Older readers will remember that I’d been controlling my eczema, reluctantly, by following a gluten-free diet. So well was this going that I started to play fast and loose with the strictness, reasoning that one pizza on a Saturday, made with a properly fermented 48-hour dough, was unlikely to cause more than the mildest of itches.
Even when the dermatology clinic tested my blood for the gluten allergens and reported “inconclusive” results, I stuck to the (almost) elimination diet on the basis that even if the effects were psychological they were no less real for that.
But the eczema made a gradual return, to the point that I asked for a refill of my steroid cream prescription.
At the end of March, I had a small slice of birthday cake on my wife’s birthday, and decided to go back to strict enforcement of the diet. Two and a half months later, and here we are. Still itching. And on a scale of 1-10 when anything below 6 is mild enough to resist scratching that itch, I’ve been 8-10 for weeks on end now, with big patches of eczema on the back of my legs, and my back, anywhere there might be extended periods of pressure. So the back of my thighs, for example: that’s worse when I’ve been sitting down, and the base of my back is bad especially after a car journey of any length. And around the waist band of my underwear, etc.
Went to the doctor (not the clinic, which had discharged me back when the eczema was under control), and he suggested I might try giving up dairy.
Groan.
*Once you remove anything with wheat in it from your diet, and then anything with milk in it, ugh. I now look at those “wheat and dairy free” labels ruefully, when once I used to wonder why the two so frequently went together. I tried, at first, a compromise, and went lactose free for a few weeks. This wasn’t too bad: there’s a pretty wide variety of lactose-free products, and they taste acceptable.
But that didn’t work of course, and so I now embark on the dairy-free part of my life, half-hoping this isn’t going to work. I mean, I like rice, and I’ll eat a bean salad, and I’ll grill some meat and so on. But I fucking hate that watery quinoa gruel, and all those bitty vegan options are just damp leaves. Soya and coconut cheese substitutes are gross.
I think I’ll try till the end of July, see if it works. And if it does, can I have a slice of bread to celebrate?
McMinn & Cheese 
2 responses to “On giving up everything*”
This may be of interest and isn’t some sort of product placement.
Our daughter sometimes got bad eczema and we tracked down Karen Fischer’s product which has pretty much stopped the problem. I know may look like a too good to be true internet thing, but it does seem to work.
The challenge is that it is only available from Australia and usually gets picked up by Royal Mail for a customs charge on top of what is already a quite expensive product.
However, it has made a huge difference for Melanie, so may be worth a go, although I think its around AUS$82 (£45) for the combined AM and PM kit (which lasts about 6 weeks, but the positive effect seems to be noticeable from about week 3 and once ‘managed’ then less needed.
As a result M doesn’t need to worry about specific foodstuffs etc.
Just a thought.
Ed
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Here is a link to the Karen Fischer website ‘Skin Friend’.
https://skinfriend.com/pages/eczema-treatment-testimonials-karen-fischer
Sorry if sent twice. I think Akismet or something spam filtered me the first time.
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