The Bright Side of Intermittent Aczema

I started to have eczema last June. It has receded largely after I learned much about it and tried all kinds of stuff, be diet, exercise routine, dead sea  salt bath, fermented food/drinks,  and Chinese herbs.   

Everything seems under control until this Spring. One night after sleep, I had to scratch my arms again. Yes, eczema itching often arrives after 9pm. It is a night owl.  On the  next morning,  seeing traces of rashes on my arms, I realized that eczema has returned. 

This time I did not panic since I now know  a lot about eczema. However it tells me that eczema seems to have root, as it reappears in places where it was last year.    like Chinese saying,  I now have “ eczema disease root”, a problem that is more than skin deep.  Unless the root causes are removed, it will probably return year after year.

Then one day, suddenly it dawned on me that eczema has something to do with menopausal. Because before last June, I had never experienced eczema!  That’s why I had no clue that it was eczema. It was a complete stranger till last June.  With menopausal (a sort of reversal of adolescence hormonal changes), my body is now undergoing tremendous changes which may affect the detoxing functionality of my liver.  Many things (protein dense food and chemical rich highly process foods) my body now has a hard time processing, and my immune system was called upon to deal with residues of these food. That’s what eczema tries to tell me exactly.  Besides food, it might have a lot to do with chemicals I get into contact with in my daily life: dye on bed sheets/duvet cover, laundry detergent, shampoos/conditioners, hair dyes, and paints. They all can trigger and call out eczema.

Speaking of diet, I have been living in the US for more than two decades.  I have gradually shifted away from my traditional Chinese diet that is rich in leafy vegetables and natural ingredient, and highly processed food was non-existing.  Meats were expensive, and I got to eat them only on holidays and special occasions like when we had guests.   Now my diet is much more like that of a typical American: choices of fresh vegetables are limited and they are mass produced, devoid of real tastes; meats are also farmed, cheaply accessible, but also lack of real meat tastes like vegetables. Chicken tastes like wax; soon after I arrived at the U.S., I understood why “chicken legs are considered food for the poor.” 

Since hitting 50, I have eaten much less.  I feel the slowing down of my physical body. Now I have practically quit milk, certain food that were on my must-buy list on my monthly Costco trip—-bacon bits, almonds,  after I found out that I had eczema last June. 

However, living in the US for too long, I have lost the ability to tell what is highly processed food and what is not.  For decades, I ate cereals plus milk as breakfast (when I was a graduate student and  in early stage of my career). I  quit cereal + milk breakfast only some ten years ago.  TV commercials send strong subliminal messages to consumers that cereals were healthy food!   and I believed them as a new immigrant.  I even bought some and took them with me for my nephews when I went back to China to see my family, because you cannot find American style breakfast cereals in the market in China.  Ironically,  highly processed food is often promoted as healthy food just as breakfast cereals are promoted as such. Unless we pay attention, we will be easily caught by capitalism.

Now fortunately, with eczema, my body can tell me what is healthy to eat and what is not.   Our own body is much more reliable and trust-worthy than commercials.   Dried bacon bits, crunchy convenient puffy grains mixed with nuts, or  nut mixes with chocolate/yogurt bits, dried fruits were on my must-buy shopping list on my monthly Costco trip. Unfortunately, my body says “no.” If I eat something that contains chemicals my body cannot digest,  the next morning or the next few hours, the back of my hands will turn maroon, and my arms will start to itch. 

Sometimes, tastebuds can tell me so too. I normally do not buy frozen foods.  In my last Costco trip, out of curiosity, I bought boxes of frozen gyro. After heating it up, I was eager to try it for the first time. It turned out a big disappointment. The taste of gyro was awful— soft and mushy —-it is far inferior to its real deals.  

If you do not have eczema to tell you what are highly processed food, and your taste buds are not as sensitive,  please avoid any food that is labelled and promoted as healthy, and most food in the middle aisles in supermarkets. Shop around the circumferences only.

 Healthy food does not need companies’ promotion, just as there is no man’s day, only international women’s day.  When the day comes that women are treated as fair as men,  “women’s day” can be tossed out.   

Compared with highly processed food, fresh produces are  much healthier. Yet, because of mass production, they are good in looks, but much inferior to their counterparts in developing countries as far as tastes and nutritions are concerned. If you were born in the US, compare the produce you buy from stores with those grown in your backyard, you will understand what I am saying.