This is me, Christina Nevada

and these are my before and after photos ...

For years I suffered with eczema. Decades of heavy topical cortisone use and dangerous levels of internal steroids didn't help me, and neither did the 20 Benedryl I was taking daily for the insane itch.  It was torment, and I had lost all hope.  By the grace of God and for the love of my three children, I didn't check off the planet.  In despair, I became a self-employed, full time naturopathic eczema researcher and have been for nearly two decades.  

As owner of this site, just about all products for eczema were given to me for free, but none of them worked very well for me.  You see, although 2/3rds of people with eczema may benefit from merely topical therapies (or better yet refraining from the use of them), 1/3rd of eczema sufferers (as in my case) could only see a 15% improvement with topical treatments.  I had to figure out what was going on inside.

It's about what you put on the skin, what you eat and the way you think (because stress also changes your biochemistry):  it is ecology; not a defective body.  You need to handle the skin on its terms and provide your body with the proper tools.  I got well, and I can't credit one doctor, not one drug and not one product for my recovery.  New research says most people that have eczema get it because they have thin skin.  Let's examine this for a quick moment:  they say you have eczema because your skin is thin, and for the last 56 years (since 1951) they have been giving you something to treat it (hydrocortisone) that thins the skin.  That's not funny.  Now a licensed esthetician (skin therapist), we need to add to the training that dermatologists have, because it wasn't enough for me or for many others.  

So how am I now in 2008?  I'm excellent. My skin isn't sensitive anymore, and I can pretty much do whatever I want without too much care. Much of my problem was from taking medicines (like cough syrup) that gave me rashes and then more rashes from reactions I was getting from using more medicines for the rashes, so definitely check Drugs that Cause Rashes

Here's a site that will show you what kind of tests can be helpful by Genova Diagnostic.  Naturopathic doctors can order these tests for you.  Since there are so many things you can do to improve eczema, the nice thing about it is that you don't need to be perfect in anything; but, don't stay lost in the dark in a huge maze of chemistry like a lost little blind mouse for decades like I did, get tested and get the answers ... my book will help guide you through the rest.

This site was built from the feedback of thousands of eczema sufferers over the last 12 years and with my research using the fantastic pool of knowledge now available on the Internet.

My Philosophy?

I consider the topical use of steroids like a tool and kind of like a band aid. In my case I was allergic to a medicine that initially gave me a rash and then allergic to everything I used to get rid of that rash. I'd say medicine gave me eczema. In my own journey, though, I did notice what aggravated it and what didn't. With twenty years of research behind me, I've learned a lot ... and not much was given to me by physicans in the area of this knowledge to help me. As a matter of fact, NEASE and the AAD aren't naturopathic-minded like I needed to be to get well. The medical community left me sick and without hope, but that story is over.

Make sure you check out the Inflammation Free Diet Plan. You'd think that the inflammation factor within certain food groups would be the same; however, some meats are inflammatory and some are not; some fruits are and some aren't; some veggies are and again some aren't; and it's the same with oils and herbs and drinks and whatever else … you name it.  It's the most helpful tool you might ever find in terms for chronic inflammation that seems to be coming from within.

Yes, enough water, calcium, essential fatty acids, enzymes, internal pH, bacteria, hormones, external treatments and more are factors, but it seems to me that the most helpful approach in terms of generalities is figure out if you have a rash as a side effect from a medicine first or from chemical exposure. Tests are good, too, because they take the guesswork out of whatever else may or may not be going on. Funny how some people think it’s all about candida in their case, and so they go on a strict diet but they’ve never taken the test ... and the test isn’t that expensive.  Well, it sure won't hurt your pocket much to get that book for $13.00 or so and just eat an anti-inflammatory diet.  It will help you ... and it is not hard--not with that book.  It’s just about freshening up your mind with the knowledge of foods that decrease inflammation and foods that increase inflammation.

Look at the high incidence of eczema in babies, and then think about what we feed them.  Milk is inflammatory and acidic--the links from NIH are on my site in the Baby page and tell us that metabolic acidosis is common in babies fed cow based milk formula.  So there you go ... what are the producers of infant formulas thinking by making acid formula and not considering IF ratings?  This is a revelation, so investigate it. 

It’s shouldn’t be this hard, but the public uses alkaline soaps that dry the skin and mess up the acid mantle and then use lotions because they just destroyed all the God-given ones on their skin, and the skin doesn’t like it ... it’s complaining ... and it’s not about God giving us messed up bodies.  It's about widespread cosmetic ignorance and the media that brainwash us to buy into it.

Some believe that perhaps we have become so messed up that now the problem is irreversible.  Only reason I disagree is because I’ve been messed up and then fixed up and then messed up and then fixed up, etc., etc., etc. and I think that I acheived my goal with regard to this disorder. I am well and have helped others figure out how to get well, too. It's not that hard for me since I've been doing this for so long full time.

If you want a consultation, I would encourage you to have one with me, because I know more on this subject than all the physician's and naturopathic doctors I've seen. It has also become second nature to me to see where people are going wrong and where they can make improvement. For me, it's pretty easy after studying it for so long, speaking with thousands of people on the subject over the years and recovering from it myself. If you need testing, I refer you to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians or International Naturopathic Information Site.