You are what you eat - Triggers

Okay, I did something so stupid a few days ago and I'm still paying for it today! I have no will power when it comes to food. I love eating and curse the day I discovered seafood. I love seafood and seafood is definitely one of the triggers that causes my eczema flare ups. Trying to recover from it takes many days later after eating what I'm not supposed to.

I took a picture of the dish before I ate it because it looked so delicious and it was a treat from my man's dad. He is such a great cook. Normally I would just eat one or two pieces and I'm fine, because right after I would take an antihistamine to stop the itch. But nooooooo, I ate almost half the dish and I loved it. The worst decision I made because now I'm still suffering from my actions!

Check it out. It's lobster tail with beef. Maybe it was the combination that made it even worse. I'm telling you it was so delicious -- but bad for me. Very bad.
I will have to practice more will power because this kind of stuff was unnecessary. Now I'm of course using my medicated cream and I'm still itchy as hell. The antihistamine is kind of working. I feel drowsy even though it's supposed to be non-drowsy. Drugs affect people differently my doctor told me when I told him about how I get affected by non-drowsy medication. He said that just because it say non-drowsy it doesn't mean you won't get drowsy. Some people do ---and I'm one of them. Nice!

Anyways, I just wanted to share this and to warn not to give in and eat something you are not supposed to. There are consequences! Live and learn, I'll never do this again! Back to one to two pieces...but not for a long while. :(

However, I thank goodness I did find that Kiss My Face olive soap because even though I was rashy, the bar soap did not sting. In fact it helped. Plus, I now alternate between using the Pure Shea Butter mixed with vitamin E and Olive Oil mixed with vitamin E. Works pretty well.

Olive Oil and Vitamin E

I was desperate last night for some face moisturizer. I had some Vitamin E oil that I bought awhile back but it's so thick, it was just so hard to apply on my face. So I went online to see if I could mix it with olive oil. I knew I had olive oil at home and I've already been told it's good for your skin. I've used olive oil in the past but didn't find that it worked at keeping my skin moisturized.

Well, guess what? I poured some olive oil into the glass jar containing what's left of my vitamin E oil and mixed them together. The mixture went on so smoothly and it kept me moisturized even after I went out to walk my dog for 15 minutes. I usually come back and my face is dry. I think the olive oil helped with the absorption of the vitamin E and the vitamin E kept my skin soft. I didn't put any make up on my face today and it looks like i did. Weird. But I like it. :)

So I think I stumbled upon something that works for my dry skin in the winter baby! And it's cheap and natural. I'll run out later to get more vitamin E, but I might get the capsules so I could break them when I need them. I read that when exposed to air vitamin E doesn't really have any benefits. I'll have a look when I get to the drugstore. So happy. :)

By the way, my Tortuga Super Emollient Lotion came by post today! Yipee. Can't comment on this product yet, but so far so good. I put the lotion on my hands and it smells so good! All Natural so it's the fragrance from the different oils. I'll give my feedback on how it works for me after a few days.

Spectro EczemaCare - Intense Rehydration Cream

I forgot to mention this cream that was introduced to me by a friend of mine last year. I used it for awhile but for some reason forgot about it. Something must have happened for me to stop using it.
I think it's because unless my face is moist it's hard to put on.

This cream does work though. Since discovering the Good Guide website and the others on my favourite link list, I've submitted the product to the team to evaluate. It would be good if it comes back with a good review. I hope so.

Anyways, this cream is not cheap and so that's probably another reason why I didn't use it as much. I mean I can use a 100g tube of cream on my whole body at least twice a day. I'll go broke. So as a moisturizer for the entire body it's not a good choice. For affected areas it's good because it doesn't sting at all and it does the job for moisturizing and stopping the itch.

I just found my tube in my drawers and put it on my dry chapped fingers. Didn't sting and looks moisturized to me. I'll be checking with Good Guide on a weekly basis to see if they review the product. I really doubt though that it would clear eczema, but it definitely hydrates the skin.

Check out the product at this link: http://www.spectroskincare.com/eczema_care_rehydration_cream.aspx

Here's how the box looks like.

I'm going to start putting prices on these products so you can decide yourselves. My problem is I never remember how much I pay for things. A trait my man has a huge problem with. I'll start this and edit as I find out. :)

Cerasee Tea

I'm still looking for affordable organic skin care product and have not decided what to try yet. However, I wanted to share with you one herbal tea that my friend recommended to me. It's called Cerasee and it's from Jamaica.

