Stool testing doesn’t seem like an obvious thing to do when you have a skin condition does it?
Your skin is a map of what’s going on inside your gut.. and there’s no more effective way to look at what’s going on in the gut than to analyse your stool.
If you have a skin condition you will know that the treatments available from your GP are limited to steroid creams and medications – both of which can actually drive skin conditions to worsen.
There are alternatives…
Last week Karen presented in London to GP’s and practitioners on the efficacy of stool testing in cases of chronic skin conditions. Below are the 2 cases that were shared at the conference that drew 1000 attendees to watch, listen and learn.
Freya, 20yrs, Student
Freya had suffered with mild eczema since age 3yrs
In 2018 Freya’s skin worsened, she didn’t want to leave the house and was suffering terribly with relentless itching, only finding relief in the bath.
She had been to see many specialists, doctors, dermatologists and had used many steroid creams and antibiotics with no improvement. They actually made it worse.
Although Freya had come to us enquiring about allergy testing we recommended a stool test alongside an advance blood analysis test.
The results of the blood test indicated that Freya was deficient in many nutrients including Vitamin D, B12 and folate because although her diet was very good, she wasn’t absorbing any of the good stuff.
As a result of poor absorption in the gut, Freya was experiencing muscle wastage and had an immune system that was very oversensitive and fatigued.
Freya had 3 strains of Candida/Yeast in her gut, and the gut is where 80% of the immune system is housed – no wonder it was tired!
Once we knew what we were dealing with, we were able to get to work on removing the yeasts using safe, natural antimicrobials and then went on to repair and replenish the gut using good bacteria to support her immune system.
We made some temporary changes to diet, but the real magic happened when we worked on the gut.
Within 16 weeks we saw a 100% improvement.
Olivia, 20yrs, Student
Olivia had suffered with mild eczema since childhood and over used steroid creams which alongside antihistamines would work for a short time, but the red itchiness always reappeared.
Olivias flare ups weren’t predictable, we couldn’t pin point exactly what was causing them – she was already using chemical free household product and skin care.
We had tried an elimination diet, and whilst we identified that soya was an issue for Olivia, it was obvious that there was something more deep rooted going on.
A stool test result revealed that Olivia had a parasite in her gut and she wasn’t able to absorb and utilise important nutrients.
We got to work on the gut and within just 5 weeks Olivia’s skin had almost cleared.
The photo’s speak for themselves!
What Freya had to say:
My skin consistently flared up despite the steroid creams I was using that were given by my GP. My mom was worried about the damage the steroid creams were doing to my skin and I started to research into them and discovered how bad they are for you. I decided to take an alternative route and see a dermatologist in hope she would help in a different way other than cream and potentially give an allergy test.
However, once meeting with the dermatologist she said she has a protocol with all patients to lather steroid creams on the skin very thickly for 6 weeks and that this will ‘cure’ most people and she rarely gets returning patients with the same issues.
She also suggested eating more iron rich foods. After 6 weeks she said to slowly start cutting down on the steroid creams and only use it when I felt itchy. So I did what she suggested and went around a year doing this, just using the steroid creams when I felt itchy in certain spots.
After having no luck with my GP or a dermatologist, my skin was still itchy and I didn’t want to keep using steroid creams. I started watching youtube videos on how people with eczema had started seeking nutritional help and showing their skin transformations. This lead me to do a lot of online reading and researching about eczema and diet and resulted in me reaching out to you once I found the Meraki website.
Once I quit the steroid creams altogether my skin flared up worse than ever as my body wasn’t used to being without the cream, therefore it was quite stressful to begin with as I was sceptical the protocol was going to work.
However, I found the meal plans/lists very helpful and easy to follow which made the journey a lot smoother. Once I got into a routine of the foods I could and couldn’t eat I found it easy to adapt and enjoyed eating a range of healthy foods.
It took a while but after my skin started to calm down I felt more hopeful that the diet and supplements were working, and the changes can be seen over time in the photos that I took.
After having been through the stool test and following the protocol Karen gave me, I feel really happy that I decided to stop using steroid creams and took this alternative route as this is more of a long term lifestyle compared to the damaging steroid creams.
It has been really interesting taking the tests and learning about the balances and imbalances in my body and made me become a lot more aware of what I’m putting into my body. My skin is completely clear for the first time in years and although I am still avoiding dairy and gluten, for the most part, it has become apart of my routine and I don’t miss them!