Wow...so much has gone on the last few weeks that I am not sure where to begin. Sis continued to have very irritated skin (dry, red) even with the B vitamins; which I DO believe are helping. Come to find out, her pH is WAY off. On the pH scale of 1-14 (1 is very acidic and 14 is very alkaline), her pH was a 14! OM! No wonder her skin looked horrible and seemed to react to everything, but not in the typical manner that denotes food allergies or intolerances.
3 weeks later:
Her pH has come down to 8.0 (should be around 6.5) and her digestion is improving...and slowly but surely her skin is improving. In case you don't realize it, if your body isn't digesting things well, you aren't getting the necessary nutrients from your food and you are not getting rid of the waste and toxins efficiently. She has a compromised liver, and has all her life. Lucky her...The Lord is healing her, there is no doubt. Sometimes the healing process can be cruel, and make us question why. This too will only make us stronger and deepen our faith in Him.
She is on several vitamin supplements over and above her daily multivitamin. With a compromised liver, inefficient digestive system, and a skin condition, her body doesn't react at all like "normal" people. I say normal in quotation marks, because even so called healthy people have some similar issues. Its just not as visible as someone with skin conditions. I have a very unique situation with Sis - I am able to see first hand how much our environment, stress (good and bad) and what we put in our body affects us. If it weren't for her going through this, there are many things I wouldn't see. For that I am thankful. This has improved my health, my family's health and I hope I am able to help others improve their health. Back to Sis's supplements - she is on extra Vitamin C, Vitamin B, and Vitamin E. C & E are major antioxidants and is utilized by so many cells in our body. Where she does eat a healthy, varied diet, she doesn't consume enough of the food these vitamins are found in to give her the amounts her body needs. Vitamin B's are SO critical and are lacking in our diet in the quantities that we need. Vitamin C and B are also water soluble - meaning our body doesn't actually store them.
Another thing I discovered this week, is the pH of our skin is actually around 5.5. Very acidic. This is necessary for healthy skin and bad bacteria doesn't survive at that pH while the good bacteria does. Soaps on the market are all alkaline in varying degrees. Some are around 7.5 while the majority of soaps we use daily are 9.0 - 11. Ever wash dishes and end up with dry hands? Or have you noticed that certain bath soaps dry your skin out? That is due to the alkaline pH. It strips the oils from our skin, damaging the top layer (the acid mantle). The acid mantle of normal people adjusts itself and will return to the proper pH in about 3 hours. I have noticed that soaps that are supposed to be good for your skin - like homemade soaps, will dry her skin out. Yet, when I use the same soap, my skin gets very soft and supple. Even homemade soaps are alkaline. From what I have read, for them to be a bar soap, they have to be alkaline. They do have better ingredients and are a much better soap to use. For Sis, bath soaps are not that easy...her body reacts the opposite way. From what I have read and observed with my daughter, damaged skin doesn't repair and return to the proper pH as easily. In fact, her skin at times has looked very irritated after her bath. When I checked the pH of her liquid bath soap, I discovered that it is as alkaline as our bar soap. An alkaline soap mixed with hard water that has a pH around 7, and damaged skin just doesn't mix well.
For about a week we were using a cream called Psorzema Creme. Her skin was healing so nice! We saw major improvements in the skin on her elbows until we ran out - just as our weather turned very cold! We are waiting for the cream to come in...in the mean time, we are doing all we can to keep her skin happy. That can be a quite a challenge. I did order the Psorzema Body Wash as well, and can't wait til it arrives. I contacted the company and found out that both the cream and body wash have a pH of 5.5. YAY!!!
With the excitement of Thanksgiving and her cousins coming up, this will truly be a test of this wash and cream. I am very hopeful that it will provide some external help with any possible flare ups she may have.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Could She be Vitamin Deficient?
For the last few weeks, I have been studying vitamins - the role they play in our health, the foods that contain them and symptoms of deficiency. What an eye opener! I have been so amazed at what each vitamin is responsible for. For instance, Vitamin A plays a huge role in protecting our eyes from night blindness. But that's not all...it's also necessary for bone growth, reproductive function, and growth regulation. Being deficient in this vitamin can lead to a lack of tear secretion (could this be the root cause of "dry eye"?), being more susceptible to respiratory infections, and may leave you with rough, dry skin. Then there's the B Vitamins....and D...and C....and E...and K... Oh! My!
