20 year case of Eczema cured with St. John's Wort
Posted , 19 users are following.
I have already posted on my success story in other discussions, however, I think my case should be discussed over here, for the benefit of all those who suffer from this supposedly incurable condition and believe in exploring alternative routes.
I suffered from a severe case of Lichen Simplex Chronicus (aka Neurodermatitis) for about 20 years. Prescribed creams, suntanning, sea water baths, and various natural therapies may have provided some relief on occasion, however, the disease progressed overall, and I had just about given up...
...until something extraordinary happened a year and a half ago, when I decided to try St John's Wort to deal with a temporary and unrelated anxiety condition. I started taking 300mg a day, which worked very well for my anxiety, as the quality of my sleep improved quickly. What I was not expecting, was the dissappearance of all the red plaques, flaky skin, itching symptoms and oozing on my lesions after only 6 weeks! I then increased the dose to 600mg a day, and after about 5-6 months, all the scarring left behind from 20 years of combat with the disease was gone. I now have fresh new skin everywhere the lesions used to be, and signs of the disease have not returned for about a year.
Puzzled about this unexpected miracle as it was unfolding, research on the Web led me to a few explanations, one of which was the presence of a bacteria called Staphylococcus Aureus in the lesions of 90% of patients suffering from atopic dermatitis. Further reading lead me to a potent molecule in St John's Wort called Hyperforin. The molecule had been studied extensively to treat depression, but one of its less-documented properties was its high anti-microbial potency against Staphylococcus Aureus.
Additional reading about St John's Wort lead me to its documented use since antiquity in helping repair small cuts, bruises and burns, attributed to a second molecule called Hypericin.
I therefore have excellent reasons to believe that St. John's Wort extract helped in repairing my damaged skin and getting rid of a tough-to-beat bacterial infection, to which most conventional antibiotics are known to resist. Maybe most varieties of Atopic Dermatis are nothing more than a form of damage to the protective layers of the skin that eventually become colonized by Staph bacteria... We could speculate for hours, despite all the scientific theories about this disease being stress and immune-related. Nevertheless, I am cured and hope this information may help others in achieving comparable success.
good luck to all!
11 likes, 89 replies
clare13311 greg73500
Posted
I've spotted that you have posted on alot of forums. I am 25 and have suffered all my life with eczema. It brings me to the lowest of lows. Dead skin everywhere, cuts allover me, constantly needing antibiotcs for infected skin. I am keen to try this..do you have to take it in pill form. What about the st johns wort cream? Have you tried it?
greg73500 clare13311
Posted
Sorry to hear about your long-term condition, which is unfortunately common to most of us who suffer or have suffered from the disease.
No, I haven't tried the cream, but would have, should I have known in advance what SJW could do for me. As mentioned above, I tried the pills for a different reason, not knowing they would eventually cure me from disease. I probably would have benefitted from better symptom-relief in the short-term by using the cream as well.
Based on my extensive reading on the subject, I tend to believe the cream may be extremely helpful for instantaneous relief for most people, but think the systemic treatment (with pills) may be more effective long-term and provide better chances of a permanent cure with time. Patience is truly the keyword here, as I am happy that another person I've helped is now 90% free of eczema that covered his entire body. It took him 9 months to get there, at a dose of 600mg oral SJW/day, and he is carrying on in hope of succeeding against what little remains.
If you are not taking any medication that may interact with SJW, I would suggest trying both at the same time. Otherwise, the cream or the oil alone may constitute a safer alternative, at least to find relief.
Best of luck!
greg73500
Posted
All the best,
Greg.
lyn64198 greg73500
Posted
greg73500 lyn64198
Posted
I am doing very well thank you! Now approaching the 3 year mark without any trace left of my former disease... and I can also testify that SJW has done wonders for my emotions every winter since then, by making the abscence of sunlight far more bearable.
I am very sorry about your loss and understand very well how this could affect your health in general. Everyone reacts differently with grief... For some of us, it takes more time to deal with it than for others. Yes, I do believe that SJW may be helpful in making such a difficult period far easier to endure. Has a doctor confirmed that your burning skin was linked to your stress disorder or has he identified a particular skin pathology?
