“The person who takes medicine must recover twice, once from the disease and once from the medicine.” – William Osler, M.D.
Many who suffer from eczema report that their greatest life-quality detriment when it comes to the disease is the daily itching, burning, skin tightness, and infections they experience. To alleviate these flare-ups and inflammation, most turn to steroid eczema creams, thinking that they are quite effective at treating eczema and it is the only viable option, since they are told by their dermatologist and the conventional medical mouthpiece that there is no cure.
Undoubtedly, thinking this is the only option, most of us experiment, research and seek professional advice about which steroid cream is best for keeping flare-ups at bay, hoping that one day we will find the right panacea in a tube.
What my own experience with eczema had shown me is that if there was a treatment that worked best to alleviate symptoms without side effects, it would be in the form of a natural eczema cream made from herbs, natural oils/butters, and essential oils.
But, before delving deeper into the subject, what if all you knew about eczema is completely wrong? In fact, conventional doctors believe the condition is “autoimmune” in nature and that there is no cure for it – only treatment and relief.
This is a complete fallacy that I was able to prove through my own experience living with, learning about, and healing chronic eczema naturally.
Through research, experience, and practice, here are the tenants of eczema that must be understood in order to shift our paradigm of the disease, which is predicated on treating symptomology and not the root cause of illness:
- Eczema is an expression of an internal problem, not a skin issue; in other words, the core of the problem is internal, while the symptoms of the issue are mirrored externally
- It is not an autoimmune issue but a chronic inflammation issue
- The skin is one of the largest organs in the body that is known as “the third kidney”; it helps the kidneys detoxify water-soluble waste from the body through its pores and sweat glands
- Eczema can be cured by treating the root cause of body inflammation through natural detoxification and healing
Now, let’s look at the 3 main ways conventional medical thinking and utilization of steroid creams for treatment is not only based on a misunderstanding of the condition but which can prove detrimental to health over time.
#1 It Doesn’t Heal Eczema But Only Suppress Symptoms That Will Return with Vengeance
The main reason why most people who use eczema creams continue using them is that they are afraid of what will happen if they stop using the cream – the burning, the itching, and the redness will get worse and their quality of life will decrease significantly.
This is especially the case in children who may not have the tools to cope with the physical and emotional struggle of living with eczema and their parents doing what they can to help alleviate any pain.
This is all very understandable and highly admirable, given the daily struggle of living with eczema personally and publicly. However, although this is the case for many eczema cases, there is a price for short-term comfort!
Essentially, eczema steroid creams only suppress eczema symptoms topically and signal to the skin and the body that the pathway it desires to utilize to purge lymphatic sewage from the body (in the form of metabolic and chemical waste) is now closed. Basically, what steroid creams do is suppress the skin’s efforts to help the body eliminate waste.
What this does is signal to the body that the emergency exits for detoxification are now closed, and that the body must scramble for other ways to purge toxic waste. If it cannot, it will do whatever it can to protect itself from the toxic acids, even creating pockets of acidic waste we know as tumors.
You see, alongside the kidneys and the colon, the skin membrane is the body’s main elimination organ, detoxifying waste daily through the pores and sweat glands.
When the liver and the kidneys are overwhelmed with their detoxification processes due to their weakened states because of our diet, emotions, and/or lifestyle, the skin then takes on much of the detoxification burden of the lymphatic fluid that is made up of metabolic and cellular waste, toxins and water-soluble chemicals denatured by the liver and funneled to the kidneys.
If the liver is weakened, the kidneys and the colon will compensate for its inability to effectively perform over 2,000 tasks it undertakes daily to keep us alive and well. And if the kidneys and the colon are unable to filter out liver-denatured toxins out properly as well, the body will signal to the skin to help with the process.
Given this tremendous task to protect the body from further toxification, the skin then tries to push the acidic waste out of the body through its pores, and that is what we know as eczema ooze. Since this ooze liquid is highly acidic, it burns the skin on its way out of the body, causing it to itch and become painful.
