Hey team, today we're looking at eczema through two powerful lenses, traditional Chinese medicine and real-world mold and toxin exposure. Because for so many families, eczema isn't just food, it's not just the skin.

There's heat and there's dampness and digestive weakness and environmental triggers, and in some cases, mold and chemical overload. And if you are a parent thinking, well, we eat clean, and we've done the lotions, and why is my child still so itchy?

Or is something in our home making this worse? This episode is going to connect the dots. We cover the TCM side, why the lung and large intestine are tied to the skin, and why itching spikes at night, and how heat shows up in the body, and the mold side.

How to actually test. What's worth paying for? What's not? and what a normal parent can do if moving or remediating isn't an option. And quick heads up, if you want a step-by-step plan to calm the itch, improve gut function, and support detox gently at home, join the eczema elimination method at eczemakids.com.

You'll get the food framework, the supplement strategy, the home environment checklist that work in real life. Our guest today is Dr. Ashley Beckman, a doctor of Chinese medicine, a licensed acupuncturist, and a board certified herbalist known for her work in mold detoxification and root cause healing.

Let's get into it. Is your child struggling with itchy nights and endless flare-ups? I'm Andrea McHugh, mom of four and host of eczema kids. Here, you'll find natural solutions that actually work so you can heal your child's eczema without steroids, without the overwhelm, and finally see calm, healthy skin again.

Let's get into it. Friends, you are going to love today's guest. Dr. Ashley Beckman is a doctor of Chinese medicine. She's a licensed acupuncturist. and a board-certified herbalist who has performed more than 50,000 treatments over the past decade.

She holds a doctorate in healthy aging and longevity with a thesis on epigenetics, so she understands both ancient and healing and cutting-edge science, and her focus is on cellular detox and gut health and environmental toxins and mold recovery and helping people with chronic conditions by getting to the root and not just managing the symptoms.

And that's why I'm so excited to have you here today, Ashley, because eczema isn't just a skin problem, right? It's a body problem. And Chinese medicine has been mapping those patterns out for thousands of years.

So Dr. Ashley, welcome to the eczema kids podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I love working with kids, right? It's really fun. I mean, I love working with families too.

And a lot of the times we're working with moms and kids and it's just really nice when we can help. clear these things up when they're little so it doesn't become a lifelong issue.

Yeah, it sincerely does change the whole trajectory of their life. And that's, I guess, the silver lining. If you're experiencing this with your baby or just a child of any age, right, there's still just so much time that we can reverse this and get them going down the right path.

And so everyone here is concerned about eczema. It's affecting their lives and, you know, either they have it, kids have it, there's something going on there.

I wanted to start out from a traditional Chinese medicine perspective. What is eczema? What's actually happening internally when we see these rashes and flare ups on the skin?

Sure. So generally it depends a little bit if it's red. You know what I mean? With the redness, there's a heat component in Chinese medicine. So one thing I love about Chinese medicine is we're always looking at if something is hot or cold in nature.

and then what organ or channel or meridian pathway it's affecting. So that can show up as some tools to help you with eczema, right, to see where is it popping up on the body.

Then we can look at an organ pathway to see which could be implicated with that. And then we're looking too at the deficiencies or excess in an organ.

So a lot of times the lung and the large intestine are very much connected to the skin. So when we have skin issues, we always have to look at that. And then we look at sometimes the emotions associated as well.

So with the emotions, there's a lot of grief, resentment, or holding on to things. Again, it's not always that with little kids, but that's when again, if you have a little, little one, you look and see what was going on during the mom's pregnancy as well for her emotional state.

And sometimes that can set up what's going on with the kids. Yeah. So when you see cases of eczema show up in your practice, would you say like there's a heat component in every case?

Yeah. Usually it's manifesting as this heat, right, the redness. Again, it can be dry or wet, so that can be more of a dampness or component added to it.

Then I look again, like as you do, what are the potential triggers that have allowed this to happen, right? Is it with their environment, something that was internal combination, what's going on with the gut, their emotions, their environment, so many different pieces to put together.

The food. I know. Yeah. That's the problem, right? It's just, I wish, well, there was a silver bullet, but no, it stakes us on this whole holistic journey, and that's okay.

I mean, would you say the origin, it really, I love what you're saying, because it really helped me as just a mere mortal parent six years ago, like, look at this, this problem.

