I had this ridiculously annoying itchiness going on all around my mouth for most of October. I noticed the irritation early on as you can see in the first photo (Oct 8th). It was just red and inflamed, and slowly started to calm down and become super dry. I was applying coconut oil on it multiple times a day (as well as shea butter) just to ease up the dryness, but it’s like that area just kept drinking it up as quickly as I would apply it. I thought that I would try a remedy I had done in the past… mixing organic ground turmeric powder with organic virgin coconut oil. It makes this bright orangey yellow paste and it can be used on dry, scaly skin. I also used it in the corners of my mouth because I was experiencing cracking as well. I used this mixture before a few years ago on oozy spots on my foot, but it was too intense for these areas, I’ve learned to keep those open, oozy areas dry so they can heal and scab over… pretty much like “moisture withdrawal” which I’ve found to help with letting the body heal on its own. This mixture is so amazing at healing, the dryness and flaking was gone within a week! Turmeric and coconut oil are such potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antibacterial foods, that they can heal up any skin issue very quickly! Along with using this paste I would take a break and use just coconut oil. The mixture did tingle a little bit once I applied it, but subsided rather quickly. I think it was because the turmeric has such powerful healing properties, and because there were fine cuts underneath the flakes. I’m experiencing such smoothness around my mouth now, I know I will use this remedy in the future! Along with doing this mixture, I was regularly oil pulling with the organic virgin coconut oil, which I find really helps to keep the skin on my face pretty clear and flake free. **Cool facts: Turmeric is widely used in Ayurvedic medicine and you can find turmeric face mask remedies to heal acne, eczema, rosacea and to help aid in skin rejuvenation!
UPDATE!!!
I had posted this blog entry into the itsan.org forums and a few people had tried it out and found awesome results!! This just shows how powerful healing with food can be!
Here are their accounts….
Hi Jen, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve been using turmeric topically on my feet after reading your blog post and wanted to give a big thank you! The coconut oil wasn’t moisturising enough so I’m melting it into cocoa butter instead and I’m not healed of course but my feet are finally seeing improvement after 8 months! I’m now seeing turmeric used as body scrub, face masks and all sorts and I’m looking forward to trying it out elsewhere. I’ve been clear mostly for 5 months now.
Once again Jen, thanks so much!
-Hayley
Hey Jen – Your tip is great! The backs of my knees were like scary swiss cheese – when you tear open not-yet-healed skin so you have sores within sores, so to speak. I went one up on your mix and added manuka honey (good for wounds, also highly antibacterial action) to the turmeric & coconut oil paste. Slathered it on last thing at night, covered with a non-sticky gauze for wounds, wrapped it all with elastic crepe bandage and then used micropore tape to make sure the bandage didn’t shift while sleeping.
2 nights of this mix and the sores are now healed up and flaking. Skin is pink underneath but not open wounds and not even very raw, which is great for only 2 nights worth of the healing mix….I’d say this is as fast as I’d have gotten with Elomet, which is pretty amazing! (Of course, I probably should have tried the tight wrapping much earlier to avoid scratching at night, so that’s some of it too.)
-Andrea
Thanks Jen, this is working for me too.
The skin between my fingers was broken and crusty and I had been putting cotton wool balls or cloth between my fingers to keep them apart.
I mixed turmeric with sesame oil, just because it’s an oil I had at hand. I reckon any oil would work. Smeared this on the webbing between my fingers once a day and in two days the skin is no longer broken.
I haven’t needed the cotton wool balls or cloths in the past couple of days. Yeah!
-Miriam
Eczema Holistic Healing 