I’m constantly seeking new information to share with you that will ultimately lead you towards skin rash relief.
The past 18 months has been a whirlwind of consolidating information so that you can put pieces together than your doctor hasn’t considered.
Boy, has that digging paid off!
Today I want to share with you five things that you MUST KNOW that could help give you chronic skin rash relief.
If you’re looking to dig deeper, make sure to dive into the bigger conversation over in the Eczema & Psoriasis Awareness Week 2019.
Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | Subscribe on Android
In this episode:
- Complicated role that estrogen and progesterone play in triggering skin rashes
- Endotoxemia that triggers internal inflammation driving rashes
- Could CBD help reduce your need for steroid creams?
- Instances where Molybdenum could be helpful for skin rashes
- Mold and mycotoxins: Hidden triggers for complex skin cases
Quotes:
Estrogen dominance is where you just have way too much estrogen floating around your system for different reasons. Sometimes it's because estrogen cannot be cleared out of your system (due to underlying gut problems). The problem is that high estrogen decrease histamine breakdown and that can drive very itchy skin.
5 Things I Learned About Chronic Skin Rashes (FULL TRANSCRIPT)
Welcome to Episode #73 of the Healthy Skin Show!
In today’s episode, I want to share with you the five key highlights that I have learned and have been underscored for me by creating the Eczema and Psoriasis Awareness Week 2019.
I know many of you were really interested in staying up-to-date on much of the research and that was my goal in creating this awareness week. I had created the first Awareness Week in 2018. It was such an amazing opportunity to consolidate information from a variety of different experts.
But this year's event was just so much deeper of an exploration of not just current information but also root causes that I wasn't entirely aware of last year.
It takes time and energy to sift through all of the data and I'm so grateful for all of the experts who sat down with me. Out of these 18 different interviews, I wanted to put in front of you five ideas that I felt were really truly mind blowing and also changed the way that you may think about your rashes.
Before I dive into these five reasons, I wanted to give you a little bit of insight into why having shifts in perspective is so critical.
Number one, we're not necessarily exposed to everything that could be helpful for our skin, especially if you are only seeing an allopathic or conventional dermatologist.
Some doctors know more than others. Some have researched more than others and some are more interested, like Dr. Peter Lio for example, in alternative options than others.
And there's also the matter that going down the alternative route may be outside the scope of practice for your dermatologist, which could ultimately get them in trouble.
And if that's the case, that puts the burden on you to dig and advocate for yourself in order to find those alternative options. And that's one reason why I really love sharing this information with you guys here on the Healthy Skin Show.
One reader recently shared that the information she's gathered, not just from the Healthy Skin Show, but also from the website has been essential in helping her figure things out.
Barbara shared, “you are the only one in my life and on the net who is able to help me through my own rash saga. Your information is amazing. Physicians are so very unfortunately lacking in training of any real help. I emailed you that my dermatologist, who is wonderful as far as allopaths go, tried like heck to get me on steroid creams for my rashes and then take an even more serious drug and of course I yelled, are you crazy? Well, finally I know that it was always a reaction to adhesives. And second, I made the connection between my skin issues and a zinc deficiency. Just know that there are those like me out there who would never have figured out anything without religiously reading.”
And that's why I love hosting events like the Eczema & Psoriasis Awareness Week.
Insights To Help You Get Skin Rash Relief (Holistically)
From the 2019 Eczema & Psoriasis Awareness Week, here are the five insights that I gained that I thought you would find most helpful. That's not to say that there aren't any other insights that you could gain, but these were the five that I thought would be most interesting for you to learn about.
#1 — Dr. Carrie Jones and Dr. Jolene Brighten shared with us a ton of information about the connection between your hormones and skin rashes. And so one particular area of interest to me was the fact that estrogen dominance and even shifts in progesterone levels can cause major issues with your skin.
