Friday, October 22, 2010

Natural Health - Natural Help For Skin Pigment Changes

When I was in my early 20's, I was dealing with a skin condition that my dermatologist couldn't explain, and it had me hiding in my house. I was diagnosed with "vitiligo" which showed up as irregular patches of pale skin - mostly on the top of my feet and behind my neck.


I was so upset because I was living at the beach and having a tan was so important to me. Tanning was the worst thing to do if I wanted to hide the white spots that wouldn't tan on my skin. My doctor prescribed a steroid cream and antibiotics - they didn't help at all.


For most people, vitiligo is a chronic condition. For me that was not the case. Mine went away when I started to adjust my diet and started to drink raw juices and make other positive lifestyle changes.


At that time, I didn't know exactly what made it go away, just like I didn't know what brought it on.


Now, after a few decades of study and experience in holistic health, nutrition, detox, and alternative medicine - I have a "hypothesis" related to vitilago.

I never read any material about this anywhere, but like often occurs with me I determine helpful approaches to health challenges by combining my knowledge, experience, common sense, and intuitive abilities.

I'll tell you my hypothesis. I won't go into how I came to my hypothesis other than to say that right before I had my case of vitilago I was put on lots of antibiotics for bronchitis and other respiratory issues. I also was dealing with some major life stressors.


My hypothesis is that Vitilago is a systemic fungal condition similar to, if not, Candidiasis (yeast overgrowth). Internal fungal overgrowth often shows up on the skin (psoriasis is another skin condition affected by this).


Overtaxed adrenals are often at play here as well - so stress can play a big part in contributing to this.

Often Candida issues go hand in hand with stressed adrenal glands.

One of the best ways to combat a fungal problem is to not feed the fungus (it LOVES sugar - so sugar and simple carbohydrates like bread and pasta - are a big no no) and to use a natural anti-fungal substance (I'm not talking about man- made medications - antifungal meds are chemicals that are often extremely harsh on the liver). Also, resting and nourishing rests the body to lessen the stress hormones released by the adrenals.


In my opinion the best natural anti-fungal substances come from our plant kingdom (nature takes care of nature) specifically therapeutic essential oils. Many of our essential oils have anti-fungal properties (and they smell so good!) such as Purification and Melrose.