The tea is said to have blood purifying effects and as a wash it helps clear out skin irritations. I haven't used it on my skin but have been drinking it off and on now. It is said to help with stomach aches and when I feel sick to my stomach I drink it and it usually works pretty much right away. I feel better within half an hour. I've been looking up this tea and here's one of the links describing the benefits of the tea. http://yew360.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=3&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=24&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1

Well, I'm not going to lie to you, this tea is BITTER. It's not a pleasant tea to enjoy if you know what I mean. It's like Chinese medicine. It taste bad but it works! Well, I've heard the same about Buckley's too, but people swear it works.

Anyways, as a stomach calming and overall well-being tea I think it's working for me. If this tea is good for cleansing the blood and system then that's great too. All I know it's that it's natural so I'm happy my friend recommended it to me. It's nice to have friends who care about you and look out for you whenever they can.

I know it's superstitious to listen to fortune tellers but I remember once a fortune teller told me that I need to purify my blood. I heard that eczema has to do with the body's inability to eliminate toxins from your body. He could be right on that. But he scared me because at that time I was working abroad in Asia and AIDs was an epidemic and the first thing I thought of was that. But I assure you, I've been tested and am not affect with that.

I know that Green Tea is good for the body too and I drink that as well. I think overall drinking more liquids is good for you. I just need to really cut down on my Ginger Ale and Coke intake!!! Too much sugar drinks can't be good for me.

WARNING: If you have diabetes please be careful when drinking this tea. I read that it hides the right measurement of your sugar levels and that is not good. Also, I think you are not suppose to drink this if you are pregnant.
So that's it for today. I still have to talk about my medicated creams with you but I'm too tired to do so tonight. See you tomorrow.

Avene - Micellar Lotion

Not sure why I didn't mention this before but here's another product I use that is great for cleansing my face. It's for sensitive skin prone to redness. Instead of using water to wash my face I use this especially when I have a flare up. What I do is take a cotton ball and soak it with the lotion (which is like water) and wipe my face with it. It cleans all the dirt off and if I'm wearing make-up it takes it all off as well. There isn't a need to rinse it off with water afterwards! My skin stays moisturized without drying and the lotion helps reduce the redness.

Of course, I still have to put on some sort of moisturizer after that because my skin is so dry, so now I use the CicaPlast. Or if my face is flared up I use my medicated cream. The lotion helps with the absorption. It's great!

Here's how the bottle looks like. You can get it at any Shoppers Drugmart. I got this one last year and I still have a lot left. As you can see it was on sale, but I can't remember how much it cost. I think it was about $22 or so. That's not too bad considering it lasts a long time and lately I've been using it day and night.

CicaPlast - Great Stuff

To follow up with my first post, I've been using the Cicaplast cream from La Roche-Posay for 2 weeks now and it's been really good. My skin is not flaky anymore so it looks a lot younger than it did before I started using it. My tiny wrinkles are not so noticable anymore, which is great because they were bothering me. That's the thing about dry skin and Eczema, it really matures the skin.

Anyways, since it was my Dermatologist that recommended this cream after I asked her about what I should use for my face other than my medicated cream to moisturize and keep the wrinkles at bay, she told me to try Cicaplast.

I thought I could get it at Shoppers but they didn't seem to have it so I went online to get it. I found a website http://www.well.ca/ and it was great because shipping is free!!! Love that plus for sure.

I've taken a picture of the cream here, so that it's easy for anyone to recognize the product. The Shoppers sales lady tried to convince me that Avene has the same product with the same ingredients but I didn't want to try something that my Dermatologist didn't recommend. If she wanted me to use the Avene product, she would've told me about it. But I do use the Water Mist from Avene when they are on sale, with the spring/mineral water sprays I just think all water mists would be beneficial to hydrate your skin; whether it's from Avene or ever Evian.

Okay, more on other great finds as soon as I find some. I'm still in search of anything good for my skin and that includes clothing.

Not affected by Beef tonight?!!

It's been 3 hours since I had my dinner with ground beef and my face seems fine.
I did get an itch around my right corner of my lips during the dinner but it's not itchy anymore.

So now I'm wondering what else I ate last night that might have triggered off my eczema! The only thing I did different yesterday was the Beef pasta, so it's a mystery.

