Success Story: How Teacher Peter Overcame Worst Nightmare Facial Eczema

Editor’s Note: This is a submission by Peter who kindly offered to share his story of battling facial eczema. I was extremely happy to hear he not only overcame the condition through strong personal determination but also his desire to influence other eczema patients in recovery. As his eczema broke out in highly visible areas, it must have taken a tremendous toll on personal confidence and mental health, and also his time in a foreign country when everyone was highly COVID-conscious and may have a general paranoia against disease. Peter had gone through a lot and please do enjoy his recollection.

Eczema Transformation Photos

In March of 2022 I started to experience itchiness around my eyes and nose. 

A rash quickly formed and, unable to get an appointment with even a private dermatologist for the next 3 months - at over £200, no less - I had no other choice but to watch my intensely itchy rash grow. 

It consumed most of my face before spreading to my neck, scalp, arms, legs and buttocks. I couldn’t make sense of or find any consistency amongst the scattered information online, so I did what I knew; ate lots of vegetables and exercised. 

I read on message boards and in comments sections the accounts of people whose skin had returned to normal after kicking Coca-Cola or some other poison. I’d been living healthily though. 

I was a keen swimmer and, by any normal standards, I had been eating a healthy diet. My only sin was drinking too much green tea. My shame was not being able to touch my toes. 

“Don’t listen to all those keyboard warriors…”

A cautiously optimistic venture into the world of TCM yielded no returns and in the summer of 2022 I finally got to see a professional dermatologist. “Should steroid creams be avoided?”, he said with a derisive smile as he began to address my concerns. 

“Don’t listen to all those keyboard warriors who rail against modern medicine. For a skin problem such as yours, you will need to use steroid creams.” I’ve forgotten the names of the drugs prescribed but I believe they were a medium strength steroid cream and a Protopic. And E45 cream, because you need artificial moisture. 

Have you tried not eating strawberries?

The steroid creams appeared to work on my body but my face remained a problem and within no time at all, and much to my own dismay, I became reliant upon steroid creams. One of the peculiar things about steroid cream addiction is that it keeps the people around you happy. 

It makes people think you’re well and when you try to wean yourself off the drugs the people who are close to you become concerned and the people aren’t close to you tell you about their cousin who has a strawberry allergy. Have you tried not eating strawberries?

The incompetence of professional skin doctors leaves me exasperated.

In late August of that year, I moved to China to teach English. I’d long planned to do it and didn’t want to let my eczema prevent me from going. After landing, I continued to use my creams on a weekly basis and every time I smeared them on I promised myself it would be the last time, and every time the rash came back. I saw a couple of dermatologists in China and also another TCM doctor. All to no avail. Looking back now, the incompetence of professional skin doctors leaves me exasperated. 

I used my steroid creams for the last time and threw them in the bin

Sometime in November, a few weeks before the start of the winter holiday, and with no recovery plan in place, I used my steroid creams for the last time and threw them in the bin. 

After 5 days my rash made its punctual appearance and started to spread, first across my face and then to my body. I missed a lot of classes during those last few weeks and started to wonder if the school would relieve me from my duties. Just as in June, my body was an absolute mess. 

Enter Harrison Li.

When I told people I had bought a book online, most of them laughed at me.

I can’t remember how I found Harrison’s website but it made a good impression on me upon first reading. When I told people I had bought a book online, most of them laughed at me, but I already knew enough to know Harrison wasn’t a scammer. In fact, most of the information he shares is available elsewhere online, but nowhere else is it organised, collated, measured and explained in such an accessible way. 

Harrison’s book is also the only source I know of that offers a fully planned diet that works. Harrison probably isn’t a genius but he’s done the painstakingly hard work of integrating all of the existing nutritional knowledge that no one else could be bothered to – myself included – and I’m extremely grateful for that. His book and website have brought a close to almost a year of severe eczema. 

I don’t need to go into detail about the diet itself because it’s all there in the book and anyone can follow it. As of present, and less than 2 months into the diet, I’ve been able to reintroduce chicken and a few other high-salicylate vegetables like broccoli. I also had some alcohol for the first time in many months and I seem to be ok with most fruits. 

When I stray from the diet, I do experience spikes of itchiness but as long as I revert back to the diet for a few days my skin continues to heal. 

My face is almost back to normal. My life is almost back to normal and, in my time abstaining from the pleasures of a regular winter holiday, I’ve even managed to touch my toes.

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