#2 It Doesn’t Treat The Root Cause of The Disease
Eczema is essentially a symptom of high chronic inflammation in the body and the inability of the major elimination organs to detoxify the waste probably due to their weakened state and prolonged degeneration of their tissues.
The use of topical steroid creams is rested on two faulty assumptions: that eczema is a skin-malfunction condition and that symptom alleviation means the improvement of eczema as a condition. However, this is not the case. Eczema is the effect of the body’s last efforts to push the unwanted waste out of a body whose other elimination means are not working properly.
Instead of fixating on the effect, or symptom, the treatment of eczema must be rooted in treating the cause of high levels of inflammation and in supporting the liver, kidneys, and bowel elimination pathways.
This is only done through holistic, natural means, and once it is addressed as the cure for eczema, the skin will heal and eczema will recede. There IS a cure – and it is through natural detoxification and healing of the body internally. And yes, you can cure eczema with diet alone (as long as it is organic, high raw, and majority fruit-based).
Conventional steroid creams keep lymphatic waste inside the body, creating a cyclical eczema outbreak cycle as the body fights to get the waste out.
And if the application is frequent and continues to suppress the body’s major detoxification pathway, the body will find other ways to protect itself, most likely by creating internal, hardened pockets of waste that it can isolate to preserve itself from further inflammation and decay.
#3 Its Synthetic Steroids May Replace Natural Steroid Production, Leading to Dependence
The ingredients used in most conventional eczema creams are known to be toxic to the skin. Some of them, such as hydrocortisone and steroids may cause thinning of the skin, while others use petroleum jelly, which is a byproduct of the oil-refining process and may contribute to allergies.
When artificial steroids are introduced into the body, they signal the overwhelmed, steroid-pumping adrenal glands that they can take a break, since steroids are now being administered through other means to cool down the body from inflammation and other stressors.
Since low-functioning adrenals are usually one of the factors that contribute to eczema due to high stress or inflammation-causing lifestyle that requires a large amount of cortisol to be pumped out by the glands, at some point, the adrenals will become overwhelmed and may not be able to perform their tasks properly, which will naturally lead to higher levels of inflammation in the body.
The adrenals sit right on top of the kidneys, and they work together symbiotically, meaning that if one organ is stressed, the other one becomes weakened as well.
So, when the body senses steroids coming in from external sources (the steroids and chemicals in the creams are absorbed directly from the skin into the bloodstream), the adrenal glands are happy to take a back seat and stop producing much of the cortisol needed to keep inflammation at bay, and instead, focus on self-repair and other tasks and processes.
This inevitably leads to artificial steroid dependence, since the skin symptoms are being suppressed (giving us the false appearance that the cream is working) and the high state of inflammation has not been addressed, while the adrenal steroid production has been reduced.
This can become a medical issue in itself, given that our adrenals help us cope with the effects of stress and regulate the fight or flight response.
And since living with eczema is a stressful condition in itself, our ability to cope with it and our lives will diminish! By eliminating our body’s own ability to create steroids and fight inflammation, we suppress the natural help we receive from the body to keep eczema and flare-ups at bay.
In fact, topical steroid withdrawal syndrome is known to afflict many individuals who use topical corticosteroids frequently. What occurs is a frequent flare-up of eczema as soon as you stop using topical steroids, since your body is unable to produce enough natural cortisol to keep inflammation at bay. The symptoms may include redness, swelling, itching, and scaling of the skin.
Discounting the long-term effects on the adrenal glands and the body, the immediate side effects are known to cause symptoms such as red hyperpigmentation of the skin, increased skin fragility, thickened dark patches of skin, and stretch marks.
While receiving adequate help from the adrenal glands is ideal in managing eczema side-effects by reducing the inflammatory response and flare-ups, the long-term chronic acidic state of the body is still present internally and must be addressed and reversed to completely heal the condition.