I had a revelation as I was reading about the different B vitamins and what each one does, and knowing these are water-soluble vitamins, which means we have to consume them daily and they are excreted from our bodies in 4 hrs to 24 hrs, rather than being stored for later. Each one has its own unique function with regard to our health and cell development, yet they all overlap a little in their roles. Often times, when you are deficient in one Vitamin B, you are deficient in several of them. Biotin, one of the vitamins that make up the Vitamin B Complex, aids in metabolizing carbs, fats, and amino acids (the building blocks of protein.) Normally, intestinal bacteria (the good guys) make all the biotin we need. When I read the deficiency symptoms, a light went on...for infants, one symptom is cradle cap, a form of seborrhoeic dermatitis. Sis, as an infant, had a very bad case of cradle cap. More so than her little sis. Niacin (B3) helps maintain a normal function of the skin and digestive system, among a bunch of other functions. Deficiency symptoms include dermatitis, rashes, and coarse skin texture. Other B vitamins are noted for helping the body cope with stress. Something she doesn't handle well. When she gets excited about something good, her eczema will flare. When she's apprehensive or unsure about something, her eczema will flare. About a month before her birthday, she started to flare up a little - again...figuring she was getting too much honey or cheese, we cut way back on those about 2 weeks before her birthday. Weed pollen was very high and we knew that was contributing. The backs of her legs didn't improve much at all - they were red and inflammed at different times through the day. She would scratch even though she wasn't really itching - nervous habit. Last Friday (her first slumber party was that night) when we picked her up from mom's, one elbow was infected while the other was on its way to being infected. We started her on colloidal silver (topically and internally) and her infection was gone. That is something I plan to always keep on hand. She has scratched and picked her arm several times as scabs form, and each time I have applied it topically. I know that has helped keep it from getting infected again.
Like I said, a light bulb went on...could this be an underlying cause to her incredibly dry skin (which she has had since birth), not being able to cope well with stress and her eczema? Quite possibly...I began looking at the foods that have biotin and amounts they contain, compared to the amount of biotin in her multivitamin and how much biotin she should be getting daily. While she eats foods high in biotin, she doesn't consume enough of them on a daily basis to meet her daily requirements. For some reason, I don't believe her body produces the amount of biotin she needs. I never even looked at the foods that contain the other B vitamins. These are so intertwined that when you are deficient in 1 B vitamin, you are also deficient in others. So, she started taking a really good B Complex supplement. I'll keep ya posted.
I had a revelation as I was reading about the different B vitamins and what each one does, and knowing these are water-soluble vitamins, which means we have to consume them daily and they are excreted from our bodies in 4 hrs to 24 hrs, rather than being stored for later. Each one has its own unique function with regard to our health and cell development, yet they all overlap a little in their roles. Often times, when you are deficient in one Vitamin B, you are deficient in several of them. Biotin, one of the vitamins that make up the Vitamin B Complex, aids in metabolizing carbs, fats, and amino acids (the building blocks of protein.) Normally, intestinal bacteria (the good guys) make all the biotin we need. When I read the deficiency symptoms, a light went on...for infants, one symptom is cradle cap, a form of seborrhoeic dermatitis. Sis, as an infant, had a very bad case of cradle cap. More so than her little sis. Niacin (B3) helps maintain a normal function of the skin and digestive system, among a bunch of other functions. Deficiency symptoms include dermatitis, rashes, and coarse skin texture. Other B vitamins are noted for helping the body cope with stress. Something she doesn't handle well. When she gets excited about something good, her eczema will flare. When she's apprehensive or unsure about something, her eczema will flare. About a month before her birthday, she started to flare up a little - again...figuring she was getting too much honey or cheese, we cut way back on those about 2 weeks before her birthday. Weed pollen was very high and we knew that was contributing. The backs of her legs didn't improve much at all - they were red and inflammed at different times through the day. She would scratch even though she wasn't really itching - nervous habit. Last Friday (her first slumber party was that night) when we picked her up from mom's, one elbow was infected while the other was on its way to being infected. We started her on colloidal silver (topically and internally) and her infection was gone. That is something I plan to always keep on hand. She has scratched and picked her arm several times as scabs form, and each time I have applied it topically. I know that has helped keep it from getting infected again.
Like I said, a light bulb went on...could this be an underlying cause to her incredibly dry skin (which she has had since birth), not being able to cope well with stress and her eczema? Quite possibly...I began looking at the foods that have biotin and amounts they contain, compared to the amount of biotin in her multivitamin and how much biotin she should be getting daily. While she eats foods high in biotin, she doesn't consume enough of them on a daily basis to meet her daily requirements. For some reason, I don't believe her body produces the amount of biotin she needs. I never even looked at the foods that contain the other B vitamins. These are so intertwined that when you are deficient in 1 B vitamin, you are also deficient in others. So, she started taking a really good B Complex supplement. I'll keep ya posted.
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