The next participant in the Testimonial Healing Series is Michal! I met him through my website and he reached out to me needing support and suggestions to get through the natural eczema healing process. I love how proactive he became in changing up his diet and really getting into it… you can just tell in his delicious food pictures below! He is such a trooper for having to deal with so much having to take care of his family, and going through this awful process. He has always kept a positive, faithful attitude and is a great encouragement to me as well! I just know that his story will inspire you all!
June 2017 – Look at how beautiful Hannah’s skin looks!
I would like to share with you all a new series I will be doing on this website. It’s going to be featuring testimonials of eczema warriors who have battled through the healing process and are doing so great with their skin and overall health! This series is a celebration of their hard work and dedication to their healing journey. Each testimonial will share photos, their detailed healing experience, info about their vegan journey and encouragement for those out there still suffering. With each journey, I want to empasize how important nutrition is in this process. If you aren’t a stranger to my blog, you will know that it is something I’m super passionate about stressing as a huge component to healing. I hope you guys enjoy all of the testimonials to come! Starting off the series is a friend that I met through the facebook topical steroid withdrawal support group. Her name is Hannah, and she is an amazing, kind soul. I was so inspired by her story of strength and faith in God to get her through this process, I just had to ask her to share her story on my site! I hope you all can find encouragement through her struggle and be inspired by the way that she has taken control of her health!
Here it is finally, my summer 2016 healing update! I guess being that today is the first day of fall, it’s better that I get it in today, better now than never! It’s been a little while since I’ve given an update with pictures and such, so here it is!
Arizona Star, happy as can be with happy skin! – May 28. 2016
I would love to share with you a healing testimony of this beautiful little girl named Arizona Star! I’m so glad that her mother Lindsey contacted me for advice on healing her eczema. I’m also so thankful that she didn’t have to experience the rough journey of an intense Topical Steroid Withdrawal. Her healing time happened pretty rapidly, by following the protocol that I recommend. Check out the interview I did with her mother Lindsey, as well as progress pictures below!
Yessss! Once again Dr.Greger is droppin gems! We cannot be protein deficient, in fact most people eat an excess of protein everyday! An over excess of protein does more harm than good to our bodies, especially if we’re getting it from animal sources.
To figure out how many grams you should be getting, take your weight x 4 and divide it by 10. So for me 130 x 4 / 10 gives me = 52 grams, and I can even get away with ten grams less than that amount or even less than that! I eat a vegan diet and I hit that amount and sometimes more on a daily basis! I like to keep my macro levels to where I’m hitting 80% of calories coming from carbs, 10% of calories from protein & 10% from fat. I’ve found eating high carb low fat vegan to be the healthiest and most balanced way to live. My digestion is top notch, my skin benefits greatly (less itchy & dry, more hydrated from the inside out, less red, less inflammation, wounds heal faster & better rest at night!) and I feel lighter and more energetic throughout the day (*note to self, need to make a blog post on this soon! 😜). Eating lots of fruits gives me all the carbs and energy I need (remember our bodies run on sugar 😉 the sugar in fruits are not the enemy!)
Check out Dr.Greger’s article by clicking the link: The Great Protein Fiasco and make sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel nutritionfacts.org
Here’s an example of my meals in the link below. This is an older post, and as I mentioned my diet has changed more to an 80/10/10 style (and currently I’m eating raw vegan). In this post I got waaaaay too much protein, and with my macro breakdown you can see exactly the sources I got it from…What I Eat in a Day – Vegan
Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions or need advice on transitioning to a plant based diet, or if you need advice in general on naturally healing eczema! eczema.holistic.healing@gmail.com
Check out this petition that awesome eczema warrior, Ashlee Christine has started! Let’s make our voices heard and make a difference! Her goal is to reach 100, let’s make it hit into the thousands!
If you’re a frequent visitor to my blog, you’ll know that I’m pretty much against all medications these days and that I take the natural route as much as possible. I’ve had my fair share of medical drugs in my system (from chemotherapy, topical steroids, to countless rounds of antibiotics), and as I’ve begun this healing process I’ve learned more and more that the body is self healing and that there are always alternatives that have little to no side effects on the body. What we consume literally becomes us, and it either helps our bodies or hinders it.
