Daisy, I'm curious about the holistic practitioners you've visited. How exactly would I find such a person?Derms? Medspas? Facialists?
I've struggled with eczema flare ups off and on for more than 20 years. It has certainly improved as I've gotten older, but I've recently begun to explore the role of diet and my skin. Also, I have a friend in her late 40's who just developed eczema for the first time. Her derm has her slathering cream, but I know there has to be more to it.
I spent quite a bit of my life until my mid-30s at the dermatologists' offices. I tried all the different dermatologists when I got recommendations from others. "The best doctor! Go the the local university hospital and get the latest technology!" I even went to the local Cleveland Clinic to get "the latest" thoughts on my condition. They all came back with the same spiel pretty much..."We don't know what causes it and, here, use this brand new formulated version of expensive cortisone cream. We're sure it will work for you." I even got injected with cortisone. It gave temporarily relief from the itching sometimes, but never cleared up my skin. And I had it all over, including my scalp and face which are areas in which you can't use cortisone cream.
I was resigned to the fact that this was going to be with me my whole life and no one could help me.
Until a co-worker suggested I go see a homeopath that his son's pediatrician had recommended and had cleared up his childhood eczema. I had no high hopes or expectations as all else had failed. But it was worth a try, even though not covered by insurance. In the long run it was much cheaper than going through the insurance-approved treatments because I barely use anything for it now, and the added bonus that it actually solved my problem.
I posted elsewhere on this forum how this helped me. Some people doubted me saying it was all a placebo or something, though it wasn't as I had tried almost everything to help my condition. Homeopathy is used in Europe and India a lot as well. My Indian coworkers say it is very popular back home.
She suggested a few dietary things in addition to the homeopathic treatment of sulphur she gave me. That treatment pretty much transformed my skin over the course of 8 months or so until I became the "new" me. The treatment removed my itch almost from the start, but a lot of oozing and skin rebuilding had to happen in the meantime until my healthy skin reappeared.
I'm not sure about other health conditions, but for chronic things that "regular" medicine just can't seem to help certain people on, I think it's worth trying to see someone who looks at the body as a whole, a person's diet, and can heal them "from the inside". I found as a result of all of this that my bad skin was my body's way of warning me that something was going on wrong on the inside, and a lot of it was digestive in nature.
I might sound kind of new-agey, but I don't care. :-)
All sorts of things fixed themselves when I got rid of my eczema. I used to get sick all of the time, probably because of a weakened immune system, but rarely get sick now. I used to be tired a lot, as my body was taxed to the limit battling the eczema. It's not like it's a cure in that I will always have a tendency to break out into eczema if I don't control my diet or other environmental things. For the past ten years though, I've had it 100% under control, have naturally moisturized skin, and people don't believe me when I tell them of my past issues (as when I try to suggest this path to someone I see suffering with this).