What foods help clear up eczema?
Do you or does someone you know have eczema? If you do, no words are needed! It is an incredibly frustrating and difficult-to-manage skin condition. To complicate things further, research is still quite scarce and in the medical world, opinions on using nutrition to manage eczema flare-ups are very polarized.
If you are considering using nutrition to manage your eczema, here are 5 important points that I would like to share with you today:
Eczema is a broad term. When discussed in the context of food allergies and sensitivities, people use it to refer to atopic dermatitis, but there are other types of eczema too! Talk to your dermatologist to establish the correct diagnosis before trying to use foods to clear up eczema.
There is no one “magic” anti-eczema diet, because there are many different causes of eczema and the way each person reacts may differ. BUT it seems that in many cases there is a way to manage flare-ups through nutrition! It won’t cure eczema, but it may make a significant difference for some people. For example, high stress can deplete zinc levels in your body and zinc is very important material for skin health and cell regeneration. Check out my post Is zinc good for your period if you want to know a bit more.
There has been some research in terms of probiotics and managing eczema, but the data is conflicting. Some studies say that it may be effective, while others show no results at all. I think this simply reflects on that there are different root causes of eczema, and therefore the response is different too. Gut health and menstrual cycle go hand in hand, so I think it is always a great idea to support your digestion and nourish your gut microbiome with natural probiotic-rich foods!
Eczema seems to be linked to inflammation in the body. In many cases, taking care of internal inflammation through good nutrition may help people to get eczema under control. If you want to learn about anti-inflammatory nutrition and lifestyle, menstrual cycle food and how it can help you to not only deal with eczema, but also naturally reduce PMS symptoms and support a healthy menstrual cycle, check out my comprehensive Period Health Course for busy women here
And lastly, remember that eczema can be triggered by certain foods or...supplements. While supplements are easy to remove (and are often unnecessary), always be careful with food elimination diets, especially those that remove too many foods at once for a prolonged period of time. This can lead to serious nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalance, variety of period problems and even more eczema down the road. If elimination diet is your plan - the best advice is be systematic, take detailed notes and don't forget to re-introduce"safe" foods back!
Love you all! Til next!