Itchy Skin Cures

My grandmother Guffys skin was as soft and smooth as a babys butt till the day she died at 94. One day, when I was a younger woman constantly on the go, she noticed how dry and ashy my skin was and elected to tell me about her method of bathing. It was the only thing she said she did to keep her body clean and soft. First, she never took long baths (and NO, she did not smell). She said bathing dried out skin. Second, she never used hot water on her skin. Third, she never needed lotions. I listened; yet, despite the evidence before me, I did not take her advise. Hot showers were invigorating, I exclaimed. Who ever heard of not bathing, I secretly thought. Why do not the young listen! For years now I have suffered with extremely dry and itchy skin. FINALLY! I recalled my grandmother Guffys bathing method for clean, itch-less, soft, ageless skin. Here it is:

1) Massage 2-3 tablespoons of (antibacterial, anti-fungal) coconut oil over your entire dry, naked body, but not your face. Be sure to include your private areas and feet - get utterly greasy with it! Let it soak 5 minutes.

2) Take a clean, white, DRY bath cloth, folded in fours and scrub your entire body. When one side of the cloth gets cruddy, refold to a clean side of the same cloth. Don't forget private areas.

3) Shower/rinse in very lukewarm to cold water and ONLY wash your private areas with diluted baking soda and water or an organic non-soap or as I sometimes do, diluted ACV.

3) Get out of the shower and barely pat dry.

Believe! This works! People who touch my skin always exclaim at how soft it is AND my husband who has scratched my back many a time has taken to gently rubbing my arms a lot. Just try it! It is not real expensive or hard to do and results are quick. If you are allergic to coconut oil, switch to a light olive oil or sesame oil. Soon you will do as I did - throw away all your bathing soaps and bottles.

Before I understood the benefits of alternative medicine, I went to an Allopathic (Conventional) Dermatologist, who told me I had Eczema. I questioned that, because I had none of the classical symptoms of Eczema. But, he insisted it was possible to have Eczema with none of the symptoms. I still question his diagnosis. He prescribed hydrocortisone cream, which did help until I stopped using it.

As a conventionally trained RN I knew the dangers of long term cortisone use, so stopped using the cream and the itching came back with a vengeance. Not wanting to use the cortisone cream, I continued to suffer, while occasionally using ice packs when the itching became unbearable.

Then, about three years ago, I was talking to a Chiropractor and mentioned my itching problem. She said she had always heard that itching on the arms were related to liver issues - more specifically a sluggish liver, most likely due to all of the chemicals in our environment. When our bodies are exposed to all those chemicals, they eventually end up in our blood, and get filtered out through our liver, which eventually gets clogged, and then doesn't function properly.

I think it is important to note that I have MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity). I believe I have had symptoms for the past 18 years, but only learned about MCS in 2007, from an acquaintance. At the time she told me about her MCS I thought, how awful for her!

Then one day, I went into a clothing store and got really sick with very familiar symptoms: profuse sweating, heart palpitations, light headedness, headache and weakness. I finally left the store without buying anything. Then, as I sat in my car, waiting for the symptoms to pass enough, so I could drive home, I remembered a story I had once read. It was a magazine article that talked about how some women couldn't go into fabric stores, because the finishes on the fabrics, which make them look nice, were chemicals that these women couldn't tolerate.

As I sat in my car, I had an "AH-HA! " moment! The finishes on fabrics in fabric stores were the same chemicals they put on ready to wear clothing in stores! After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I HAVE MCS!

After much research, I gradually removed all chemicals from my environment - including personal care products (hair products, bath gel, lotions, makeup, toothpaste, PERFUME! And scents of all types), air fresheners (one of the most toxic chemicals! ), cleaning products (dish soap, laundry products, window cleaner, oven cleaner, floor cleaner, etc.), gardening products, home improvement products and the most difficult one FOOD! The list is too long to give here, but an online search should help you begin to eliminate chemicals from your life. One of the biggest hurdles, with MCS, is getting family and friends to understand the importance of eliminating chemicals for both you and themselves.

After learning that the liver was the culprit, of my itching, I started doing research about the liver not functioning, due to chemical overload, and found that, indeed, this could cause the profound itching of my forearms all these years! The result of my research, was that there are herbs that help the liver to function more efficiently.

Among the most effective and well known herbs, that improve liver function are: Milk Thistle, Dandelion Root, Parsley, Black Radish Root, and Burdock Root. There are also some supplements that aid in liver function: NAC (N-Acetyl-L Cysteine), ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid), and TMG (trimethylglycine). I checked my favorite online supplement company, and found that they had a combination product called Liver Essentials. If you do a web search for - Liver Essentials SWC017 - you should be able to find this product. I found that by taking twice the recommended dose, twice daily, my arms gradually began to itch less. As with almost all alternative remedies, it takes time to see a result. It has been a while, but I think after about 30-60 days, I was seeing a big improvement.

For the most part, taking Liver Essentials has made a huge improvement in my itchy arms. But, I found that there were times, that it was almost impossible to eliminate chemicals, from my life, and the itching would return.

