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Kid's
Eczema Treatment (Adults too!)
Eating to Cure Your Eczema
By Christine Climer
If you have eczema, when someone
mentions modifying your diet to improve your health, you probably
think about eliminating food allergens. But while it’s true
that food allergies can trigger eczema flare-ups, eliminating
allergenic foods doesn’t address the root of the problem.
Eczema appears because of the way
the immune system works. In order for your immune system to function
properly, you need to have adequate levels of certain nutrients.
Armed with the right facts, you can include certain foods in your
diet that will help prevent or correct this immune dysfunction.
Setting the stage
From the minute a child is born, something very important to the
development of her future immune function starts to happen. Babies
are born with sterile guts, so they are totally dependent on environmental
exposure to acquire GI flora, the bacteria that live in our gastrointestinal
tracts. She may get these bacteria from the birth canal, during
breastfeeding or from medical staff. Certain bacteria are critical
to acquire, in that they help teach her immune system to work
properly in the early months and help maintain healthy intestines.
Because breastfeeding helps to
selectively nurture the beneficial bacteria, exclusive breastfeeding
is one way you can help your baby develop a balanced immune function.
Make sure that you have healthy flora balance yourself. In a recent
study, mothers consumed a probiotic containing Lactobacillus
rhamnosus GG before childbirth and continued until their
babies were six months old. The incidence of eczema among their
children was half that of babies in the control group whose mothers
received no probiotic.
Formula-fed infants may benefit
from probiotic-supplemented formulas. A study of infants with
eczema concluded that formulas containing bifidobacteria and L.
rhamnosus GG provided significant relief from symptoms after
two months.
A miniature ecosystem
The bacteria making up your GI flora are transient; that is, they
are continuously being replaced through environmental exposure.
As your child grows, he will be exposed to other sources of bacteria,
such as pets and foods. Include sources of healthy bacteria in
your older child’s daily diet to continue to nurture his
immune system’s function.
Fats that count
“Fat” has become a negative word in our culture. The
truth is, certain kinds of fats are important to people with eczema.
You’ll hear a lot about “fatty acids", “omega-3s”
and “omega-6s.” Omega-3 and omega-6 are each a family
of fatty acids.
There are several individual fatty
acids within each of these families. The first in line of each
family is called an “essential” fatty acid. This means
that it must be obtained from the diet. The body then produces
a sequence of reactions to transform the “essential”
fatty acid into each subsequent family member. Each of these transformations
requires an enzyme and nutrient co-factors that help the enzyme
work.
In the omega-6 family, the “essential”
fatty acid is named linoleic acid. Most of us get plenty of linoleic
acid in our diets. If all is well, we should then be able to convert
it into gamma-linoleic acid (GLA). Unfortunately, many people
with eczema and other conditions are not able to make that conversion
well enough, so they end up with a lot of linoleic acid and not
enough GLA. This is important because our bodies turn GLA into
chemicals that calm inflammation.
Research dating back to the 1930s
established this fatty acid deficiency as a cause of eczema. In
fact, fatty acids were the primary treatment for eczema in the
1940s up until the introduction of steroids such as hydrocortisone.
Finding the right fats
Breast milk contains GLA for your baby, but the amount depends
upon how well you are able to make the needed conversions yourself.
To introduce GLA directly into
your diet, choose spirulina, evening primrose oil (EPO), borage
oil or black currant seed oil. Though the amount needed to notice
improvement is likely to vary from one person to the next, a study
of three adult dosages (2, 4 and 6 grams EPO per day) and of two
children’s dosages (1 and 2 grams per day) showed highly
significant, dose-related, beneficial effects.
Minerals: A supporting
role
As already mentioned, we need certain nutrients in our bodies
in order for those fatty acid-converting enzymes to work. Most
notable for people with eczema are zinc, magnesium and vitamin
B6. Many studies have noted that children with eczema tend to
be zinc-deficient and some have speculated that GLA supplementation
in certain children works by compensating for the zinc deficiency.
Find out more
To learn more about how to include nutrient co-factors in your
diet, visit the Facts about Dietary Supplements web page of the
National
Institutes of Health.
For more information about how
to choose probiotic foods for your family, read
my Q&A response in the May issue of Natural Family Online.
To
learn more about how fatty acids work, visit CAPI.
For more details about controlling
allergic conditions with nutrition, check out Staying Healthy
with Nutrition by Dr. Elson Haas.
References
Fan YY, Chapkin RS. Importance of dietary gamma-linolenic acid
in human health and nutrition. J Nutr. 1998 Sep;128(9):1411-4.
Horrobin DF. Essential fatty acid
metabolism and its modification in atopic eczema. Am J Clin Nutr.
2000 Jan;71(1 Suppl):367S-72S.
Isolauri E, Arvola T, Sutas Y, Moilanen E, Salminen S. Probiotics
in the management of atopic eczema. Clin Exp Allergy. 2000 Nov;30(11):1604-10.
Isolauri E, Sutas Y, Kankaanpaa
P, Arvilommi H, Salminen S. Probiotics: effects on immunity. Am
J Clin Nutr. 2001 Feb;73(2 Suppl):444S-450S.
Kalliomaki M, Salminen S, Arvilommi
H, Kero P, Koskinen P, Isolauri E. Probiotics in primary prevention
of atopic disease: a randomised placebo-controlled trial. Lancet.
2001 Apr 7;357(9262):1076-9.
Mackie RI, Sghir A, Gaskins HR.
Developmental microbial ecology of the neonatal gastrointestinal
tract. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 May;69(5):1035S-1045S.
Rosenfeldt V, Benfeldt E, Nielsen
SD, Michaelsen KF, Jeppesen DL, Valerius NH, Paerregaard A. Effect
of probiotic Lactobacillus strains in children with atopic dermatitis.
J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2003 Feb;111(2):389-95.
Yoon S, Lee J, Lee S. The therapeutic
effect of evening primrose oil in atopic dermatitis patients with
dry scaly skin lesions is associated with the normalization of
serum gamma-interferon levels. Skin Pharmacol Appl Skin Physiol.
2002 Jan-Feb;15(1):20-5.
© Christine Climer
Christine Climer
is a registered nurse with experience in pulmonary disease, pediatrics,
home health and hospice services. Also trained in early childhood
education, she is currently executive director and child care
nurse for an early childhood health promotion organization. She
lives with her husband and three children (including a set of
twins) in Texas and enjoys researching health issues and gardening.
