Sue wrote in to ask about her skin problems:
“My skin all over is very dry and extremely sensitive,
to the point of being almost painful at times… I sleep with a humidifier to help, wash my face with C*****, use A***** sensitive skin body wash, and moisturize like crazy with either C**** or C****** moisturizer. I do know that it is related to good fats in my diet, since it gets a little better when my oil and avocado intake are where they should be. ”
“Right now, my face is red and irritated, and broken out here and there all over in patches from eczema.”
I get peeling scaly patches, but also get clear fluid filled bumps that tend to be painful – they will scab over. Looks terrible… I try to only wear makeup (C****** for my sensitive skin) when I absolutely have to…. to cover my dark circles under my eyes.”
My first question was about where her skin was the worst. It was fairly balanced side to side except the right side of her forehead.
Going down the Left Lemon System page, the right forehead is LL.
The dark circles are 4C’s, and eczema is LL. Sue is an LL situation with too much stress added. Therefore we can predict her body type to be pear shaped.
Muscle testing has revealed a sensitivity to proteins and a recent class she took revealed just how badly she had been overeating proteins. Keeping a diet diary really helped Sue to see what she was doing wrong. Overeating proteins means they don’t get digested, so they float around causing problems. And the less they’re digested, the more you crave them. She’s been suffering in this cycle for years.
If she were to poke her belly, the area around the heart and appendix would be tender.
Her symptoms seemed to be worse all afternoon, which would give her two time periods for LL and one for 4C’s. I suspect mornings would be the second choice because that’s when the stomach, which is overburdened by excess proteins, would have the hardest time.
My first suggestion was to go cold turkey…
No soap, no colored towels or washcloths, no makeup, no moisturizer, no shampoo, no conditioner, no body wash. Plain water is allowed. White 100% cotton towels to pat dry. Just let the skin breathe. Help remove the clutter of chemical application with daily masks of food or clay.
Then I went through the ingredients lists with Sue. Everything she was using on her face had harsh chemicals, glycerine, alcohol, or mineral oil. The “sensitive skin” moisturizer she was using had three coloring agents.
Mineral oil and petrolatum REMOVE nourishment from you skin. Anything ending with “ol” is a solvent which dries your skin, and the coloring agents are proteins that your skin doesn’t want and if you’re already struggling to digest proteins it only makes things worse.
Eczema is an excess protein problem. Any time you notice a worsening, go squeeze a lemon and drink it straight. All cravings for proteins, as long as you’re eating balanced meals with high quality proteins, should be treated as a request for lemon to help you digest the protein you’ve already eaten. Cutting down on the amount of proteins you eat for a while is good too — allow your body to catch up.
I gave Sue a long list of things to do:
1) Start with getting all of your moisturizers, soaps, body washes, shampoos, and such into a bag and tie them shut — everything you use on your body or to wash dishes or bathrooms with. Then do another hunt for them — the tub and shower, all the bathroom sinks, the kitchen area, where you dress, in your handbag, in your car. Bag them all, tie the bag shut, and absolutely don’t open it again for 30 days. By then you’ll see you don’t need most of them.
2) Buy some boxes of Arm & Hammer baking soda. The smallish boxes, not the giant ones. Put one in each bathroom and one in the kitchen near the sink. This is what you’ll use to wash anything that requires more than water. If you need something stronger you’ll wear plastic or vinyl gloves.
3) Buy a bottle of high quality sesame or olive oil. Smell it before using. If it stinks, it’s probably rancid. Good oil smells good.
4) Buy some soft WHITE, 100% cotton wash clothes — enough to be used every day and not get behind on the laundry schedule plus one more. I’d recommend eight if you do laundry once weekly. Do not use bleach or harsh detergents on these but do wash them before use. And if you use colored towels, buy a white 100% cotton terrycloth towel. You’ll use seven of the wash clothes to daily wash you during baths or showers, you’ll use the eighth to remove excess oil from your skin after you moisturize with it, and it can go a week before washing.
