What is Eczema? The most common eczema is called Atopic Eczema. It is normally appears with a red rash. It is a noncontagious inflammation of the skin, characterized chiefly by redness, itching, and the outbreak of lesions that may discharge serous matter and become encrusted and scaly. There are many types of eczema that affect all types of the body for many reasons, but for the most part, we will discuss Atopic Eczema since it is most common among infants and children.
What causes Eczema? Well, the closest thing we have found is that it is a reaction of the person's immune system to an irritant. An allergy to something. Most people who have this issue also have Asthma, or other allergies.
Flare ups are commonly associated with: overheating, sweating, allergies, harsh detergents, or when the skin comes in contact with wool, and polyester fabric. Dust mites can also cause eczema. (Yes! Dust mites, so keep that dust collected!).
What is Psoriasis - Psoriasis is a hyper proliferative, autoimmune skin disorder affecting 1–3% of the world’s population. Psoriasis is a common skin condition which can be itchy and painful. It shows up in warm areas of the body, in the scalp, on the neck, hip, inside of the legs, hands, and feet.
What causes Psoriasis? Psoriasis is a common skin condition that speeds up the life cycle of skin cells. It causes cells to build up rapidly on the surface of the skin. The extra skin cells form scales and red patches that are itchy and sometimes painful. So, T cells are malfunctioning.
What triggers Psoriasis? Infections like strep throat, stress, smoking, heavy alcohol drinking, Vitamin D deficiency, medications like lithium, beta blockers, iodides and anti-malarial medications, and obesity.
Available Treatments - Most of the modern medicines are directly or indirectly derived from plant sources. Thousands of herbal remedies exists. But most of the information is outside of current databases and remain unavailable to the public, so we research and research and start to put our resources together.
Here are some things I learned upon my research. For both of these skin conditions the following apply.
People with these skin conditions should not:
1). Use detergent soap of any kind. Not to clean their clothes, hands, hair or body anywhere.
2). Use any product with an alcohol base. That means no perfumes, fragrance, deodorant with scent.
3).Use washcloths, loofahs, sponges on your skin. Pat skin dry when toweling not rubbing. Do not take long showers or baths, it dries out skin.
Natural Herbs and Tinctures that aid psoriasis and eczema:
First of all, use real soap. Not detergent soaps. Find a soap that has the following ingredients:
Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Oatmeal, Shea Butter with one of two of each of these herbal oils:
Black Cumin Seed Oil - This deeply moisturizes the skin. It has so many wonderful qualities, it is also used to treat many cancers.
Emu Oil - It is an anti inflammatory oil. Aids in reducing swelling and redness.
Zinc Pyrithione - A fungicide, antibacterial, antiseborrheic ( slows growth of skin cells.)
Calendula Oil- An anti inflammatory (do not use if pregnant or breastfeeding)
Thyme Essential oils – anti inflammatory. Has reduced the highest level of COX-2 enzyme which causes inflammation.
Goat Milk Soap - can be very soothing to the skin.
Tea Tree Oil - anti bacterial, anti viral, and anti fungal.
Activated Charcoal- removes bacteria from the pores.
Moroccan Clay - acts as a sponge to attract the bacteria, and toxins from the skin.
See our Facial Detox Soap which has many of these wonderful ingredients in it. Catalina's Cottage will be soon making a soap specifically for suffers of psoriasis and eczema. In the mean time, get our Charcoal Facial Detox and use that as it's an awesome soap for this purpose.
Balms for calming the itching - You will want a balm with Aloe Vera, Thai Ginger (because it's anti psoriatic -effective against psoriasis), Emu Oil, Black Cumin Seed Oil, Calendula Oil, Zinc Pyrithione.
We hope our post has been helpful to you if you suffer from this skin condition, or have a loved one who does. We would like to help in any way we can. Catalina's Cottage also offers custom soap loaves, so we can quote and create a soap just for you, just ask us.
Source Materials for the Blog Post.
Numerous Web Articles on Eczema & Psoriasis
https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/alternative-treatment-for-psoriasis--a-review-.pdf