If you read my previous post, I told you a bit about my background with my struggle with asthma and eczema. I grew up on medications, I had a whole drawer full of inhalers, pills, steroid nose sprays, nebulisers, the list goes on. I was on most of these medications permanently, and when a severe attack hit, I was always put on high doses of cortisone, and almost inevitably, hospitalised.
As a child I had an awesome paediatrician, he was super sweet and caring. At the age of 19, he told me that I needed to move on to a pulmonologist, as I was “too old” to be seeing him. And so, reluctantly, I did. I went for one consultation with the new pulmonologist, who was honestly the rudest doctor I had ever met, I went home in tears, the guy couldn’t even get my name right. He clearly wasn’t in the business out of a passion for helping people. He gave me a bunch of drugs and sent me on my way. On the way home, I told my mom that I never want to go back there again, and that night, I started my research on alternative remedies for asthma – the night my life changed forever!
A year later, I was forced to go back for a check-up. The ever-so-nasty doctor did a lung function test and told me that I had “the lungs of an athlete” and that it must be due to all of the medications that he put me on. I disagreed with him, and told them that in fact, I was off all his medications, and that I had changed my diet. He refused to believe me and told me that it was “witchcraft”!!! Really?? A doctor so highly qualified cannot even be open to an alternative to drugs, let alone keep up to date with the scientific literature stating the clear relationship between diet and disease. I digress… lets just say, I never went back.
Here are the steps that I took to reverse my asthma and clear my eczema. ***Please note that everybody is different. As a nutritionist, I use a personalised approach to treat my clients. And so what works for one, may not work for another. This is what worked for me….
- Cut out food allergies and intolerances – the first step I did was take a food allergy and intolerance test, and avoided all of the foods that I reacted to. These include gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, corn, peanuts – amongst others.
- Healed my leaky gut – by avoiding my food allergies, and taking L-glutamine and probiotics.
- Supplements – the main supplement that has helped me tremendously is MSM – methyl-sulfonyl-methane. This supplement is basically natural sulphur, a compound found in fresh fruit and vegetables, and is known to help reduce inflammation. MSM and vitamin C have played a huge role in my fight against asthma and eczema. MSM also helps to heal the gut, which plays a big role in asthma (more on that in a future blog post). I take 5000mg daily, more if I feel my asthma acting up, and a maintenance dose of 3000mg when I feel good. I take this together with 1000mg of vitamin C, which helps the mechanism of action of MSM, and it is also one the best antioxidants to help heal the body and support the immune system.
These were the first three steps I took which kept me doctor free for many years. I mostly stay away from the foods that I react to, but you know how it goes, social life takes over and sometimes you really just want that pizza or piece of cake. Moderation is best. I know when I’ve pushed my body too far, if I’ve eaten too many things that my body doesn’t like, then my asthma and eczema flare up.
Recently, over the past year or so, my eczema came back, despite avoiding my food allergies. I stick mainly to a paleo style diet, and could not figure out what was causing this flare up in eczema. I put it down to stress. I had eczema on my back, and even worse, around my eyes!!! I looked like a panda and the itch was insane. I was so miserable and absolutely refused to see a doctor. I suffered like this for months, and so back to the drawing board I went. And then….
I came across the book called “The Plant Paradox” by doctor Grundy, and he explains how plant lectins can be toxic to the human body and produce symptoms in certain individuals. In desperation, I followed his plan and within two days, my eczema started to clear. And so to those of you that are doing everything “right” and still developing symptoms, I would highly recommend this book, it saved my skin!
And so my updated routine is as follows:
- Paleo diet – I follow a paleo diet whilst eliminating eggs and lectins (to the best of my ability).
- Limit alcohol – okay lets be real here, this is a tough one. I absolutely love a glass (or more) of red wine in the evenings. However, too much can be a problem for me. If I have more than one glass then I wake up with eczema the next morning. And so for me, a small glass of red wine, once or twice a week is okay. I’ve learned to enjoy some kombucha instead, definitely not the same, but its better than waking up with eczema all over my face.
- No processed or packaged foods – this includes sugar.
- Fermented foods – a little goes a long way. Small amounts of kombucha and a tablespoon of fermented veggies with each meal work well for me.
- Supplements – I went off the MSM a few years ago when I was feeling great, but have started back on it again, together with vitamin C. It makes such a difference to my skin and asthma, and has some other beauty benefits, which I will be writing about in an upcoming post.
- Apple cider vinegar – this helped me immensely when I was having flare ups. I would dilute the apple cider vinegar (1 part) with water (3 parts), together with a small amount of kombucha, and applied it directly onto my skin, it really helped to calm down the inflammation.
This is what I’ve been sticking to for the last few weeks, and my skin is now clear and my asthma is well under control. I hope that this post will inspire some of you to embark on your own health journey, and if you have, I would love to hear from you!
xxx Jess
Jessie Claire 