I had two kids suffering from severe, severe eczema, and You can feel the heat like my my month old baby You could feel the heat coming off of her body like from feet away It was just so crazy and it really helped me to look at okay What types of things would balance this like opposites bounce like that that type of?

Viewpoint of putting on those lenses it really helped me sift through all the information that I was consuming and and hearing and like what does that actually connect with with what we're experiencing like the specific issue that we're experiencing and Yeah.

And even, I mean, so babies too, they, they're born with all this heat and chi, right? Like in Chinese medicine, we talk about how they're just like this bundle of energy, right?

Cause they're brand new. And of course they're gaining energy, but like they're warm, right? And tend to be more like damp and moist when they're getting like all chubby and you know what I mean?

There's just a lot of like rolls and dampness and heat. but it can get out of control, of course, right? And then when it's manifesting, I mean, so eczema hasn't been a part of like my history, you know, a lot of us get into these things because of our personal journey or something with our kids, right?

And so it was never something that I like dove into in that regard for my daughter or myself, but I was very sensitive to perfumes, and anything like, you know, carpets, any smells, toxins of any sort, including mold and things like that.

So those can kind of go together. It's just how it manifests in our body. And so for a lot of people and kids, it manifests on the skin. I just happened to get migraines and joint pain.

So I kind of went down that trajectory, if that makes sense, like on the neurological side. But what we see so much is, I mean, eczema is just so common.

And unfortunately, it just seems so crazy that someone so tiny could have so much already, right? Like have these health concerns. And as a new parent, I mean, also it looks so painful.

And we know it is really painful and very dysregulating for the child too. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing is if you visit the pediatrician first, you know, or the allergist or the dermatologist, because it looks like a skin issue is presenting as a skin issue.

And can you delve in a little bit more about what those deeper imbalances look like inside the body? So, I mean, there's a couple things that what I was noticing, at least in my practice, is—and again, I do focus a lot on seeing—when you're looking at root causes, toxins are a big chunk of potential issues, right?

So, when I had a bunch of little kids that come in with eczema, and I was seeing them more like two or three years old, because the mom would come in because she was sick, but then she'd say, oh, well, my daughter has eczema or my little son has eczema.

And so because we'd already run a mold test on the mom, started running the urine mold test on the little kids, it's very easy to do from home since it's not blood.

And we were seeing so much mold in the kids. and they were usually born into that house that had mold, was the sickest child, if that makes sense, with eczema.

So I was just seeing such a big pattern of the mom that was already very not doing well, not thriving at all, and had mystery symptoms, but it was manifesting in the kids that were toddlers as eczema, and their mold was even worse than the mom's, often because that was the only home they knew, and the mom was also pregnant in that home.

If you suspect mold in your home or playing a role negatively in your family's health, what can you realistically do as a mere mortal parent? How do you go about addressing that?

Yeah, so I mean, I'd say first, if to me, whenever I have a client, especially a little kiddo with eczema or an adult, I check for mold in the body. Cause it might be from something before, or sometimes it's from their preschool or their school.

So it might not always be from home. And then another big one is again, looking at the gut health, right? So a lot of things that could be inflammatory for the child that the parents weren't allergic or sensitive to, but the little child, it's a whole different being.

And so they have a whole different set of things going on. And then always ensure that like when I studied homeopathy first, right? So homeopathy is really lovely because we can, it's so gentle and it can be great with kids and plus kids like to take it because it tastes like candy.

So it's really nice to be able to have some tools that are easy to kind of implement. And the thing is, though, is of course you have to look at some of the basic things, like if you're still using detergent with fragrance or certain things, because even the things that are labeled as clean often are not, right?

So most people, I think people are aware of this, but then I realized a lot aren't, right? They're using something that they used as a kid, which is full of chemicals and fragrance.

And people don't realize just even fragrance alone can house hundreds of ingredients. And so when you have that brand new baby skin, it's just very delicate.

And so it could be the sheets, it could be the detergent, it could be the cleaning products in the home. There's just so many things now. So the indoor air quality is really critical.

So even if you didn't have mold, but you still have maybe a new home, right, your baby could be reacting to all of the outgassing of the chemicals and things like that, too.

So the air filters are really critical just for that, especially the bedroom for the baby. Yeah, yeah. Take care of the sleeping environment first, right?

Yeah. That's most critical. What sort of tests do you run to identify mold? Sure. So for in the body, I use urine mycotoxin testing. So I usually use the company called Vibrant America and there's another company Mosaic as well, but Vibrant checks for about 30 markers versus 18. So a lot of times people might run a test and then it could miss some things because there's another test that checks for double the amount of markers.

