What you get when the steroids stop working - Protopic, steroid free cream for eczema - sounds ideal doesn’t it? Except i’ve seen quite a number of people given this for severe ongoing eczema and it comes with quite a few contraindications and a scary list of potential side effects including:
https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-20335/protopic-topical/details
The FDA tell us ‘The safety of PROTOPIC Ointment has not been established beyond one year of non-continuous use.’ https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2011/050777s018lbl.pdf
So how do you manage chronic eczema after your year of non continuous use?
Because from what i’ve seen in patients Protopic either causes you a ton of issues on top of the eczema and also your eczema will resurface. Protopic is an immunosuppressant, it's the only way conventional medicine has to ‘treat’ eczema. When the immune system comes out of suppression it will ramp up again and return the eczema, often with more force.
What modern medicine should be doing is asking why some people have an overactive immune system. But this is the failing of medicine. It compartmentalises people. It doesn’t look at the whole person but rather individual body systems. To affect change in anyone you have to address the root cause
The immune system, whether overactive or weak has its roots in the gut - this is where we need to treat, not suppressing the skin with topical steroids, or going one step further and compromising the entire immune system.
“An enormous fraction of the immune system’s constitutive function is aimed at controlling our relationship with the microbiota. As such the highest number of immune cells in the body are resident at sites colonized by commensals such as the skin or the GI tract. In turn, in order to protect their ecological niche, a dominant action of the healthy microbiota on the immune system is aimed at reinforcing barrier immunity and therefore their own containment. A central strategy utilized by the host to maintain its homeostatic relationship with the microbiota is to minimize contact between microorganisms and the epithelial cell surface thereby limiting tissue inflammation and microbial translocation. In the gastrointestinal tract, home to the largest density of commensals, this segregation is accomplished by the combined action of epithelial cells, mucus, IgA, antimicrobial peptides and immune cells. Collectively these structural and immunological components have been referred to as the “mucosal firewall” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4056765/
Homeopathy is well aware of the power of the gut, for many years we have been using bowel nosode remedies to support the gut microbiota. We know the benefits that these remedies can yield, not only to the skin, but for allergies, atopic conditions, arthritis, joint pain, anxiety, IBS and IBDs and much more. Plus with using a bowel nosode remedy alongside organ support (adrenals, liver & kidneys) we encourage the bowel to take on some of the detoxing and take a load off of the skin.
It makes complete sense to aim treatment at the root, but instead the steroids and immunosupressants continue to be handed out with little support, no real guidance for use and all that is happening is that the doctor is deferring the problem and creating more for the future, because you cannot suppress the immune system indefinitely, that’s not a safe option for anyone and that is why Protopic comes with such side effects. It’s a dangerous bandaid.
I work online, internationally with eczema suffers, those with red skin syndrome and going through topical steroid withdrawal. Book a free no obligation appointment to talk to me about your concerns with your skin: https://tracywhitehomeopathy.setmore.com