5) Laundry — find something natural. Target sells “Method” liquid that comes in dye-free and scent-free. Other stores sell other brands. Also buy washing soda (different from baking soda) and borax — the Twenty Mule Team stuff. Those will both be found in the laundry section of most grocery stores. Add about half a cup of borax OR washing soda to your wash in place of half the recommended amount of laundry detergent. Wash all of your underwear and sheets and pillowcases and towels and wash clothes in this. And make sure your pillowcase is 100% cotton. Underwear should be made of natural fibers too.
6) Don’t ever use any kind of fabric softener or drier sheet. Use a distilled vinegar final rinse in your washer instead.
Dryer balls — those pokey plastic things that fluff your clothing while you dry them — they can tear up your clothes with those little pokey things. I use w
ool dryer balls from Etsy. They make a bit more noise (but less than the plastic dryer balls) while they’re fluffing my clothes, removing static, and drying them faster.
7) When you have all that done, go naked. Your face I mean. Wash it gently with just water. Then make a facial mask of anything 100% natural that will draw out the chemicals you’ve been slathering on your skin. Edible clay is perfect, but you can use egg white, honey, plain yogurt, or oats with water but don’t scrub your face with it. Don’t buy any skin products to use as a mask on your face — use food or edible clay only.
8) Use one mask each day, for at least 15 minutes at a time, washing it off with only water. To make it easier, take a bath and put it on just before you get into the tub. Add baking soda or sea salt or Epsom salts to the water to make it a good cleansing soak.
9) Only use plain water, or baking soda in water to wash your body, your hair, your face, your hands. If you need to do something that would get chemicals or soap of any kind on your skin, wear gloves. Use baking soda as a dusting powder and you won’t need deodorant.
10) To wash hair: put 1/4 to 1/2 cup (depending on length and thickness of hair) into a plastic drink cup. While in the tub or shower, rinse hair and give yourself a good head rub with just water. Then add water to the cup, swish it around, and dump most of it onto your head. Rub around like shampoo. If there is more soda at the bottom of the cup, add more water and dump it on. Remember to get all parts of your scalp. Rinse with plain water.
You can use a plain cider vinegar rinse (one tablespoon vinegar, one cup water) every third or fourth time if you like — it will soften your hair. Don’t use any conditioner. Wait a few weeks, and if you really feel the need, rub a drop of sesame or olive oil on your hands and lightly touch the ends of your hair. This calms static too. Really — just one drop on your palms is enough to condition your entire head, but only put it on the ends where it’s needed. And make sure you’ve waited a few weeks. Your hair needs time to adapt first and most hair doesn’t need conditioners after you stop washing in the chemical soup of shampoos.
If you find that washing with soda dries your scalp and hair too much, use less soda. And skip using soda every other time — just rinse your hair.
If you find you absolutely require a conditioner on your hair, get a natural one with ingredients you can pronounce that you leave in. The rinse-out kind is a chemical soup.
11) To wash face and hands: use plain water. Pat dry with a white cotton towel, then use a drop of two of sesame or olive oil to moisturize. Wait a couple of seconds, then wipe the excess off with the white cotton wash cloth. If you feel the need to massage a bit, do it while you’re removing the excess oil. You can increase the massage later, as your skin clears, and a skin brush would be a wonderful thing for your body. You can add oil to other parts of your body but it’s better not too — let it catch up to the feeling of clean without being stripped. Your body produces its own oils as long as you’re eating a balanced diet (30/30/40).
12) To summarize: You will put nothing on your skin except water and oil and cotton. If you have bright or dark colored underwear and have skin problems where those items meet your skin, get white or off white ones made of natural fibers. And make sure you change your laundry habits — fabric softeners cause tons of problems. Oh, and go without the makeup. You won’t need it in a few weeks anyway.
