When you go to the doctor, your doctor most likely assumes that your eczema is a skin condition. After all, eczema looks like a skin condition. That’s why he gives you steroid cream to put on your skin.
But in January 2015, researchers discovered for the first time that eczema is not just a skin condition. It’s actually the symptom of an autoimmune disorder.1
So you can put steroid creams on your skin all day long, and it’s never going to resolve the problem. In fact, it’s going to make it worse, because steroids thin and harm the skin – but more on that later.
Creams alone will never resolve the problem because eczema – as well as psoriasis, rosacea and acne – are not just skin problems. they’re all autoimmune conditions.2 What you see on your skin is just the symptom of a deeper problem, that lives in your gut.
What that means for you is this: You must heal your gut, in order to heal your skin.
Autoimmune disorders stem from the gut, and the most successful way to treat an autoimmune issue, logically enough, is by treating the gut.3
The skin and the gut are not only connected – they’re one continuous surface. If you think about it, you could put a pen (theoretically, of course!) on the outside of your cheek, run it inside your mouth, down into your intestines, and up the other side, and you would come out on the other cheek without ever taking that pen up off the surface.
You are, essentially, one long tube with hair and arms stuck on.
Okay, a weird image, I know! But essentially true. And it makes it easier to understand why something that’s happening down in your gut – which you can’t see – would have such a huge impact on your skin – which you can see. Your gut is your skin. They’re a continuation of the same surface.
Actually, your body is doing you a favour. You can’t see what’s going on inside your gut – and so it’s easier to ignore. When your gut paints a map on your skin though – that’s when you wake up and get concerned. Consider it your body’s warning system! You’ve been given an alert – and a chance to resolve the problem.
