Skin Experiment
The title of my post sounds all Silence of the Lambs. Yeah, that's not what I'm doing.
I have eczema. I've had it for about 12 years. I remember going to the pharmacy by the first apartment my husband and I lived in to get the topical medicine. This is the first memory I have of my skin being a problem. Around this time I started having scalp issues too. I don't know if they're related, which is part of the experiment. I've had a few doctors suggest that it could be caused by dairy while others are adamant that it's not. With all the reading I've done about autoimmune disorders, I'm willing to bet there's a correlation. I've realized that all of my autoimmune diseases are cries for help from my body. Some of them may be irreversible (vitiligo), but I'm willing to do what it takes to reverse what I can. If changing my diet drastically will bring balance to my body, I'm in.
Although I know I have an intolerance to dairy, I've had a hard time keeping it permanently out of my diet. Butter and cheese are so good. I was doing pretty well until I got married at which point it slowly became a daily staple. When I started eating keto, that daily consumption probably tripled. I went from having a little butter and cheese everyday to a lot of butter and cheese and heavy whipping cream and sour cream and cream cheese... you get the idea. Needless to say, my body freaked out. My skin flared up, my scalp was flaky, my ears were plugged, my sinuses were hurting, and I was starting to have small dizzy spells. All major signs that I was over doing it. I'll go into how I learned of my intolerance and the weird affects I get in another post. That's quite the story.
I decided that I couldn't handle the affects anymore so I stopped eating dairy about 8 weeks ago. I've had one cheat meal (pizza), a couple of "accidents" (chocolate), and a bit of dairy over the weekend (hubby's birthday), but otherwise dairy free. Over this time, my eczema flared up worse than I've ever seen it, but now it's starting to settle down. In one of the AIP books I read it talked about how when there are multiple affects from food, which ever one is the loudest will be the loudest until you address it and then it'll start to calm down. The one that was next in line will then become the loudest until you address it and it calms down. Then the third in line will be the loudest, etc. It will continue until you've addressed all the intolerance and your body has balanced. I'm suspicious that the eczema became the loudest (flared up), but is now calming down.
I know my insides don't like dairy for many reasons, now I'm going to figure out if my outsides are the same. I've explained a bit of what I'm dealing with, so here's what I want to do. I'm going to spend the next two weeks consciously dairy free. I'm going to try hard while on vacation to go dairy free, but know full well that I'll most likely have some sort of dairy. During this time I'm going to watch my skin. I'm going to look for any flare ups. I want to definitively know that my eczema and dairy consumption are related. Two weeks may not be long enough to clear my system, so I may have to do this experiment twice.
Here are some pictures of what my skin looks like today. I believe this was at it's peak. These are from my back and my leg. The ones on my arms have faded enough that I couldn't get a clear picture. The first two are the largest on my body which are the two I'll be watching the closest.
I have eczema. I've had it for about 12 years. I remember going to the pharmacy by the first apartment my husband and I lived in to get the topical medicine. This is the first memory I have of my skin being a problem. Around this time I started having scalp issues too. I don't know if they're related, which is part of the experiment. I've had a few doctors suggest that it could be caused by dairy while others are adamant that it's not. With all the reading I've done about autoimmune disorders, I'm willing to bet there's a correlation. I've realized that all of my autoimmune diseases are cries for help from my body. Some of them may be irreversible (vitiligo), but I'm willing to do what it takes to reverse what I can. If changing my diet drastically will bring balance to my body, I'm in.
Although I know I have an intolerance to dairy, I've had a hard time keeping it permanently out of my diet. Butter and cheese are so good. I was doing pretty well until I got married at which point it slowly became a daily staple. When I started eating keto, that daily consumption probably tripled. I went from having a little butter and cheese everyday to a lot of butter and cheese and heavy whipping cream and sour cream and cream cheese... you get the idea. Needless to say, my body freaked out. My skin flared up, my scalp was flaky, my ears were plugged, my sinuses were hurting, and I was starting to have small dizzy spells. All major signs that I was over doing it. I'll go into how I learned of my intolerance and the weird affects I get in another post. That's quite the story.
I decided that I couldn't handle the affects anymore so I stopped eating dairy about 8 weeks ago. I've had one cheat meal (pizza), a couple of "accidents" (chocolate), and a bit of dairy over the weekend (hubby's birthday), but otherwise dairy free. Over this time, my eczema flared up worse than I've ever seen it, but now it's starting to settle down. In one of the AIP books I read it talked about how when there are multiple affects from food, which ever one is the loudest will be the loudest until you address it and then it'll start to calm down. The one that was next in line will then become the loudest until you address it and it calms down. Then the third in line will be the loudest, etc. It will continue until you've addressed all the intolerance and your body has balanced. I'm suspicious that the eczema became the loudest (flared up), but is now calming down.
I know my insides don't like dairy for many reasons, now I'm going to figure out if my outsides are the same. I've explained a bit of what I'm dealing with, so here's what I want to do. I'm going to spend the next two weeks consciously dairy free. I'm going to try hard while on vacation to go dairy free, but know full well that I'll most likely have some sort of dairy. During this time I'm going to watch my skin. I'm going to look for any flare ups. I want to definitively know that my eczema and dairy consumption are related. Two weeks may not be long enough to clear my system, so I may have to do this experiment twice.
Here are some pictures of what my skin looks like today. I believe this was at it's peak. These are from my back and my leg. The ones on my arms have faded enough that I couldn't get a clear picture. The first two are the largest on my body which are the two I'll be watching the closest.
Good luck on this journey. Love you!!!
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