So I opt for that one usually. And then if you're looking at looking at the home, which is important, right? So there's a wide variety going from inexpensive to comprehensive.

And I know there's a lot of discrepancy on this, but I still start with the test plates because it's the least expensive. It's the least reliable, of course, but it at least can give you just a little idea possibly.

And that's a $30 test that's analyzed at a lab, right? So it's inexpensive to buy the plate, but you want to send it off to get it analyzed. And then you could go air sample.

But again, you can't rely on just an air sample because you can have lots of clients with perfectly clean air, but there's hidden molds under a floorboard or by a toilet or behind the washing machine.

And that will not come up in an air sample. And then next you have dust sample, which is something called an ERMI test. And what you can do is you're just taking this little Swiffer cloth.

grabbing some dust around the house. Now you can do it per room, but a lot of times people do the whole home to get an overall picture. But you can do it per room if you're really just worried about one room.

And again, that gives you another set of data. That's usually the most commonly one done. That's pretty good. And then the most comprehensive, like if you were trying to decide if you needed to remediate or move, you would get an inspector.

And then they're going to use all those methods in there. Okay. Yeah, of course, of course. And we start there in Colorado, so I have mold inspection sciences is one that I use.

They're out there and they're great. Nice. Yeah, that's where we start to. It's just like those, those Petri dishes, right? And then send it off and just see if they, if they say there's something to contend with and then.

and then go from there. But I remember I was racking my brain, you know, like I even changed like the ring in our washer machine. Like that doesn't look good.

I mean, there's just so many and anything that looked dark at all. I was just putting straight tea tree oil on it, you know, to try and kill the mold.

Then we started with the immunolidics test. They said there was nothing to worry about. Would you suggest, if you're suspecting that this is a problem, like if you do that first line of defense, petri dish, start a test, if they say, don't worry, just normal levels of mold and such, would you then continue on down the list or would you say that's probably sufficient?

It would probably continue down the list because it just, well, it just depends too on the situation, right? So I've moved from a couple of homes with mold.

They were rentals, so it wasn't up to me to figure out, you know, they weren't going to remediate. They just were doing fogging. And the fogging does not kill enough if you're sick, right?

So I was very sick in the house, so I knew something was not correct. And so again, I always look to who's the sickest person in the home, right? If there are a lot of symptoms, they might not get better in that environment without, you know, some remediation or some sort of clean it like isolating and finding out the problem right so unfortunately yeah the the mold testing is difficult just because it's for it to be very comprehensive and thorough it's expensive and so not everybody can do that right yeah but then again you can learn quite a bit and look visually at what are some things to look out for, which is what you started to do, right?

A lot of these things that were like, oh, it's just some mildew. No, it's usually mold, right? And if you have musty smell, people think it's just my house.

It's just musty. But no, that's a sign. Because most of the things that are difficult is like the home I lived in, you couldn't see anything. Like it was a shock, except I knew that there had been a couple of water leaks.

And then again, we found another one. And so, but the whole home looked perfect. Right? So it takes some investigating. And again, that really only happens when someone's very sick and you're really trying to uncover what's happening.

And then especially though, pairing that with a test for the body, right? You could be chasing something and maybe mold isn't your issue. But in all of my cases with kids with eczema, mold was a piece.

You also focus a lot on environmental toxicity. When we lived in California for a brief while, we moved into a recently renovated home and their daughter could not be well there.

Like she just could not. Like we cleared up eczema for a long time, for years. And we just like even stayed with my in-laws while we were doing this for months, you know?

And so we're definitely not eating the best diet or anything like that, you know? And she could handle all that until we moved into that house. And then she could not have clear skin for a lot of reasons.

We had to move, you know? But that was like for that house, that was the only way. Yeah. And so for her too, so she probably has a piece of his, you know, like histamine response that is more triggered by like chemicals too.

Like it wouldn't only be food, right? So I think that's where it gets, it's so confusing and nuanced. And again, it's so strange how. even within your kids or your family, like one daughter could maybe clear it up with the gut and maybe doing a, you know what I mean, like cleaning up the gut and things like that.

But exposure to chemicals in the form of like paint in a new home was too much for her. And so that's what's so confusing as the parent, right, or the person trying to retrieve, receive treatment, because it just doesn't really make sense.