I’ve been hearing about immunosuppressants and how eczema sufferers and people going through TSW are using them to cope with the horrendous symptoms of the healing process. I’m always weary of the side effects of drugs, and just the fact that this drug suppresses your immune system, which is supposed to be functioning optimally kinda freaks me out. I have a friend who has actually taken these drugs in attempt to make her TSW more tolerable, and this post is about her experience on them. This post isn’t meant to bash anyone in their decision on taking immunos in their process, this is just meant to share one TSW sufferers experience on them and shed some light to the side effects they can have on the body. I want to give a thank you to the woman who agreed to do this interview for my site… you are a rockstar and I wish you well on the rest of your eczema healing journey! ❤ I think the more we share our experiences, the more knowledge we can have to make an informed decision on what we put in our bodies.
Yup, you read that title right… March 2016 marks four whole years that I’ve been topical steroid free! It’s pretty amazing when I look back at all that I’ve endured, physically, mentally & emotionally. This post is kind of bittersweet because on one hand I have nothing but gratitude in my heart that I’ve come this far but on the other hand I wish I could be writing this saying that I’m completely healed and back to my normal life. Now this isn’t to discourage anyone…healing DOES happen. In my case it’s taking awhile. If you’re new to my blog I think it’s best for me to give some background of my history. I used topical steroids from 10 months old to 26 years old. I also had injections of (I believe) triamcinolone into my hands and feet multiple times. I was diagnosed with stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2008, which I underwent 6 months of chemo twice a month (it’s said chemo has a half life in the body up to 10-12 years!). So needless to say I’ve had A LOT of toxic build up in my body, hence my lengthy withdrawal. Buuuut I’m apparently right around the time as far as healing times go. Supposedly for every 7 years you’ve used TS you will go through a year of withdrawal. So although actually 28 years of usage would equal 4 years of withdrawal, I’m not too far off, plus I have the “added bonus” of injections and chemo 😦 . Everyone is different and depending on your usage and potency you may have a shorter or longer healing time than myself, so don’t be alarmed by my lengthy healing time… you may restore faster than me, it just all depends.
The word is getting out about the dangers of topical steroids! Unfortunately this show is notorious for editing important info and not really giving the guests enough time to speak, but either way, this fellow TSW warrior Briana’s story was put out on national television for all to see! It’s a horrific withdrawal process, that can easily be avoided by dermatologists not prescribing these poisonous creams in the first place & getting to the root cause of the eczema. I hope this segment will resonate with the viewers, they’ll do their research and take the steps to getting their health back like I and countless warriors have done! For more info on topical steroid withdrawal, check outwww.itsan.org
“I am incredibly thankful to everyone who reached out and gave me strength through this process. This was the scariest, most vulnerable thing I’ve done in my life. It isn’t easy seeing yourself on TV with a *viewer discretion advised* sign because of how badly I have been affected by my health condition. I wanted to help a suffering cause that I am a part of when I was offered a chance to speak out about my personal battle on national television. I am very thankful to The Doctors and their producers for giving me this chance. I did my best to represent the TSW community. Was part of it edited for their purposes? Of course. Is MRSA the cause of my pain? ABSOLUTELY NOT. I will be making my own video statement about this segment soon and what I hope others have taken from it. Topical Steroid Withdrawal will be a growing issue if the medical community doesn’t start calling it like it is and taking responsibility for the consequences that come with over prescribing medication to patients. I am hoping to be called back to the show once I am fully healed to truly drive home how important it is to ask questions, do your research, be prepared in a doctor’s office, and how you CAN recover from this without the use of more steroids. Topical Steroid Withdrawal is something that can be completely avoided, as well as many other iatrogenic conditions.
I am but one voice that was trying to speak out for us sufferers. All we can do is keep trying to spread awareness regardless of how people wish to spin our pain.”
I just started a campaign on GoFundMe to help support this blog and my future endeavors of helping eczema warriors. Starting this blog has been an awesome journey for me and I’ve become so passionate that I want to continue to be of service to others suffering. I truly feel that this is my purpose and I want to pursue this as a profession someday. My campaign will allow me to purchase a new computer…mine has currently konked out on me 😦 and a new camera. I have so many ideas, and I would love to start making videos as well as more documentation. I’m always in awe of the comments that I receive on this blog…it truly keeps me going and lets me know that being vulnerable and sharing my story can reach so many. Please check out the link below to my campaign and feel free to share with others!
Eczema Holistic Healing 