A Personal Story - My Son & Eczema

This relationship and impact between good gut health and immunity was clearly demonstrated to me many years ago. In fact, the story I’m about to share is what drove my passion to help other people understand the impact of good digestive health.

When my son was two years old (he’s now almost 22 and is not fond of me telling the story), he developed a bad ear infection and strep throat. It took three rounds of antibiotics to kill the infection. During the third course of antibiotics, he developed a horrible diarrhea and became very dehydrated.  His little eyes were sunken with big dark circles around them, and he looked horribly sick. At that time, I knew enough to recognize that we had killed off his good healthy bacteria, and I went to the pharmacy and was able to get Lactobacillus acidophilus. After starting this regimen, within 24 hours my son’s diarrhea subsided and he was much improved. However, within a few short weeks, he developed horrible eczema. This was not a mild case of eczema.  It was down his back, across his bum, behind his knees, in the bends of his arms, under his arms, and across his scalp.

As a caring mom, I took him to his pediatrician. The only suggestion offered was a course of steroids. Well, I knew enough about steroids to be very concerned. I knew he already had a problem with his immune system due to the issue at hand. Understanding the impact of steroid therapy on adrenal function, I simply said, no. From time to time we would use mild steroid creams when the condition got out of hand, as it often did. For eight years he lived with this condition. It was recognized he had lactose intolerance, because if he consumed dairy products like ice cream or cheese, he would have what I call a “flare” where his eczema would become very weepy and more irritated. So he ate very little in terms of dairy. Recognizing wheat as a potential allergen, he ate very little of that, although we never did observe an obvious link between wheat consumption and the eczema flares. We tried oatmeal baths, we tried lotions, we tried creams, we tried everything topically I could possibly find with only minimal improvement. We started taking high quality nutritional supplementation. The eczema got better, but never really went away. We increased his essential fatty acids and it improved, but again, never went away.

One afternoon I had occasion to discuss his issues with two naturopathic friends. The questioning went along the lines of whether or not he had ever had a course of antibiotics, to which I shared the story and told them that I had given him Lactobacillus acidophilus. The response was that I had only done part of the job. In fact, I needed to give him more strains of probiotic and be more strict with his diet, especially with dairy and wheat. Well, at the age of 10, I sat him down and told him no dairy and no wheat. Of course his response was, “Ma, what am I going to eat?” I told him we would try this for a couple of weeks and if we did not see a marked improvement, we would continue to look for the answer.

As God is my witness, within three days his eczema was so much better I couldn’t believe it. Within five days it was gone. The eczema he had lived with for eight years was literally gone. I was amazed!  How could probiotics fix this problem so quickly? At this point I began my ongoing research which has led to my understanding and knowledge of probiotics and good gut health.

Interesting things that I learned and observed in my son were not only did the eczema clear up; he no longer had lactose intolerance. It did not matter if he ate ice cream or cheese, these things did not bother him and caused no evidence of eczema. About six years after his recovery, we were on vacation and, although he had been very healthy up until that time, he was worn down by late night study for exams and trying to get ready for spring break. His immune system wavered and he developed a bad strep throat. I was able to get a course of antibiotics and, within 24 hours of starting his antibiotic, we were already seeing evidence of eczema. He looked at me and simply said, “Ma, don’t worry about it; as soon as were home I’ll start my probiotics.”  Upon our return home, he started his probiotics and digestive enzymes and within 24 hours his eczema was clearing and within three days was completely gone again. This experience made a believer out of me. If the simple act of cleaning up the diet, taking probiotics and digestive enzymes on top of all the healthy nutrition he was already taking was all it took to clear up the eczema, I wanted the world to know.

In sharing this message with all who will listen and with much research and study on my part, I have helped many people conquer conditions related to an unhealthy gut. Allergies, autoimmune diseases, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, the list goes on and on. The human body is a fantastic healing machine and if you give it the raw materials it needs, and ensure that you are putting only healthy nutrients into the precious internal environment while periodically cleaning out the detox pathways, you will be much healthier and, of course, happier.