After having tried almost everything under the sun to eradicate the eczema beast, I am jaded beyond description. I have come to the conclusion that until the internal system is set right nothing topical is going to help. Of course, we still need to moisturise and keep away from obvious triggers like soaps and detergents but beyond relieving the dryness, nothing topical is going to heal it.
Sheer Scepticism
So you can imagine my scepticism when a reader-turned-friend of this blog emailed me to say that she has discovered a possible cure for eczema. I merely glanced at the link she forwarded to me and almost immediately pooh-poohed it. Especially when she told me that it was a MLM product 😀 So I just chucked the whole suggestion out and was glad when Lynda wasn’t pushy about it.
Meanwhile, a brother from our Church approached us to offer us an alkaline water filter for our home. Again, I politely declined. There is much controversy about alkaline water. In fact at Mercola.com he even said that alkaline water is only good for short term usage only. That one should only use it for 6 months. Otherwise, it will cause more harm than good. Hmmm….
God Sends Angels
Fast forward a few weeks. The itch was not going away despite the fact that we are diligently doing anti-candida GAPS and not cheating at all. One night (like many others before) I cried out to the Lord in frustration – “Why Lord??? What am I missing???” and “Please, we need a breakthrough!!!”
The next day, Lynda called me and offered to let me try the product for FREE, no strings attached! To only purchase it if it worked for us. If it didn’t she will just take it back. I declined at first. I didn’t feel right to have someone whom I have never met before come all the way to my house to give me something to try that I may not even want! But she was graciously persistent so I agreed.
Meanwhile, the brother in Church had gone ahead and purchased the alkaline water filter. He had even arranged for the salesman to come and install it in our house anytime we are available! Wow! God sure answers prayers!
So Lynda came with all her parapharnelia and I listened to her explain about how the stuff works. And you know what? It works! So what exactly is this?
Teviron
It is a product called TEVIRON. You can get more information about it here.I shall not even attempt to explain it since it’s been more than 25 years since I was a Chemistry and Biology student 😀
A Breakthrough
Here is a picture of my hand when it was really bad.
And this is what it looks like after I used the Teviron cloth to wrap it day and night for a 1 – 2 weeks.
And this after using it for about 2 months.
Isn’t it amazing? Can you see how badly scarred my skin was? The skin was pale (white) compared to the rest of the arm. The skin in the photo is not totally normal and healed. It is still slightly thick and shiny.
So was Teviron totally responsible for the healing? What about the alkaline water?
How? What?
These are the things I have been doing before using Teviron* :
- oil pulling with coconut oil every morning upon rising,
- dry body brushing once a day, also in the morning,
- eating based on the GAPS diet, including fermented foods and probiotics
- drinking and cooking with alkaline water
- using the acid water by-product to rinse my skin whenever I felt itchy and/or hot and sweaty
- nightly foot bath detox alternating with epsom salts, apple cider venegar, baking soda and sea salt
- application of coconut oil on the affected skin
* My daughter does not do the oil pulling or dry body brushing.
So which was it? Or was it all of the above in combination? Honestly? I don’t know 😀
But I do know that the Teviron cloth made the most obvious impact. Whenever I itched, I would quickly wash with the acid water, dry it, oil it with coconut oil and wrap my hand with the Teviron Clean Cloth ($40 for a 2-pc pack). It will soothe the itch and calm it down.
Teviron for the Neck Rash
Teviron cloth however made the itch on my neck worse when I sweat. So if the itch is due to sweat and heat, I cannot use the Teviron cloth. I would wash with acid water and wrap with a normal terry towel cloth. Then I would plonk myself down in front of the fan to cool down. Then I may or may not apply the coconut oil and wrap the neck with the Teviron cloth. It will itch in the beginning and then slowly the itch would ease off.
Even till today, I would have to make sure that I keep sweat off my neck or the itching returns
The Healing Process
As the skin healed, I would still itch and I would scratch at least once if not twice a day – a huge improvement from previously and then all the dead skin will be shed off. Sounds gross eh? But I believe that that helped to stimulate skin regrowth. But I have to be very careful not to break the skin but instead wash it off and quickly oil it with coconut oil and then wrap it up. The skin will look beautiful in a few hours’ time. Serious. But if I get carried away with the scratching (it can feel sooooo good!) then I will pay for it. The skin will go back to oozing and bleeding. Sure it will heal better with the Teviron cloth but why go that route? So some self control is required definitely!
I know the Teviron cloth has helped to heal my skin and not just the wrapping. I used to wrap my hand in cotton bandage day and night – to relieve the dryness and prevent myself from scratching my skin raw. It was still red, raw and inflammed. I used to oil it with coconut oil and calendula ointment, aloe vera gel, tea tree oil, etc (er…not all at once) and then wrap it up. It never healed the way the Teviron cloth did/does.
So I bought the Classic Black Gloves ($45 for one pair) to wear – more convenient than wrapping my hand with the Clean Cloth and the Teviron Bow Scarf ($145) to wrap my neck at night. The Clean Cloth kept coming off during the night. So I use the Clean Cloth in the daytime.
What about my daughter’s’s case?
* See Teviron and Eczema?