On the are you menstrual? podcast I interviewed Christa Biegler about the connection between skin health and gut health. Even more specifically, we dove deep into eczema, which is what Christa specializes in. Many of my clients struggle with eczema, especially during the healing journey, but it hadn’t hit as close to home until I entered my third trimester. My pregnancy has been pretty easy and smooth the first two trimesters than BAM! Third-trimester hits, and I wake up with eczema in the corners of my eyes. I immediately referred back to the information I have learned from Christa, my previous stool test I did before pregnancy, and got to work on a protocol (with the help of Christa, thankfully). I think what’s so interesting about eczema is that it’s so different depending on the person who has it and their health and gut history. Something that can present so similarly can require such a unique approach.
What is eczema? Rashy, itchy, inflamed skin. Our biggest issue with eczema and why it’s such a mystery is that we treat it all the same even though there are many different types. There are technically ten different types of eczema.
It’s important to recognize that no matter what type of eczema you have it is an internal AND external problem.
Nervous System/Stress
Our stress over time plays a huge role in eczema and skin conditions. Stress will impact our digestion, gut health, and nutritional status. Eventually, it can suppress our immune system as well. These are all areas that will impact eczema. Stress will also affect the bacteria in our gut, especially over time when you’re under prolonged stress. This chronic stress dumps minerals and can lead to deficiencies that will negatively impact stomach acid. This reduction in stomach acid will then leave your house (gut) door open for any unwanted house guests to come in. This can lead to bacteria overgrowth, which contributes to eczema.
Nutrition
Our stress/nervous system has a huge impact on digesting and absorbing our food. If we lack proteins and minerals in our diet or cannot absorb these from our food, this will have a huge impact on our liver function, stress response, and digestive capacity.
Topical
Often, eczema is only addressed topically, and the internal is ignored. While it is important to address eczema topically to work on calming the skin, you cannot solely look at the topical alone. It will never lead to complete healing.
Genetic Predisposition to eczema: family history of asthma, allergies, or digestive issues can make it more likely that you will experience eczema. Certain genes can predispose us to eczema. Christa has a great blog post about eczema in children where she explains this:
“There are many genes that can affect eczema, including MTHFR (the genetic buzzword, but it’s actually estimated 30-70% of the population has issues with this gene function), PON1 (detoxification), FADS (how your body uses fatty acids), DAO (how your body processes histamines/allergens) and more.”
There is always going to be a gut health component to eczema. While genetics and family history play a role, the way we live and eat will be the biggest contributors.
Christa used a great analogy to help simplify the gut health and eczema connection for us in the podcast episode. She explained that if you have unwelcome guests in your gut, it will stress the liver. It’s like if you have house guests and ten people moving in, and they are eating all the food out of your fridge and creating a lot of waste and endotoxins. This means you have more trash to take out for your liver. You end up tired, don’t feel well, your skin doesn’t heal fast, and you have a lot more trash. Your skin is a safe place to get rid of things if your other garbage bins are already full. This then throws a wrench in how well you can break down and digest your food.
What are some common patterns we see inside the gut with eczema?
Bacteria Overgrowth
Streptococcus and Staphylococcus are the two types of bacteria that are the most tied to eczema. Because eczema is very commonly overgrowth-based, you have these unwelcome house guests taking up your nutrition and making more garbage for your liver to take out.
Suppressed Immune System
This is often seen with eczema as well and is often due to these unwanted house guests that build up over time, poor digestion, and your gut health/allergy history.
Poor Digestion
As overgrowth increases in the gut, the liver is stressed, and the immune system is suppressed, you can see changes in your digestion. Slower or impaired digestion will lead to poor breakdown of food and can lead to more fermentation and overgrowth plus more work for your liver. We can also have poor digestion as a root cause of eczema because of a history with prolonged stress since stress shuts down proper digestive function. Poor digestive function means less stomach acid and more possible unwanted house guests coming in.
Overtaxed Liver
With all of these issues comes a liver that has even more trash to take out, which will be exacerbated by things like constipation or inconsistent bowel movements. This can then lead to more trash being put out on the skin and exacerbating the skin issues/eczema you’re dealing with.
If you’re struggling with eczema and feel like you have done everything, I encourage you to listen to this episode!
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