Natural Alternative to Steroid Cream for Eczema: 3 Natural Creams You Can Make at Home
Inevitably, while healing eczema internally, the process of managing its symptoms externally will still require our attention. Throughout my own eczema healing journey, I have found some wonderful natural alternatives that have kept my skin less inflamed, itchy, and rough, as well as much smoother and hydrated.
Having known of the anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, naturally hydrating, and healing properties of cocoa butter, shea butter, and coconut oil for the skin, I decided to experiment with all three and find the best eczema flare-up management process that worked for me.
Foremost, when dealing with ooze, itching, and infection, the steps that helped me the most were to wash the affected area with aluminum-free baking soda and hot water, stimulate the affected area with a gentle towel massage, squeeze out the lymphatic waste fluid that my body is fighting to push out (this way, I am helping it actively), wash off the area again with baking soda, pat dry, and apply organic apple cider vinegar with a cotton ball to “seal” the oozing lesions.
Once this was done, I applied one of the homemade natural eczema creams below.
1) Shea butter & lavender essential oil eczema cream:
- Mix raw and unrefined shea butter with a few drops of organic lavender essential oil and a few tablespoons of concentrated organic nettle tea (made by boiling and cooling nettle 3-4 times to extract all its benefits); mix and apply to the affected area.
Another helpful tip: Whenever you experience flare-ups, drink concentrated and hot/room temperature nettle tea on an empty stomach first thing in the morning! Nettle tea is highly anti-inflammatory and is known to be one of the best herbs for inflammation issues. It is regularly used in helping the body deal with inflammation that causes rashes, eczema, and psoriasis.
2) Cocoa butter & coconut oil gentle and minty eczema cream for the face and sensitive skin:
- Slightly heat unrefined cocoa butter in a bowl immersed in a boiling pot of water; add extra virgin coconut oil and a few tablespoons of concentrated organic mint tea (cools down inflammation); gently mix the concoction and let it cool down at room temperature
3) Shea butter, coconut oil & cocoa butter full-body eczema tonic infused with organic tea tree essential oil:
- Slightly heat unrefined cocoa butter in a bowl immersed in a boiling pot of water; add shea butter and coconut oil to the mixture; depending on the size of the cream, add a few drops of organic tea tree oil; let cool at room temperature and apply all over the body in the morning, afternoon and night
Final Thoughts
There are no quick solutions to a problem that took a lifetime to create – for most of us, unknowingly. It could have been that we were predisposed genetically to a weaker health constitution and the normal load of daily modern life affected us more profoundly than others with stronger elimination and constitutional capacity.
This simply means that we have to commit to a healthier lifestyle to a higher degree than the average person and work a bit harder to help heal our organs and give them all the support they need to conduct all of their functions properly.
In nature, everything is organic, adaptable, and changing, and my journey and study of ancient healing traditions have shown me that we can not only reverse any health condition through diligent detoxification and healing that naturally become a normal part of our lifestyle but that we can also change and improve our genetic constitution as a result.
In other words, we can reverse our genetic weaknesses – a revolutionary claim now supported by the emerging field of epigenetics.
Perhaps you are far into your eczema journey and have tried all the conventional methods recommended to keep eczema at bay – but nothing has worked well over time.
And because of your journey that has propelled you to learn more about the condition, you perhaps have an innate feeling that something has to change and that a holistic approach to the root cause of eczema is the answer.
I’m truly proud of that step and am reminded of my journey years ago when I decided to empower myself with the knowledge of natural healing and become my own healer!
As the saying goes that suffering can be a blessing in disguise, eczema put me on the path to my life’s calling – to help individuals learn the truth about how their bodies worked and to provide them with the right tools to detoxify their bodies naturally through diet, lifestyle and ancient healing techniques that balance the energy meridians.
This free 40-page comprehensive guide to healing the skin from the inside out (which you can find at the bottom of my homepage) is the culmination of that journey and will show you directly what it takes to heal the skin through the holistic, integrative approach.
It will not only teach you how the body works energetically but will provide you with a much-needed understanding of skin disease, the how-to of detoxification, and what it takes to stay healthy for life.