past years, but now this has become really obvious. How to let go of trivialities, and make oneself a priority to get better at least for the sake of her husband, kids and family.

It is a hard mental game but sometimes for our own physical health we have to, or otherwise scratch ourselves to the grave.

My dear dear friend please sort out:

1. By the end of next week: Your home helper so that you can concentrate on helping yourself. No more procrastinations.

2. Now:

a) Moisturise your skin much more regularly. With your skin condition, I would have cleaned out a 500g tub of emoillient plus a softening cream after 2 weeks! I was applying the moisturisers ALL the time every waking moment......that included when I found I woke up during the night because I was scratching. It is expensive, but you are worth it!

b) Your sleep patterns. Get yourself back into the habit of sleeping! There is a time when sleep wants to come, note the time and look at going to bed closer to that time. Forget everything else. The web has a number of sites as how to overcome insomnia. Your sleep is priority. Here is what I found out about how sleep helps to heal: http://skinurghs.blogspot.com/2008/12/sleepless-itch.html

I use exercise to help me sleep better. Short term you might consider using a strong anti-histamine that will make you sleep or a sleeping pill - best to get advice from the doc.

3. Once you've started getting your sleep under control, consider the food you eat. You have indicated that you are sensitive to foods, then don't eat the ones and the foods related to that group! Research on the web what food groups they are under.

4. Everything else we have discussed.

All my hugs and positive energy to you that you will want to do something about your condition now and no more excuses about why you can't. If you don't try you will never know if you can be better.

So make the life change and improve your eczema!

Exfoliation

Thankfully, skin is better, after not going wild over Christmas and eating a lot of green leaves!

However it is dry from my last niggly scratch session. So since I keep picking my skin as it is flaking, decided to just exfoliate the dry skin off. I don't know whether this is a good or bad thing yet, but the moisturisers I apply seem to take better - that is a cream followed by a vaseline type emollient. Skin looks better!

Merry Christmas Readers

To everyone who has been following my skin blog, 

May you have a merry christmas and a year with less itch and better skin

Scratching at Night

Scratching at night sucks. When I scratch, I scratch hard and this wakes me up and thus I have a poor night's sleep. Any small irregularities on the nail will become a knife and cut into the skin and I'd be sore.

When the eczema was really bad, I used to get myself up and have a cold shower, a bit extreme, especially in winter but a fast way to cool me down. I'd then moisturise the skin. My legs still get itchy at night but are way better.  I throw my legs out from under the blanket and look for a cool spot. If it is really itchy, I mosturise and take an antihistamine. Sleep is far more important than getting stressed about sorting it out.

My observation of night time itching appears to be one of 3 reasons:

1. The skin is dry and hence itches - I sleep with a pot of cream!

2. The skin is hot and hence itches - this would become more so due to the scratching.

3. Dust mites - so I change my bedding and vacuum my room. When the skin droppings were excessive, I cleaned my room and sheets every day. Now it is about every 3 days. However everyday I always shake my sheets outside once I have gotten out of bed. Maybe this is paranoia but psychologically makes me feel better about the bedding I sleep on.

One lady I correspond with found French Argiletz clay has helped to heal to clear her eczema and has shared this formula with me: - French pink or white clay (for dry, sensitive skin), melted coconut oil, purified water.  Mix into a smooth paste and apply to body parts all evening - use cling film at night. I have yet to try it due to the health food shops not having it readily available. I really should pursue internet shopping. Anyway would recommend you do a web search on the healing powers of clay. Interesting stuff.

Currently still soaking and smoothing in moistened table salt onto skin to exfoliate as well as help heal the skin.

I'm going to start eating raw food again as have found that it seems to help me not itch when am hot and/or sweaty!  

Hope this helps you in some way poster Nivea