For example, estrogen dominance is where you just have way too much estrogen floating around your system. There are different reasons why you can become estrogen dominant. Sometimes it's because your estrogen cannot be cleared out of your system (due to underlying gut problems), and so essentially you're stuck with elevated estrogen.
The problem is that high estrogen decrease histamine breakdown and that can drive very itchy skin.
An increase in progesterone can also increase your flares. Some women will notice when they actually track their skin flares and their cycle that flares will occur around the time when progesterone spikes.
And that's a pretty important clue!
It’s not just because it could be a hormonal trigger. It can also mean that your body could be not just sensitive to progesterone, but potentially allergic and reacting to it.
#2 — We know that inflammation is a major driver of chronic skin issues and one piece of the puzzle was underscored for us by Kiran Krishnan.
Endotoxemia can cause major issues not just in your gut. When those endotoxins cross over the gut barrier into your body, they then can drive inflammation internally that shows up on your skin.
#3 — CBD oil might be more helpful than we even think when it comes to Eczema. I'm going to put a little caveat here that even potentially for Psoriasis too!
The conversation that I had with Dr. Peter Lio was pretty mind-blowing! It was based on a paper he wrote all about the benefits of using CBD oil topically for skin rashes. We discuss how it can make major improvements in not just the quality of your skin, but helping to get patients off of steroid creams and other medications.
I’ve discussed CBD oil on the podcast before HERE and HERE.
If you want to give this a shot, avoid CBD oil where the base is coconut, MCT or anything else that is coconut derived.
The base oil must be hemp oil or olive oil. And the CBD oil needs to be a high-quality full-spectrum CBD product from a reputable company that can prove to you through third party testing that it actually is what they claim it to be.
#4 — You definitely need to learn about a little known micro-nutrient called Molybdenum.
Molybdenum can be very helpful with chronic skin issues, especially if itchiness is one of your major symptoms.
Some research indicates that Molybdenum may be helpful in those who have histamine as well as sulfite sensitivities. Chris Masterjohn, PhD discusses how a Histamine or sulfate sensitivity could actually be a sign of your body needs more molybdenum.
Now I’ve discussed molybdenum briefly in episode #42 with Christa Biegler, RD, so it's pretty cool that Christa came back for the 2019 Eczema and Psoriasis Awareness Week. She’s deconstructing those liver detox pathways and all the things that can hijack them which can, in turn, hijack your skin.
#5 — Mold exposure can be a huge problem for complex tough skin cases. I uncovered a few surprising things about mold during these interviews.
First of all, you don't need to see black mold in your house to have a mold problem and in fact a lot of people never see mold in their home.
You can have mold in your car or at your place of work. It can be hiding in different areas of your home, even the crawl space underneath your house. Or even in things like old books.
Our one expert, Dr. Stephanie Davis, discussed with me how she figured out that mold was a serious root cause for her skin problems. She noticed an unexplained drop in hormone levels and white blood cell count!
And more surprising considering how inflammatory mold is… her inflammatory markers like her C-Reactive Protein (CRP) was fine.
I have to acknowledge that out of 18 talks, picking these five points was really difficult because every single talk has so much information within it.
That's why I would encourage you, if you're really still struggling and you want to dive deeper than we typically do on the Healthy Skin Show…
Head HERE and tune into these interviews!
My goal in sharing this information with not to overwhelm you because as you know, there are 16 root causes of chronic skin issues. Instead, it's to help you connect dots and realize that the stones you have yet to look under could be your next opportunity for addressing your skin and ultimately your health.
If you haven't done so yet, make sure to subscribe to the podcast and share this episode with someone who may be wondering if something else could be underlying their skin rashes. Heck, maybe it's not a steroid cream deficiency. (I'm saying that somewhat in jest obviously.)
And if you enjoy the show, leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. Share why you think someone who's looking for a new show to tune into could get a lot of value out of joining us.
Oh yeah… and don’t forget! Check out the Eczema And Psoriasis Awareness Week 2019. You won’t be sorry!
Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll see you in the next episode!