On to another topic...I was just searching the net again on Eczema and there are so many site talking about this skin condition and some claiming there are cures. There are no cures man, let's just face it. It's going to be a life long skin management to ensure that the rashes and the itching doesn't get out of hand. The worst feeling is having dry, flaky, red, itchy and stingy skin and ALL OVER YOUR BODY. The thing is that once the flare disappears someone who doesn't know you might not even know you have Ezcema if you didn't scratch so hard that your skin bleeds and leaves a scar. That's why people who claim they know how it feels to have Eczema really pisses me off.

"Don't scratch!" Yeah, easy to say and hard to do buddy!

Anyways, I have been itchy on and off today. I've decided to stop using the Shea Butter all together and concentrate just on the Curel and my medicated cream. I must use the meidcated cream once I see red skin because if I don't it just gets worse.

I'm going to search some more about "Cure your eczema" by Janet Simpson. She claims by following her system for 14 days you'll get rid of your Eczema. But she's going to charge $29.95 for her advice. I'm still wondering where else I can get to look at what she is claiming to be working for thousand of people. I'm not going to spend money on just advice baby!

Allergic to Beef?

BEEF

Is it possible that I'm allergic to beef? It seems every time I make pasta using ground beef my face itches. I was itching all night along! I suppose it could be the tomatoes but I really think it's the beef.

This is insane but I'm going to eat it again tonight to see if I get the same results. The itch is most prominent on my face when I eat it. I've eaten tomatoes with broccini cheese and nothing happens to me. So by deduction, it must be the beef.

We'll see what happens tonight.

SIDE BAR ON SHEA BUTTER

I got a jar of shea butter for my friend and she really, really loves it. But she is not allergic to anything so as a moisturizer she told me that it made her skin smoother than she ever had it. She seemed to like it better than coco butter. Well, I'm glad she liked it. I on the other hand still need to be cautious about this butter and only use it after my bath and actually probably just on my legs.

Shea Butter

Okay I just posted my first blog on what helps me hydrate my skin and keeping it moisturized. And since my first blog, I've tried 100% Pure Shea Butter because, I like to have other options to hydrate my skin in case the other lotions run out in stores for some reason. (And they do, I couldn't get Curel for a bout a week because they didn't have the non-fragrant one on the shelves.)

So after a week of using Shea Butter, I must say that you HAVE TO use it right after taking a bath. Even if your skin is very dry this butter is really greasy, but if you use it right after taking a shower/bath, the butter works really well and doesn't leave a greasy fill.

I think I may use this butter only once a week because though it is a good moisturize and it's pure, I still find that Curel doesn't irritate my skin. I did scratch a bit when I used the Shea Butter this week. I wasn't really diligent on using it right after my bath so the greasy feeling is probably why I scratched.

I would recommend this butter for those who are not so sensitive because I am SUPER sensitive to products.

Okay more later. I'm also thinking of trying new clothing materials and be deligent about only wearing materials that won't irritate my skin. I think everything has to work together in order to control the undesirable itching that comes with Eczema and dry skin.

Moisturing Is Important to Keep Ezcema at bay

I've had eczema all my life from a baby till present day. If you are an eczema sufferer then you must know how hard it is to find the right products that won't irritate your skin. If your baby is affected by this irritating skin condition then I hope my trial and errors with products will help you find the right product for yourself or your child.

Basically, I've tried many products and when my eczema flairs up the only product that keeps my skin moisturized and does not irritate my skin is Curel-Continuous Comfort -fragrance free. (Make sure you do not buy the other variations. Only the the Fragrance free worked for me.) It gets absorbed very quickly and does not leave any oily film on your skin. ( You can get this product at any drugstore. Shoppers Drugmart, Walmart, PharmaPlus etc.)

When I was younger my dermatologist used to recommend Keri Lotion, but that never worked for me. Aveeno products usually do not work for me either. I'm so allergic to so many ingredients and certain lotion textures irritate my skin.

As I am getting older, I want to ensure that I'm using the proper creams/lotion on my face to keep my wrinkles at bay and to smooth out my flaking dry skin. My dermatologist suggested that I use the brand La Roche Posay. I'm just about to receive the a shipment of the product Cicaplast. The sample I used really worked. It was so instant, it amazed me. I only used it once and it's been a week since I've tried it --once - and it's still working. So I'm excited to start using the product regularly. I'll provide more updates on this product at a later date. :)