Have you guys heard of “no moisture therapy”, it’s basically when you ditch all steroid and moisturisers, so that your body will start producing its own moisture. I’ve read a lot about it on Reddit and online (I’ll attach some articles), but honestly I’m too scared to try it...
FOR years Jonathan Rowe struggled with an agonising skin condition eczema. But the 32-year-old, from London, says he finally managed to “cure” his eczema – after depriving his ski…
www.google.co.uk
Holly Broome, 24, of London, stopped using steroid creams and began no moisture therapy (NMT) in 2018. The graphic designer is not 'cured', but says her skin is finally under control.
www.google.co.uk
Please don't ever ditch moisturizers and basic skin self-care when you have severely dry and atopic skin. It's lunacy.
There is a whole evidence-based knowledge base about how to treat and maintain the health of atopic skin and not one part of it involves the kind of utterly magical thinking that involves withholding all treatments and believing the disease will resolve itself. Imagine applying this thinking to any other disease and you'll see how insane it is. Oh, you have kidney disease? Withhold dialysis and the body will just revolve it on its own. Type 1 Diabetes? Withhold insulin, sure your body will decide to produce insulin again. This is NOT how any organ in your body actually works.
This NMT is based on a total misunderstanding about how skin works, about atopic skin and trans-epidermal water loss, how moisture is held to or lost from the skin, and how moisturizers work. Your skin isn't refusing to produce the elements to hold water in the skin because you use occlusives or moisturizers, it simply cannot do so, so withholding them won't do anything except put you in agony and further inflame your already fragile skin. Corticosteroid creams are anti-inflammatory medicines btw which reduce the inflammation in skin; their job is not moisturizing, it is decreasing inflammation. They are merely used in conjunction with moisturizing creams, washes and so on.
Some people have eczema that is made worse because of a reaction to environmental factors such as very hard water, or dry weather, which promote trans-epidermal water loss. It's vital in those cases to lessen the water loss by using occlusive creams and lotions and avoiding drying things like overwashing, hot water and so on. Eczema sufferers need to keep their skin protected from transepidermal water loss as much as possible, in conjunction with finding their personal inflammtory triggers if possible, and avoiding them. Stopping all medicines and basic protective practices in the hope the disease will suddenly cure itself is medieval.
People do sometimes have rebound and skin thinning issues with very long term or incorrect use of corticosteroids and should work with a proper dermatologist and look into non-steroid treatments such as Protopic cream and related drugs that work differently and often very effectively along with all the other elements of an atopic skin regime. But the issue with the natural dryness of the skin, even when the eczema is not flaring, if often there in some form for life, because it's a genetic issue.
People with naturally dry and atopic skin usually lack the ability to make certain biological elements the way people with normally functioning skin do. Your body won't suddenly develop the ability to make these factors because you decide to stop putting stuff on the upper epidermis, the dead layer.
I had very severe eczema in my teens and 20s (started in early childhood and then exploded when older) and am now 50 and haven't had a real problem beyond sometimes, my hands (from severely cold and dry weather, overwashing or irritants, and I use a corticosteroid, DiproSone Ointment and Urea-based creams to sort that) for decades now. Urea is amazing for preventing trans=eidermal water loss. Eucerin and Altruist do great creams and lotions with high percentages of urea. My skin looks utterly normal now generally. This is because I know and practice good self-care. I by default use body lotion after every single shower, hand cream after every time I wash my hands, face cream every time I wash my face. If I stopped moisturizing, I'd likely be like am elderly aunt of mine, who grew up in a time with barely any real treatments or drugstore options available to her and she told me in the 1960s, she used nothing because nothing was available to her and her skin would just fall off her in giant flakes and sometimes, sheets under her clothes. She still has massively dry skin to this very day.
. I hadn't had a flare-up in years but just in the past few months have had an outbreak over one of my breasts which is just so uncomfortable (itchy, sore, hot ... all the feels). I typically use a couple of different products, which both help in different ways -'Bio Oil' and 'Palmers Skin Repair Oil', but it's still there ... and annoying me. I can't really pinpoint what's caused it ... probably stress, as I haven't changed my washing machine liquid, and I wear cotton bras.
if you do try different oats please let me know how you find it an if there's a difference, will be interesting to know how different oats are
