"Best Foods to Avoid for Eczema"
Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis,
is a chronic inflammatory skin disease.
In fact, it’s the leading cause of healthy years of life lost
due to common skin diseases, because it’s just so common,
affecting up to a fifth of us.
And, it's not just an itchy rash;
it’s associated with other diseases too.
Yes, it can be itchy, exhausting, and embarrassing,
but in kids, it may increase risk for ADHD,
though that may just be from the sleep deprivation.
And, in adults, it may increase the risk of major depression.
And, it’s on the rise.
There are drugs for it, of course; there are always drugs.
Steroids are the first-line therapy,
but then there are immunosuppressants as well,
with more in the drug pipeline.
You know the medical profession is desperate
when they’re forced to go back to the basics
and start applying leeches to people.
Previously, I talked about the safety and efficacy
of other, more natural treatments,
but what about diet?
Our story begins in 1920, a year doctors were realizing
how good this oxygen stuff was,
though maybe not as good as injecting people with mercury,
but a researcher at Johns Hopkins reported a number of cases
in which by omitting eggs, meat, and milk from the diet,
patients’ eczema improved.
Who’s going to profit off of that though?
No wonder it took 58 years before it was put to the test.
Figuring eggs and milk were the two foods
most likely involved in eczema, they excluded them—
and chicken and beef,
since it may just be chicken and cow proteins more generally,
in a randomized double-blind controlled trial
swapping in soy milk instead, and…
70% of the patients improved.
One person got worse on the no egg, no chicken, no milk, no beef diet,
but almost everyone else got better.
So, the researchers concluded that for many kids,
avoiding those foods may induce a clinical improvement.
And interestingly, it didn’t seem to depend
on whether allergy tests showed they were allergic to milk and eggs.
Either way, they tended to get better, regardless.
You can do randomized double-blind food challenges,
where you give kids with eczema various foods in opaque capsules,
like one with egg powder, one with wheat powder, etc.
Egg was found by far to be the most offending food.
For example, in this study, where they just cut out the eggs,
dramatic improvements were documented
for both the amount of skin involvement and the severity of the eczema lesions
after removing eggs from the diet,
but in about 90% of cases, the mom had no idea
that eggs were a problem.
Why?
Because it wasn’t like they were eating scrambled eggs or something.
Almost all the egg exposure was hidden;
they were exposed to hidden egg products in packaged foods.
So, they had no idea why their eczema was so bad—
until this study, where they removed all eggs
and egg products from their diets.
Eggs are evidently the most frequent cause
of food sensitivity in children.
Out of hundreds of kids with eczema tested,
egg allergy was documented in about two-thirds of those with sensitivities.
In fact, a child having a blood reaction to egg white proteins
appears to be one of the best laboratory tests
for predicting future allergic diseases in general.
It appears to be the ovomucoid protein within egg whites
that seems to be causing most of the mischief.
About 40% of kids with eczema have some form of food allergy.
And, the more food allergies they have,
the more likely it appears they’re going to suffer
from eczema— and, make it worse.
Those who react to cows’ milk protein
are significantly more likely to suffer severe eczema,
showing the important role cows’ milk proteins may play
“in the induction and increased severity of eczema in children.”
Often, parents switch from cows’ milk to goats’ milk,
in an attempt to improve their children’s eczema.
But goats’ milk should never be given to kids
with a cows’ milk allergy,
because they often cross-react with one another,
which has been confirmed with double-blind placebo controlled food challenges.
Ass milk, on the other hand, is a different story.
Switching kids to donkey milk improved their eczema,
and, for that matter, horse’s milk might, as well.