From the fall of 2016, as I weaned my youngest daughter, my hand eczema was getting worse once again. I had used a certain brand of hand cream that helped me manage the eczema that did not heal even after being on a strict eczema diet for 6 months. However, after using the hand cream for about 18 months, my hands started reacting to it and my knuckles & fingers became swollen to the point I could no longer wear my wedding ring.
Putting the cream on my hands would make them itch and red. Something was not right. Also, I started scratching my hands in my sleep and waking up with deep wounds which made me feel depressed and ashamed. “At 38, I should have a better control over this,” “why can’t I stop doing this?” were some of the things I would say to myself in the morning looking at the damages I caused overnight.
I felt lost for about 3-4 months not knowing what to do. Then I started seeing a lot of videos of people turning their health around using nutrition on YouTube. That reminded me of the biggest challenge I experienced in my life, topical steroid withdrawal (TSW), and how a vegan diet helped me overcome it.
When I was 3, I was diagnosed with a skin condition called eczema (or atopic dermatitis). I was told that my eczema was something that I needed to learn to live with. After refusing to accept that fate, and many years of treating my eczema with topical steroids, I came to learn ways to heal my body naturally through lifestyle.
For over 10 years after my diagnosis, I was prescribed topical steroids to treat my eczema. Because of this, I went through Topical Steroid Withdrawal (TSW) in my early teens.
Here are some of the experiences (warning signs) that brought me to a place where I developed a strong desire to cut ties with topical steroids.
A couple of years prior to TSW, I started experiencing side effects caused by prolonged usage of topical steroids. My face was red most days (my classmates thought I was so shy that I was blushing…) and applying steroid creams had no effect on my eczema. I was embarrassed about my skin and felt self-conscious during my commute to my junior high school which was about 1 hour each way by the subway in Japan. The trains there are jam packed with not much distance between you and others. I felt so uncomfortable being so close to other commuters and often worried about what they thought of my skin. All I wanted to do was to hide from the world.
I also experienced agonizing stomachache one day that left me in a fetal position all day; doctors could not find the cause. Moreover, I experienced severe acne which I needed to seek treatments for. When I woke up one morning with a moon face, barely able to open my eyes, that was the moment I knew something needed to change. I just did not know what it was yet.
After stumbling across a Japanese holistic healing book in my own house, my TSW began. During the withdrawal, I followed a Japanese vegan diet described in the book. It accompanied a philosophy that when you nourish the body with the right foods, one can change the composition of the body and reverse many types of diseases. It was encouraging to read stories of people curing themselves of serious diseases through healing foods.
Looking back, this was the 1st opportunity life presented me with the concept of food as medicine. Even though I was too young to fully appreciate the depth of the TSW experience, I did learn body’s amazing ability to heal when it is put in the right environment. So whenever I experienced a discomfort after my withdrawal experience, I always followed the holistic approach instead of relying on over the counter medicine.
To this day, after I cut ties with steroid creams and antihistamine medications in ’93, I have not taken any medications in my life.Even after all these years, TSW remains to be the most difficult experience of my life; however, I gained a valuable lesson from it and freedom to live my life without worrying about my skin which I am forever grateful for. Moreover, I truly appreciate how the withdrawal experience taught me the importance of eating the right foods because although I did not always eat the best food for my body post TSW, I knew to go back to basics whenever my body needed a reset.
Fast forward to my 20s and 30s, I started to use body lotions and hand creams partially due to the influence of fashion magazines and to tame the dry skin I experienced on my right hand from time to time. Over time, my hands, which were the areas that I used the most moisturizers, became addicted to them to the point that they couldn’t function without them. And I ended up with, as mentioned at the beginning, swollen and inflamed hands with lots of scratches. After being reminded of how my body healed during TSW, I once again remembered the importance of looking at the root causes and healing the body from the inside out instead of looking for quick fixes.
I switched to a plant-based lifestyle in January of 2017 and my hands which were once so swollen and out of control have relearned to function without any hand creams. The transformation has been a amazing. Of course, it involved lots of ups and downs along the way but it is a great feeling to say I have come out on the other side after almost 4 years. There is still more healing to be done, but to be able to use my hands without discomfort is such a relief. I know I will never take my health for granted.
This was a long story but wanted to share with you why I am so passionate about using food as medicine.
