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

Travel + Sleep

I really hate traveling long haul. I suffer badly from jetlag and my attempts to recover quickly from it, means I sleep very little.

Having just done a 14 hour flight, I slept about 10 hours over 3 nights. My skin has been relentlessly itchy and I can't knock myself out due to work. Night times are restless and long even after having taken my normal knock out dosage of antihistamines. 

All the good work improving the skin nearly went out the door. Until someone offered me their place for a marathon. It was hot, humid, there were lots of people and I could feel their body heat and smell their sweat. I suffered from heat exhaustion. I'm not entirely sure whether I enjoyed this or not.

However I had a great 10 hours sleep and today although it is dry and needs healing, my skin is feeling much calmer.

Work Stress...tick tock tick tock

Time seems to be ticking by fast. Have not had time to research about an enema. Just need to keep going. Been stressed at work for the last 3 weeks, so much politics, but thankfully this does not seem to cause me to itch.

Sweating, Detox and Exercise

DETOX! I keep wondering about a detox, especially when am working away from home and my eating habits tend to go by the way side. Note my "way side" is eating bread, diary products, much more meat than usual, quick foods like chips and biscuits ...

I say this is way side eating as I have changed my eating habits mostly, eating far more salad, fish and drinking plenty of water. This summer was able to grow my own rocket, pak choi, broccoli, tomatoes, beet root, zucchini, beans, and other types of salad leaves.

I have been feasting on salads and my skin has improved significantly. Less skin droppings on the bed; smoother softer skin; less moisturising components being rubbed on. I believe this is partly due to my change in eating.

Sweat, Exercise and Toxins

To me these observations indicate that there are toxins that are being produced. Sweating is a way of bringing these toxins to the surface. The only other way to rid the body of toxins is by the normal toilet method!

When I exercise, I go for a good sweat out. Unfortunately when the skin becomes hot, it becomes irritated. The sweat also has a dehydrating effect and so the itch comes back hard and fast during and after exercise. A cold shower seems to be the best relief I can get. After exercise, my nights are more restful with very little itching.

However, in summer I also observed, for the first time I did not always itch during and after exercise. The sweat appeared and zero itch. This appeared to happen when had been eating salad for at least one meal for a week! My eating discipline was also better, with less saturated fat type foods (such as biscuit and cakes) going into my system.

Saunas: I have read that saunas are suppose to be better than exercise in removing toxins. I have tried saunas and have found they have had a lesser effect compared to exercise. This might be due in part to the release of endorphines with exercise and the known fact that exercise reduces tension and anxiety. Saunas, although they give me a good sweat out, does not reduce my tension and anxiety like exercise.

So I ask myself:are toxins responsible for triggering/inducing eczema?

From observations internal and external toxins can irritate the eczema areas, and so certainly the reduction of toxins can help in reducing the itch cycle, as well as produce an overall "well being" feeling. In part toxins produce "stress" within our bodies and our bodies react by itching.

For example: People I know who suffer from eczema have found having an enema has helped to reduce eczematic symptoms.

So I assume that my liver and kidney functions might not be processing toxins as well as they can. Some foods that produce toxins within us are not being removed as quickly as I would hope. However, this is only part of the picture. I'll be back to write more, but think I need to go for an enema first!

Regular Table Salt

My skin wants sun. The weather makes me eat more junk food. Hmmm. Eczema is creeping back onto the skin. Despite the regular moisturising, patches of skin appear as dried out. Sometimes I think I might have some other skin disorder whereby too much skin is being produced and hence the itchy dried out excess skin.

Under the eyes have decided to join in this year, so am bathing with regular table salt. This does seem to have a positive effect in acting as a exfoliation agent and reducing the amount of itching. So much so that I think my past usage of sea salt might have been a little bit of a placebo effect. It was expensive salt - so it had to work!!!

Perhaps I need to boost my vit D and do a couple of sunbed sessions or perhaps I need to do more observations.