Best Supplement for Eczema and TSW
There is no #1 best supplement for eczema! Although supplements can be very beneficial when it comes to healing your skin, they should be personalized specifically for you. There are so many contributing factors when it comes to inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema, topical steroid withdrawal (TSW), psoriasis, acne, rosacea, and other forms of dermatitis. The key is to determine what those contributing factors are and then to supplement accordingly.
Let’s discuss how certain supplements can be beneficial for healing your skin.
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Gut health
Poor gut health is often a root cause of inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema and TSW. Supplements are a great way to fix poor gut health.
L-glutamine is an amino acid that the cells in your gut use for repair. If you have any sort of gut issue where the cells are potentially damaged, L-glutamine may be a good supplement to take.
Probiotics are another supplement that could be beneficial for gut health. Having too much bad bacteria in your gut is often a contributing factor to skin conditions. Replacing those bad bacteria with good bacteria through probiotics can lead to the rebalancing of your gut microbiome, which results in improvement of your skin condition.
SLEEP
The main time your skin is repairing and rebuilding itself is when you are sleeping. This is because when you are asleep, growth hormone is produced, which signals the body to repair the skin. Two supplements that may improve your sleep include melatonin and glycine.
Furthermore, there are a lot of studies that show that herbal teas such as chamomile or lavender teas can be beneficial in promoting good sleep. If you are having trouble sleeping, first try to improve your sleep hygiene. If that does not work, consider adding in supplements
Protein Intake
Two major components of your skin is collagen and keratin, which are proteins. You need to be eating enough protein so that your body has the amino acids available to rebuild collagen and keratin. I usually recommend a minimum of 1.2g of protein per kilogram of ideal bodyweight (which is about 0.5g of protein per pound of ideal bodyweight).
If you find it hard to eat enough protein through your diet, you may want to consider supplementing with protein powder. One scoop of protein powder usually contains about 20g of protein. Collagen supplements can also be used for this same purpose. There are many different varieties and flavours of protein powders out there. Find one that works best for you!
Nutritional Deficiencies
This is another area of health where personalization is so important. Addressing your nutritional deficiencies and improving your overall health can result in better skin healing.
People with vitamin D deficiencies seem to have more skin issues than those who are not deficient. If you are deficient, supplementing with vitamin D might result in major healing of your skin. However, if you are not deficient, taking vitamin D might be a waste of money.
Another important nutrient is vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 deficiencies have been becoming more and more common lately. B12 is important for energy production. If you are someone who is tired all of the time, a vitamin B12 deficiency might be what you are dealing with. Vitamin B12 might not be directly related to your skin condition, but if you are tired all the time, you will likely not have the energy to do things like meal prep, exercise, clean your living environment regularly, which are all things that you need to be doing if you want to heal your skin.
These are just two examples of how addressing nutrient deficiencies can heal your skin.
Mental Health
If you are noticing that you have a lot of mental health-related symptoms such as anxiety or depression, you will definitely want to address that as these will be barriers to the healing of your skin. Supplements that can help reduce anxiety include L-theanine and valerian while St. John’s wort is a common supplement recommended to people with mild depression. Please work with a healthcare professional to determine what supplements will be best for you because supplementing for mental health can become dangerous if done incorrectly.
If you truly do find that your skin is giving you major anxiety and depression, feel free to send me a DM on Instagram @fighting_eczema. I’d be happy to chat with you about these feelings.
Need some support to develop a personalized supplement plan? Check out our Fighting Eczema Coaching Programs!
