Can homeopathy treat skin problems?
- Caroline Greene
- Mar 18
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 19
I have been seeing a lot of people recently with horrendously itchy skin. They often arrive with a diagnosis of dermatitis, psoriasis, eczema, urticaria (hives), shingles and at this time of year I've even seen a few cases of orf - which is a virus you can catch from sheep - all different complaints but the same endless painful, maddening scratching, often until their skin bleeds.
If your skin is so itchy you can't read on and just want it fixed click on the link below.
How can you fix your skin problem?
Homeopathy is rarely the first treatment used to fix skin problems and when people list all the treatments they are using to try and manage their itching it is always a long one. Antihistamines, antibiotics, steroid pills, injections and creams, medicated creams, ointments and gels and bath creams and moisturisers. These last are usually paraffin-based and therefore not so much a moisturiser, as merely a barrier. On top of this a lot of people find there are foods and allergens in their environment which make their skin worse so may have gone down the long slow route of testing to find out what these are.
Of all these steroids work best and can be very helpful for preventing infection but most people find as soon as they stop using them, the problem returns. On top of which they thin the skin and have to avoid sunlight. The main problem is they are working on the skin itself rather than the CAUSE of it. Coupled with this when our body gets used to external steroids it stops producing its own until you are completely dependent on steroids.
Homeopathy focuses on your emotional and constitutional state as well as the symptoms themselves. It is common for the problem to start after a major stress or shift in circumstances and addressing this can often solve the problem. Always though, the exact combination of your unique symptoms gives me the greatest clue as to which remedy will be the most use in helping you.
What is unique about your symptoms?
I will want to know what time the itching is worse, how does your skin respond to heat, cold, water, clothes, different foods? How much you are scratching and what can you do to help it. Also what it feels like - is it biting, stinging or burning? Homeopaths are used to crazy descriptions - ants crawling over your skin, a mouse running up your back, or like it's burning inside your body. These unique descriptions help me vastly in narrowing down the selection to find the best one for you.
How your skin looks is very important too - blisters and spots - are they big, small, oozing, in any particular pattern, where are they and what colour are they? The books I use to find remedies have pages and pages of slightly different symptoms with different remedies listed by each one.
We look at other symptoms happening in the body as well and when they started in relation to the skin. What is your sleep like? Your bowels? Do you suffer from headaches? and How is it affected by your menstrual cycle? Your job? And very importantly, what is your mood like as a result of the itching? When I give you a remedy to help your skin I'm also looking for improvement to these other things too.
I see a lot of people for help with other skin issues such as acne, and acne rosacea plus patches, circles and all sorts of other bumps and lumps such as warts, molluscum and verucas. And the way to calming down the skin is the same as with everything else - looking at the problem holistically, when it started and what makes it better or worse.
Below are three pictures a patient has allowed me to share with you. Before she tried homeopathy she was on an increasing amount of steroid creams and pills, and unable to survive without a regime of emoilients. She had big sore itching patches on her arms and legs.
Over the course of 3 months gradually the big patches faded, over the next year the small ones which had led to bigger ones stopped cropping up and we are now managing occasional flare-ups.
I have treated everyone from tiny babies to people in their 90s. Homeopathy is very gentle and safe. If you've had the problem for a long time and been using steroids for a while it can be complicated but once I have seen you, you can count me as part of your team until you are completely better.
If you'd like a free chat with me to see how I can help with your skin please click on the link below.
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