All the best,
Greg.
lyn64198 greg73500
Posted
I'm going back to see my doctor, I've just finished a course of B12 injections. My B12 was very low on 147 which can contribute to itchy sore skin. I have to see if it eases off now. He also said it's a symptom of stress too. We'll see what happens on my next visit.
Best wishes
Lyn
jen15929 greg73500
Posted
Hi Greg.
Thanks for this post. I am experiencing a nasty flare up of my eczema at the moment and it's pretty miserable. Very sore! I'd much rather try this than the steroid cream.
I'm not in any medication so I should be fine. It'll be worth telling my doctor if I need any medication.
I am very prone to skin infections so I'm hoping this will get rid of the dryness and help stop me needing antibiotics. In times of antiobiotic resistance, I'm happy to try it.
I'm only on day one so it will take time. Going to look at some SJW cream so that I am attacking from two sides!
greg73500 jen15929
Posted
Hi Jen,
I am glad you have found my post and wish you much success with this wonderful plant! So far, there is only a handful of people who have read my posts on various sites across the Web and have confirmed relief or cure after having used SJW for a fairly extended period of time (6-9 months). So I clearly hope you may be the first on my second hand!
Ever since I have initially posted, many labs around the world have been confirming the link between Eczema and antibiotic-resistant Staphyloccoccus Aureus... it's just amazing to see the progress being made, but I think we are still many years away before doctors may be in a position to recommend SJW for this condition.
To improve your chances of success, I think it's very important to have plenty of faith in what you are doing, so I would recommend that you read about the new information that is available out there. For instance, you can type "Staph Eczema connection", "St. John's Wort and Staphylococcus Aureus", "St. John's Wort and dry skin" and so on, in your search engine, to enjoy many stimulating articles.
Best of luck and hope to read about your potential success story in a few months!
Greg.
Djtrella greg73500
Posted
Dear Greg first of all thanks.
My name is Alessandro, I am 42, I suffer of a form of lichen simplex on neurodermites.
Essentially i got 3 or 4 little red bumps on my scalp that are terrible hitching and very persistent.
I have this from 25 years but only a few years ago I discovered the name of my disease.
I have this for 11 months a year; yes, because in august, during holidays, they usually go away.
In these years I've tried many treatments, topic and not, but no one get me a durable effect.
Two or three years ago I went to a serious doctor (the 5th or 6th I met) that diagnose me the disease reported above.
He gave me a therapy of light anxyolitic because, he sad, the cause of this disease is in the mind.
The day after I began the cure I immediately stopped to scratch. In that moment I felt certain about the diagnose.
Unfortunately after a few weeks is like my body find a way to defend from the cure and suddenly stopped to work.
One year ago, tired of all that, I was looking for a cure on the net, I found your related post on some forum and decided
To try. I got positive results that I'm going to report soon here.
I would like to keep in touch with you and to share my experience with the others.
We'll talk soon!
Alessandro
greg73500 Djtrella
Posted
Hi Alessandro,
I am very pleased to hear that you have found the information and that you elected to try out Saint John's Wort with a positive outcome!
Just like you, and before discovering SJW, I used to experience occasional remissions between July and September, after having exposed my body to a good dose of sunshine. Vacations in tropical climates along with plenty of bathing in sea water were also quite helpful. However, the disease would always return with a vengeance the minute I locked myself up indoors for the winter season.
Yes, it will be great to hear about your experience in details for the benefit of all those who still suffer and may stil be hesitating to try out this potential cure.
All the best,
Greg.
sharon1230 greg73500
Posted
Thank you,
Sharon
greg73500 sharon1230
Posted
Hi Sharon,
I have already answered the question about products in a few other replies above. Please read the answer to Claire 12259 among others that may help enlighten you, and always use your own best judgment when selecting a product.
