.... Beauty and Skin Care A Natural Treatment for Eczema by Buffy Hall, RN Since eczema severely dries out your skin, the most direct treatment is to help your skin regain it’s capacity for moisture retention. But just slapping on a moisturizer won’t do the job, especially if it is a commercial brand of moisturizer. Commercial lotions contain chemicals that can actually cause eczema outbreaks because they either are not absorbable and clog the pores of the skin or they dry out and irritate the skin. Once you apply a lotion, the skin cells are temporarily rehydrated but then they just as quickly lose the moisture again. What you need is a substance that can work to restore elasticity to the skin cells themselves. As you restore the elasticity, healing begins at the cellular level and the cells get better able to retain the moisture and keep it from escaping. Shea Butter is a wonderful agent for revitalizing your skin cells so that they regain their moisture retention capacity! It is absorbed very rapidly into the skin and penetrates all the skin layers. Shea has an extremely high unremovable fatty acid content - something that is indispensable for moisturizing and adding elasticity back into the skin. The percentage of unremovable fatty acids in shea butter is even higher than the percentage in cocoa butter and all other vegetable butters. This makes shea butter the naturally better choice for your eczema treatment. Shea Butter also has natural vitamin A and E and anti-inflammatory capabilities, has been clinically proven to increase the healing rate of burns and surface wounds and actually reduces scarring. It also gives your skin natural UV protection and forms a barrier against smoke and pollutants in the air that damage skin. Using natural skin care products that contain shea butter in a cream or lotion form will allow you to deliver the most important healing ingredient straight to the skin cells. When mixed with herbs or essential oils such as lavender, calendula and chamomile, shea works together with them synergistically to increase their own anti-inflammatory effects and carry them through to the skin layers. Modern medicine is quickly catching on to the benefits of shea butter and more doctors are prescribing it’s use all the time.  The greatest benefit is that there are no side effects to the use of shea butter so it is safe for you to try for yourself. But be careful of commercial lotions that advertise the presence of shea in their formulas! Read the labels carefully-the lotion may very well contain some percentage of shea butter in it's formula but they will also contain chemicals or preservatives that completely negate the positive effects of the shea on your skin. Who is better to heal problem skin than Mother Nature anyway?  She has provided us with the number one natural healing and moisturizing substance on the planet. It is to your advantage to use natural skin care products that contain shea butter to regain control of your skin’s health over the pain, itching and dryness of eczema. About the Author: Buffy Hall, RN Ret. worked as an RN for 12 years before retiring due to complications from rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. She is a long time student of natural healing and alternative therapies and practices many of them in the management of her own chronic illness. You can contact her anytime at blogstuff@bodybubbles.com Back to Contents

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