We're so unique. And this is kind of where it goes. We look at that constitution with Chinese medicine. It's really fascinating, but we often have like a weaker system where someone, you know, it goes to their skin.

And somebody else, it goes to their joints, or somebody else, it's their brain. And there's still a lot of connections, but it manifests differently for different kids and adults, right?

What I consider to be required reading for any parent or just people, I guess in general, just like a general like manual as to how to take care of yourself or children is Dr.

Natasha Campbell's like GAPS diet. Preface, it just talks about, you know, all of these things and just like what you, you know, inflammatory assaults that are coming at us all the time.

It's kind of a stressful read, but like she shows how like eczema and autism, you know, it's on the same continuum. You can just show up in any way and just, yeah, just mirroring exactly what you're saying.

You know, sometimes I'm like, well, thank goodness it is just eczema for us, right? Like that's reversible. Like you can have an autoimmune condition.

It's very, very serious, but thank goodness. Like we can do something about this, right? Like there's, there's, there's things. And that's the thing too.

It's like, right. Like if their toxin bucket is so full at a little age, right. Their health trajectory, like we were talking about has the potential to get much worse.

And I never like to think that way, but it's more like if they're having symptoms at four or five or three years old or younger, you know, like we really have to clean them up.

And it's also very, it's also kind of disheartening, right? Because I'm sure for you, like for me, I did all of this preconception detox. I've done all these things with lived so healthy and all of, you know what I mean?

Like all her food, everything was. perfect, in my opinion. And then my daughter still ended up with histamine issues. And I was like, well, you know, her bucket shouldn't have been very full.

But then I look at the genetic pieces and things like that. And I realized a lot of these herbal cleanses and things that I had done for so many years.

They weren't really for me specifically. And so when I ran my toxin tests initially the first time, I wasn't even going to run it because I was like, I detox four times a year.

I've been doing this since high school. I should have nothing, but I live in Los Angeles. And also I had never really taken things that weren't straight herbal cleanses and my toxins were off the charts.

Like the lab company said, do you work with chemicals? This is one of the worst we've ever seen. And I was, you know, I was so surprised and I just thought this, there's a genetic piece to this that I was not really aware of.

You know what I mean? I hadn't tailored this to me. Like I had just done everything with herbs and it wasn't quite enough for my particular system. Yeah.

Well, and, and you know, that makes so much sense because everyone I work with is in that same boat, right? Like some even live on an organic farm. Some have had, you know, high glyphosate, right?

At home on a medicated verse, they like eat the healthiest, cleanest diet ever. And still, you know, and like that was the case. We don't live in an organic farm.

We live in Denver and you know, there's a lot of things subpar. But still, I was like three for three. Once I had my third daughter, I was three for three on autoimmune conditions.

You know, my husband and I are seemingly healthy people and, you know, fit and eat vegetables and would never eat a Cheeto and still. So, right. It's just, it's mind boggling.

What can happen here? So when you're there, when you're like, okay, the toxicity level is testing high, like, we know that's a big issue for our kid or for ourselves, like, how do you start to detox from that?

Sure. So, well, that's one thing that's nice is, again, I love pairing, you know, kind of like ancient herbal treatments and Chinese medicine. I love homeopathy.

I think that can be really helpful, especially for sensitive patients or little kids too, because they're, you know, I mostly use drops, you know, like combination formulas, and then adding in some of the things you know, food first, of course, and especially as someone that is very sensitive to kind of like gluten and dairy and things like that.

It's very personalized what could be inflammatory for each child, right? And that can change. So a lot of times kids, you know, they're eating the same things all the time.

and you can create some inflammation just from too much exposure, right? But again, I do realize how overwhelming it is for patients and parents. And so, again, I think with the food, the food is critical, things that are just also full of nutrients, rotating the foods around when you can as much as you can.

And then, yeah, And again, looking to the parents, right, like if you're someone who is sensitive, like I was very sensitive to gluten and things. So the likelihood of our kids being that way is higher.

And so I really did try to minimize, you know, gluten and some certain grains and things like that for my daughter, but you know, it's very important to rotate things around.

And then again, each child is very unique, even within one family, right? So it's just important to make sure and look at each case individually. But again, we haven't even touched on like the emotions, right?

Like, so depending on the emotions of the, again, when the mom was pregnant, very important of what happens with kids. And then just like in the home, right?

Like where are they in the lineup of the kids? Like are they the middle child, the young child, the older child? So they have high emotions at such a young age too.

