Five potential allergy and eczema cures

If you’ve had allergies all your life no doubt you will have tried all sorts of whacky and wonderful cures, things that will change your life, solutions that will get rid you of all your allergies, amazing treatments that will clear your eczema up for good.

There are some strange ones out there, like drinking your own urine (I haven’t actually tried this) or peeing on your eczema… (not tried that one either) Ewwwww!

But I have tried a few including:

• Chinese herbal medicine which did help a bit but cost a fortune and in the end the problems keep reappearing.
• Homepathy which made me worse
• Drinking aloe vera which I didn’t really enjoy and cost a lot of money. My eczema flared-up after a fortnight of taking this too. You get told you need to go through the pain to get to the healing… how long should you go through a flare up before you admit it’s making you worse instead of making you better?
• I tried NAET treatment and I’m still not really sure what that is all about. The list of things I needed to get treated was endless and could only be done one by one, thereby meaning I would probably never finish treatment in my lifetime. People do swear that this works for them though.

Believe me I’ve tried them all and spent a small fortune in the process on special moisturisers and facial care treatments, digestive pills, supplements etc.

I have discovered loads of hints and tips that help, but there are so many little changes that all go together to making a better life with allergies and eczema. Too many to list; there is a book in there somewhere. But there really is no magic bullet. NO instant cure. No get out of jail free card.

So here are a few things you could think about that might just make that difference. These are all things I’m considering at the moment and am researching for my own interest.

1. Electrical nerve communication implant

   – The New Scientist magazine recently ran an article entitled, “The Healing Spark” – electricity’s role in the body has long been overlooked. Linda Geddes wrote, ‘we are finally beginning to harness its power…’ It was charted the experience of Goran Ostovich who has rheumatoid arthritis and who was pretty much cured of this crippling condition. The illness caused him so much pain he couldn’t work; after his implant he was back at work and free from most of the symptoms. The article suggests that autoimmune diseases such as asthma, diabetes, gastric conditions and even cancer appear amenable to electrical intervention. It works by electrically stimulating the nerve fibres that link to the spleen – home to immune cells know as T-cells – thus dampening their activity.

   Analysis of 81 people admitted to emergency departments during an asthma attack who didn’t respond to standard drugs within an hour, electrical stimulation with Electrocore’s implanted electrode led to a significant improvement in their lung function. Welcome to the brave new world of electroceuticals!

2. Helminth and hookworm therapy

   This success story comes with thanks from John Scott, a Scotts lady in the Facebook HT Support group: “Since it’s now officially spring I’m happy to report that this is the first winter in my adult life that I’ve got through without an eczema flare up thanks to my hookworms!! I started with a dose of 15 in June last year, then added 25 in September and another 40 in December. I’ve had very few side effects beyond the inoculation rash – a bit of an eczema flare up around my eyes for a few weeks after the first dose (weird because I’ve never had it there before, so put it down to the worms). I started to see results after the second inoculation had settled in with the eczema improving slowly but steadily, and I now haven’t had any for a few months. An added bonus is that I no longer get restless legs a night when I’m trying to get to sleep. Normally at this time of year my hands and face would be a mess to the point that it was painful even to put moisturiser on them and the itching would interrupt my sleep. Now my skin looks great and more importantly feels normal and healthy!” Hurray for Hooks!! Now these clever little critters make a long journey, through your skin from where you place a patch for a few hours which contains the tiny worms inside it. They travel through your body and eventually end up in your gut where they keep the body occupied and your immune system is kept busy trying to work out what the little wormies are up to and how it can get rid of them. There are very few side effects though some people get a little stomach discomfort when they first introduce them. I have found a supplier in Australia, you order them by post and they eventually die out so you then need to reintroduce them. Hookwork therapy is likely to cost around £2k a year so it’s not cheap, but they do offer payment plans. If it worked though, wouldn’t it be money well spent? More on that later…
3. Oxygen Therapy – Oxygen therapy is now recommended for patients with Multiple Sclerosis and is also found to be beneficial for people with injuries, speeding healing and repairing infections. There have also been documented cases of those with asthma and allergies seeing a marked improvement in their symptoms. One man who had chronic eczema is now completely free of the disease. It’s pretty simple treatment with no side effects at all, all you do is go and sit in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for at least three sessions a week, and it’s recommended you have at least three months of treatment and more if possible. If you can get a doctors referral treatments may be cheaper but one session would typically cost you £25 and last 1.5 hours. Not quite as scary as hook works or electrical implants! To find out where your closest hyperbaric chamber is visit: https://www.msntc.org.uk or email enquiries@hyperbaricoxygentherapy.org.uk
4. Oil Pulling – Oil pulling I’ve written about the https://whatallergy.com/2014-03/oil-pulling-for-allergies-eczema-and-psoriasis Benefits of oil pulling to allergies and eczema before and many people swear that it has improved their eczema and psoriasis. The way it works is to remove impurities from the body through the saliva glands in the mouth by swilling coconut oil around for 20 minutes once a day, avoiding swallowing or spitting out. Don’t spit down the sink as it could block your pipes!
5. Faecal microbiota transplant – (FMT) involves transplanting healthy screened filtered faeces into the gut. This sounds pretty revolting to most of us, but the treatment has proved to restore healthy gut flora in people with ulcerative colitis and clostridium difficile infections. FMT is regulated in the UK and so it is possible to get treatment at certain clinics including The Taymount Clinic in Hitchin. An initial consultation will set you back £150 and treatment costs from £4k. However in the US the laws are far stricter, driving some Americans to take matters into their own hands by conducting the procedure at home without screening or medical supervision, which is worrying to say the least. A quick search on google will reveal many ‘how to guides’ for home faecal transplant treatment… eeek! Please don’t try this at home folks.

What interests me with this treatment is whether other conditions which involve inflammation such as allergies, eczema, candida, psoriasis, asthma etc. might be eased or helped by restoring a healthy gut balance and boost to the immune system. How much of a part does gut health play on skin health, immune system regulation and allergies?

The above will give you something else to think about instead of just the elusive immunotherapy and desensitisation treatments which have helped some but are unlikely to find popularity in the NHS.

I would love to hear from anyone who has seen success in improving or even getting rid of their allergies, eczema, asthma or psoriasis using any of the above treatments. Have I missed off anything significant? Certainly food for thought, so which one takes your fancy?