Learning a lesson from chronic eczema

When I was a teenager, my hands were covered with weeping chronic eczema. I was offered creams and cotton gloves to soothe the skin, but often it was just enough to keep them from cracking and bleeding all the time. Not a remedy that healed me, but attempted to keep my hands from hurting so much.

My attention was grabbed, however, after an interesting phenomenon occurred which baffled me for a few years and ended up teaching me about naturopathic medicine, my future career.

When I was 15, I went to Germany for two weeks, and my hands completely cleared up. For the first time in a couple years, I had normal, albeit dry skin on my hands. Upon my return home, the eczema immediately returned to its weeping ways, and I wept along with its return.

I dove into books on nutrition, convinced that something in the food or water in Germany had been curative. What emerged over my course of exploration included learning about yoga and the naturopathic profession, which originated in Germany and was brought to America under the leadership of Dr. Benedict Lust. After completing my premed courses, and having finally achieved full remission of the eczema, I headed to Seattle to attend Bastyr University.

After almost 17 years in practice, I still find cases like mine to be a common reality for many of my clients, who struggle with a chronic inflammatory symptom, maybe eczema, or others like arthritis, sinusitis, or inflammatory bowel disease. That struggle is felt daily with just trying to manage the symptoms.

What emerged in my healing process was the understanding that my eczema had started after an acute bout of mononucleosis. It had always intrigued me that naturopathic doctors have excellent herbal medicine to support liver function, improve viral immunity and nourish the immune system. But without that support, it is common to see an inflammatory condition emerge when liver function is compromised. This decline in liver function and increase in inflammation is not always as obvious as a virus like mono, but can take a more insidious form through pollution's impact, poor nutrition and low-grade viral issues.

Nourishing and healing my liver included detoxification therapy, liver-supportive herbs and improving my nutrition. Gone were the days of stopping for a donut on the way to class, as I began to explore the possibility of a low-grade gluten intolerance.

But what about that stint of blissful healed skin in Germany? What emerged for me, was a deeper understanding of how stress really can wreak havoc on our capacity to heal.

My real healing and clear skin did not consistently exist until my meditation and yoga practice was deeply incorporated in my life. What I realized was that with each flare-up or weeping mess, while it had valid interplay with my food and my immune system, the critical key was always my stress level.

Being in Germany that first time was unknowingly my first taste of what it felt to really let go of any internalized pressures and perceptions of stress. And my body rewarded me with immediate relief.

Over the years of healing my skin and just maintaining health in general, my practice helps me learn how to be the one who lets go through meditation and breathing. In other words, one is not waiting for that reprieve to be gifted or given by the stressor being removed. Although I admittedly still do love to travel!

Truly, it is having a new response to stress that is the gift of a practice.

I haven't had a significant flare-up of eczema in over 20 years, but certainly stress and pressures of life are even greater than those teenage years. What I teach my clients is that all of us have our growing edges. That stressful edge is the symptom that needs our attention when we are out of balance, as it will speak, or flare.

Through quieting the mind and nourishing the body, we are equipped to listen. Listening can mean avoiding a food group or increasing whole foods in the diet. Listening can mean a lot of things, but mostly it means promoting restorative habits that help the body's innate ability to heal itself, and removing any obstacles to that cure. In this way, we allow the body to lead us back to balance, treating the root cause of the symptoms so they can resolve.

Kim Furtado, ND, is a naturopathic doctor at Quakertown Wellness Center in Lewes who specializes in science-based, patient-focused, natural medicine. She will be a speaker at the upcoming Mantra Yoga Fest set for Sunday, June 25, at Lewes Canalfront Park. For more information or an appointment, call 302-945-2107 or go to www.DrKimFurtado.com.