As for potential reactions to the sun, I've had none, but as with my own personal success story against the disease, consider this an anecdote. Each person is unique in terms of potential allergic reactions. If fearful about such potential reaction, completely avoiding the sun while taking SJW or not taking SJW in periods of sun exposure should constitute the best advice one can give. Otherwise, try and react accordingly to the effects observed.
I hope your daughter will be as successful as I was.
Greg.
ceri63346 greg73500
Posted
I seem to be suffering from the opposite. I've never had any skin conditions in my life other than slightly sensitive skin. I tookSt Johns wort for around three months and suddenly just began to forget to take them and therefore stayed off them. My skin has broken out in a type of dermatitis, started around my mouth (non itchy) and luckily I had some Diptobase cream so I used that and it went away very slowly. But then a I started having an issue with something appearing on my forearms, backn of my hands, back of my elbow and it's exteramely itchy. I'm yet to return to the doctor as on a visit weeks ago about my face he told me to just use a non perfumed
moisturiser (that didn't work). Do you think it could be down to me coming off the St. John's wort. I don't use crams on body or perfume any more but this is getting to me now I really wish to solve it .
greg73500 ceri63346
Posted
Hi Ceri,
No one can really answer your question with certainty and most likely, only your own investigations about what factors were in place when you started developing dermatitis might shed more light about what may have caused it in the first place.
Yes, SJW withdrawal might have been a factor, for instance, if at and after the very moment of your withdrawal, bacteria or allergens had an opportunity to come into contact with your skin while it was slightly damaged due to irritation or other factors. I can't know for sure what caused my disease in the first place, although I suspect that repeated cycles of suntanning in my youth, followed by the usual drying and peeling cycle of the tanned skin, might have given the opportunity to bacteria to eventually colonize my damaged skin at a particular moment. This would make SJW withdrawal followed by the development of dermatitis, a pure coincidence in your case.
But medication can sometimes produce (or seem to produce) the exact opposite effect anticipated for most people in particular cases. With SJW, some people have claimed that it actually worsened anxiety attacks instead of relieving them. Now is it truly SJW causing the worsening of the anxiety or something else at hand, such as a lack of faith in the use of the medication or even some other external factor?
In my case, faith in SJW was not an issue... everything that happened was just a pure miracle... I just had no clue that using SJW would eventually cure me from eczema since I was only using it to help improve my sleep. When my skin disease started dissappearing, what I read about SJW convinced me that it was the most likely reason for my unexpected cure, since I hadn't changed any habits other than removing many sources of stress from my life, to help improve my sleep. Later, confirming from a few other people that SJW also helped gave me further confidence that it CAN work. But for some, it doesn't seem to improve anything at all. Why? I have no clue; everyone is unique and should investigate as many factors as possible surrounding their health conditions. There is just an infinite amount of anecdotal situations and this is why there are very few "magic bullets" out there to help cure complex medical conditions for everyone.
I think that you should first try get a correct diagnosis for your skin condition by a specialist, and then read as much as possible about the disease and potential solutions (if any). My personal preference is to seek natural solutions to reduce the risk of side-effects in most cases, but some conventional medicine can be very effective and side-effect-free. Use your own best judgment in any case.
Best of luck!
Greg.
soniadoll greg73500
Posted
Hi Greg,
I just came across this information after months of trying out different remedies. Out of curiousity, are you still taking St. John's Wort to this day to keep your symptoms away? Or did you stop taking it and have been eczema free as well? Thank you.
greg73500 soniadoll
Posted
Hi Sonia,
I am now approaching the 4 year mark without any trace of having ever suffered from eczema beforehand!
Yes, I have carried on taking SJW, but only at a maintenance dose level of 1 pill/day (300mg); some days, I even forget to take my pill before going to sleep.
I obviously do not know if eczema might return should I completely stop taking SJW for good. But this plant has done such miracles for my mood and general wellbeing that I now consider it as my personal daily vitamin.
Please remember though that I am only an anecdote. Although I only have positive things to say about my experience with SJW doesn't make that plant the universal medication for everyone, unfortunately.
Best of luck should you wish to experiment with it!
Greg.