Unraveling Eczema Article Barely Mentions Diet
An article in last Tuesday’s NY Times focused on
And there, in the second to last paragraph, were a mere two short sentence suggesting that one might want to also look at their diet, too: “Food allergies show up as eczema in some patients. Eliminating one potential culprit at a time, like dairy products, eggs or nuts, may reveal an eczema-inducer“.
As if to say, oh, by the way, you could also look at what you’re putting in your body if you want to, but really, it’s rather trivial and won’t likely make much of a difference.
Why is this not the first suggestion in the article as well as not the first thing a dermatologist or any doctor for that matter suggests looking into?
Oh, right! I remember! It’s because really, there is not nearly as much money to be made in health as there is in illness.
The article begins with some statistics: an estimated 15 million Americans are suffering, it’s more common in cities than rural areas and that “the hallmark of eczema is an alteration in the skin that allows essential water to escape and environmental allergens (like those from pollen, dust mites and food) to enter. The result is dry, itchy, inflamed patches that are sometimes misdiagnosed as psoriasis.”
Then, a brief glimmer of hope with the mention of inflammation: “Current treatment focuses on reducing inflammation” but, alas… the follow up brings us back to reality, as we learn that “doctors typically recommend a prescription steroid, used topically in tiny amounts“.
To clarify, I am certainly not making claims outside of my area of expertise in the Paleo diet that all cases of eczema would disappear immediately if we were all Paleo.
I’m simply stating that if we were to all look at what we are eating as the first step in treating any type of health issue, we may find that a lot of what we suffer from can be lessened and sometimes eliminated if we stop poisoning our bodies by ingesting things we are not meant to be eating and replace them with real, whole, unadulterated food – abundant fresh veggies, wild proteins and healthy fats.
If only we could move toward a place where steroids and topical creams are the first go-to treatments in skin conditions, while the patient continues to eat gluten, dairy, white sugar and so on, and so on simultaneously.
Not too different from shooting oneself in the foot, sadly.