After a while, I went looking for other solutions to my itching. I think it may have been on EarthClinic, that I saw someone mention that Peppermint Essential Oil (EO) helped their itching. I don't remember if they said how to use it, but I have experience using EOs and know that it is not wise to use EOs "neat" or full strength. So I got some of a "natural/Unscented, paraben free lotion, that I had in the house and put some Peppermint EO in it, until it had a pretty strong scent - maybe 15 drops in 2 ounces Of lotion. I found that if I put a small amount of this peppermint cream on my arms before I start scratching, and rub it in fully, it does help manage the itch. If I start scratching first, it takes a lot more effort to get the itch under control. Sometimes it takes 2-3 applications to get it under control.

I recently had to have repeated foot surgery over several months, and the anesthesia and antibiotic drugs given, brought the itching back with a vengeance! Nothing helped, short of sitting with ice packs on my arms all day.

Then, one day, I was looking at Homeopathic Remedies, in the health food store, and found Boiron SULPHUR - for "Skin Rash Worsened by Heat and Water". I was at my wit's end with the itching on my arms (which by now had moved to my upper arms as well), so I decided to try it. Imagine my surprise, when five minutes after taking it, the itching was gone! With Homeopathic Remedies, it is generally necessary to take frequent dosing in the beginning and then gradually decrease frequency. So, I started taking it once per hour for the first day, then as needed, for itching the next day, and now I take it 2-3 times daily, as I still have occasional itching. If the itching stops all together, I decrease the frequency and will eventually stop taking the Homeopathic Sulphur. It is not necessary to take Homeopathic Remedies to prevent a condition. So, once the symptoms are gone, it should not be taken anymore.

Two cups of water when suffering indigestion will fix it and the same, 3x per day, will eliminate it.

People say water just dilutes the stomach acid, which is true as maintaining proper acidity in the stomach is accomplished, by the body, using water. And all ACV does is buffer it - chemically.

Drink plain water. The "water" in food, juice, tea etc doesn't count - it's treated as food and belongs to the colon which the body will simply steal from it when you're dehydrated.

When you're dehydrated, your body has to jump through hoops, rationing water and stealing it from vital systems. Dehydration is an emergency mode that, to handle, requires - you guessed it - WATER. So it's having to use a lot of the little water it is getting to ration and steal/extract it from other the rest of the body. And that's not easy. Try extracting pure water from tea without raising the temp above 99 degrees.

Don't over consume water if you're chronically dehydrated. It can take a couple of years to get the body out of emergency mode and properly hydrated. Plain water is handled differently. It gets snagged and distributed, right now, but it can't do all that it needs to do all at once. If you're chronically dehydrated, that extended emergency mode involves the slow shut down of organs. VITAL organs that get relegated to a "not AS vital" list.

It takes time to reboot and patch damaged organs that have been in the process of being shut down so don't over-consume it but drink plain water. Which is not the same as sucking on a single bottle of water all morning. Drink it.

This is much longer than I intended but no one should have indigestion - nor many other issues - these days as indigestion and all related issues are synthetic "illnesses". You're not sick. You're dehydrated. Many people - including those with indigestion - will swear they drink plenty of water when they actually don't drink much at all. I do not know why.

I then saw a naturopath who looked in my eyes and said he could help me. He still hasn't told me exactly what it is and said not to eat any gluten till next visit and has put me on a liver powder (1st visit) and month later two more medications. Not being a doctor person, I have not eaten gluten now for 4 weeks, and within a week, my itching - which was unbearable - has virtually disappeared.

Last night I was googling about this rash as I was eating chocolate - quite a bit as I am limited to foods now - and woke up through the night with an itch (bearable compared to what I had been having) and decided to google if chocolate has gluten and I found it has also - but you can get some without. One thing led to another and I came upon a site which said Dermatitus Herpetiformis and described my itch down to a tee. (Wikipedia) except my itch was on my neck.

Please please please readers, give up gluten (wheat flour cakes pastries etc etc.) look at labels, try and go gluten-free and I hope my information can help you. It is a lifelong diet, but also can help you lose weight. Some of the photos are much worse than I, but persevere and eat well and I am sure you benefit in the long run. Would love to hear if it helps anyone with the above skin rashes.

I hope to find a cure eventually, but in the meantime this is helping.

What has worked so far for itchiness is eating an apple. I've done this thrice now and each time has eased my itching so that I don't have the urge to scratch for several hours. The organic, red delicious apple has definitely helped the skin on my eyelids and my neck and chest. I only buy organic produce due to pesticides -- I definitely have reactions to pesticide-treated fruits. (for the diamine oixidase/histamine intolerance, I've started a eating journal and eating low histamine foods)

Anyhow, the itching was relentless and I was trying all kinds of stuff for relief. I was extremely irritable to say the least. Then I remembered that my dad once told me cows used to be fed apple cider vinedar to ward off infections and other ailments. So I tried it and within an hour ALL ITCHING STOPPED!!! I was SO RELIEVED I couldn't stop smiling!!!!! Right now I am itch free and will take apple cider vinegar daily.

I found peppermint oil gave temporary relief. I was able to go back to sleep for the night.

One night I asked the subconscious for a clue and in the morning I was made to understand that my skin needed more sunlight exposure.

It's been nearly -40C for the last two weeks here so sunbathing was out of the question.

I do, however have a UV lamp I had recently purchased.

I did 2 five minute full body exposures three days apart.

The itching has totally disappeared.

Comfortable in my skin once again.

I'm posting this because I would never have thought of this solution on my own.