A Gluten Free Diet Cured My Eczema

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I know how much people hate the word “cure” when it comes to stories that are shared about eczema; I learned this after lurking on some forums. But I’ve also found that everyone’s symptoms to disease are different, and so are the things that help. Which means that one person’s cure may work for some, but not for all.

What I’m about to tell you may not be something you haven’t heard before. Or it may not even help you. What I do know is that as an adult I was afflicted with eczema out of nowhere, and I didn’t know where to turn.

Naturally, I started by visiting my primary care doctor, who sent me to see an allergist; this experience was incredibly frustrating because my results didn’t reveal any allergies whatsoever. Not even so much as a dust mite or pollen sensitivity.

I wasn’t having any digestive issues, so I wasn’t tested for celiac disease. After a few blood tests, it was revealed that I had a positive result for Antinuclear Antibody (ANA), and I was immediately referred to a rheumatologist. The good news: something had been found. The bad news, a positive ANA can indicate almost anything at all that is stressing the body, including stress itself, or even hormonal changes.

So assuming it was autoimmune related was a stretch, but I was willing to accept whatever it was, as long as it came with potential relief for the symptoms. The rheumatologist immediately wanted to diagnose me with Lupus, even without the results of further testing; I was reluctant to accept this until more of my questions could be answered.

I stayed up late every night for months researching all possibilities, and practically drove myself insane by coming full circle without any real answers to explain what was happening to my body: dermatographia, swollen eyelids, severely chapped lips, and a bright red rash on my neck, chest, and crooks of my elbows…all of which were itchy, painful, and aside from the dermatographia, were not responding to antihistamines or steroids.

In fact, topical steroids made the rashes worse, and at one point, resulted in steroid withdrawal syndrome. The doctor made it clear that the only thing that may work were strong medications and I was given a prescription for generic Plaquenil called hydroxycholorquine.

After learning about the potential side effects including blindness and cardiac issues, I decided not to start the drug, and instead I asked for a referral to a dermatologist; they ordered a core biopsy, and I agreed if the results indicated Lupus, I would rethink my reluctance to try the hydroxycholorquine.

The results of the biopsy were shocking, and also confusing: I didn’t have Lupus, or anything really. Instead, like millions of other people all over the world, I had been simply exhibiting signs of dermatitis, also known as eczema. And it’s not that I wanted to be diagnosed with a rare disease, I was grateful I didn’t have Lupus, but it was a little disheartening that the results of the biopsy didn’t offer any answers as to what was going on.

After trying every eczema remedy I could think of, including only using scent-free and dye-free detergents, soaps, lotions, shampoos, etc., I had not found the reason for the symptoms that I was experiencing. It seemed like the medical industry could not offer me any explanations either, and I was told to just try treating the rashes topically.

But nothing was working, and I tried everything, even bleach baths. What did help some was to avoid scratching my skin no matter what. I slept with socks on my hands, and did my best to not irritate my skin further. I also found that for me, suffocating the rashes in heavy creams and lotions, or keeping the area moist, just made matters worse.

So, I tried healing with a dry method, and it worked really well. What I did was wash the infected areas of my skin and let them air dry. Then I would apply a small bit of raw aloe, not the kind you get in the bottle because most of those surprisingly do not contain any aloe at all.

Instead, I went to the grocery store and bought leaves of aloe in the produce section and kept them in my refrigerator. After I let the aloe dry naturally on my skin, I would add a small amount of calamine lotion; I know it sounds old fashioned, but this stuff helps to heal the skin because it contains zinc, and it also keeps the rash dry.

After a few days of using this method, the rashes would be somewhat under control, or disappear entirely. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a cure, and the rashes kept coming back.

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Then I read somewhere that people were relying on diet to control eczema, but that the method required an incredible amount of discipline, and a serious elimination diet could take months to complete. I went back into my medical records and couldn’t find any positive results for food allergies whatsoever, and the doctors had done extensive testing in that regard.

I wasn’t even allergic to wheat. I wasn’t wearing any jewelry at this point, or using any products that could cause the symptoms that I was experiencing. So, I kept coming back to the idea that it had to be food.

I was already a lifelong vegetarian, but if I’m being honest, I wasn’t eating healthy, and a large portion of my diet contained a lot of fillers, preservatives, and unnecessary chemicals; it was all processed, and I was ready to finally start eating clean.

I didn't know what I was allergic to, or what the sensitivity was, but I knew I would find it if I was persistent enough. In my research about eczema, one theme that was constant was that some type of exposure outside of the body was causing the issue…it’s just that the afflicted person has to discover the trigger in order to eliminate the rashes.

I drove myself mad removing things from my environment, to the point where I would wear flip flops in the shower and bathe only with distilled water that I had warmed up because I was certain the chemicals in the tap water were the culprit.

Amid my frustration, I began my elimination diet journey and bought a notebook where I wrote down each and everything I ate or drank. At this point, I was only drinking bottled water, and I had tried a few different brands to ensure that wasn’t contributing to the problem.

I started with easy foods such as rice and broccoli, and other low histamine vegetables. I revolved foods in and out and only introduced new items when I hadn’t noticed any symptoms from the others.

After two months of religiously writing down all of my food intake, and not “cheating” on my elimination diet, I had found that the only foods that triggered the rashes and symptoms were products that contained wheat. How could that be? I had proof that I didn’t have a wheat allergy.

I called the allergist that had treated me and asked what gives… Apparently, a human can have a sensitivity to anything which isn’t necessarily an allergy, though it was unlikely that it was actually the wheat itself, but rather a component of it.

Which brought me to the question of whether or not gluten was the problem. Unfortunately, unless I tested positive for celiac disease, which I may not even have, there would not be any way to know. My primary care doctor simply stated that based on my medical history, I likely had a gluten allergy. But my other doctors seemed confused when I mentioned the diagnosis.

Modern medicine is just beginning to acknowledge non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and the only type of eczema that most doctors are are willing to admit is associated with it is dermatitis herpetiformis, which is not what I was experiencing.

I decided to adopt a permanent and strict gluten free diet based on the elimination diet results. What’s more, I also decided to give up dairy and become a full-fledged vegan. I was already a vegetarian, so cutting out products that contained eggs and cheese was easy. I was already eating clean as can be, and cooking all of my meals from scratch, so I thought “why not go all in?”

It’s been four years since I began my gluten free journey and I’m happy to report that I am rash and symptom free.

Well, I am rash free unless I gluten myself…which has happened a few times when I got gutsy and tried a new product that isn’t labeled gluten free despite not having gluten containing items in the ingredients.

I took a chance on ordering a very expensive, yet sad looking, cheese free, gluten free pizza from Dominos, and had to suffer the eczema consequences for three days.

I also noticed a pattern to the rashes that I experience: they occur twenty four hours after exposure to gluten, and resolve within three days after, as long as I am not exposed again.

To be fair, Dominos does warn that their gluten free pizza is not for those of us who actually have a gluten sensitivity. Strange, but I should have listened. Why sell a product that is gluten free if people who can’t have gluten should avoid it? I guess to take $15 from people like me who are willing to give it a shot.

That being said, I still do almost all of my cooking at home from scratch and it has afforded me a symptom free lifestyle. I no longer suffer from eczema, and I am glad I had the courage to do the elimination diet and find my trigger.

Everyone will have their own unique trigger, and unfortunately, it can literally be anything. But I think it’s worth it to try a clean diet and see if that helps. If nothing else, your body will thank you for feeding it good stuff.

Image by: Dylan Sauerwein