So those are highly linked with skin issues. So I think that's important. Yeah, I know. So when you're changing your baby's diaper and their skin is falling off and you're just like, oh my gosh, this is so bad and I'm so stressed and oh no, is my baby stress?

What can you do in those moments that kind of calm everything down? So actually, I do remember my daughter had crazy diaper rash, right? And so it was really bad.

And I do remember some of the things too. So because I nursed her for almost three years, if I ate anything that was inflammatory to me, she would end up with a rash.

So that I think was a really big piece because I already knew I was so sensitive to foods. But I think in that phase, you know, when you're nursing, you're just like, you have to get so much food in.

So I was eating more grains and things. But again, my daughter didn't end up with any of those sensitivities. Sure. But I think that, you know, whatever, if we have inflammatory foods for us, then it can show inflammatory in the milk and then that can affect the skin as well for the babies.

So, when we're nursing, it's definitely really critical of what we're consuming. And then the same, they just, they have, you're taught to do topical, everything topical, right, when there's eczema.

So, a big piece of that, right, is figuring out some of the more gut-healing foods of your nursing organ, just for the baby, so that you're working on that.

And a big piece, at least in Chinese medicine with that damp heat kind of thing, is, of course, minimizing sugar, but having enough We worked a lot with like sweet potato and yam are some of the most nurturing foods to start with for the gut, at least in Chinese medicine, because they help your spleen and stomach chi, which for a baby and little one is still like forming and you're trying to nourish that.

And so they're having a big issue with trying to digest and learn how to do those things. And so the sweet potato with either breast milk or whatever you were on its own.

as one of the first foods was a very something that we're taught in Chinese medicine to utilize because you're trying to heal the gut and give it a good foundation.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the nursing, I mean, and I was a nursing mom when all this was going on, I had to Yeah. It was actually a good thing because then you can control what goes in, right?

You can take the supplements, you can eat the cleanest diet ever, and you don't have to worry about your kid not eating it. All the nursing moms that come through here, they're a part of the eczema plan.

They're the part of the eczema plan, and that's okay. But also keeping in mind, you don't want to be detoxing yourself, right? No, yeah. No, that's a big thing too.

Cause the people, if you're still nursing, that's not the time to detox. And again, so even, of course, I think most people know that when you're pregnant, but the main reason too with the pregnancy is because the fetus is there to protect the mom.

So they will absorb more of the toxins to protect the mom because the sounds so weird, but you know, the mom is the host for the fetus. The fetus's job is to protect the host and so it's like extra influential in a bad way when you're exposed to toxins when you're pregnant for the fetus.

How interesting, I never thought of it that way. It's, you know, because a lot of people change up like their skincare and things like that a little late, right?

It's not, it's not always during pregnancy. But whatever you're putting on your skin is just going straight through the bloodstream and then to the fetus.

And so I'm a big fan of the preconception cleansing for like a year before, if you can. I know a lot of people don't do it that long, but it's ideal if you can.

So what would be a part of that protocol? Because yes, I'd be ideal. I never did anything like that, which then you saw my results. My kids are doing great now, thank goodness, like knock on wood.

Yeah. What can you do if you're in that phase, what can you do? For sure, at least like for sure the lifestyle things of like getting rid of, you know, not drinking out of plastic, having really good quality food and water and all of that.

And then your personal care products, you know, a lot of anything that's applied all over your skin is the first thing to clean up, right? A lotion is very different than just a mascara, right?

Because that's very little surface area, but anything slathered all over you is like first and foremost. And so really cleaning that up. And a lot of times we have great options now, but before, you know, people, it would, something would appear natural, but it really had just a few ingredients that were herbs and they could say it's natural.

Right. So luckily we have lots of great options now. But just learning about that and then making sure, you know, again, that you're taking some sort of good liver support.

So that could be in the form of like milk thistle or dandelion or schisandra and herb. If you do well with methylated B vitamins, if you need that, then that's good or B vitamins.

Making sure, I do like glutathione if it's tolerated to help pull out some of the toxins. And then the binders I use are usually a fulvic and humic acid base.

And so you can go through and be working on those. And then again, I just think there's often a big connection between parasites and eczema too. So I do like doing some parasite cleansing prior to pregnancy.

And then, you know, if needed with the little kids when they're a little bit older through herbs. Of course, minerals, you know, like minerals are very key to prep you as well because there's so many things, you know, when you're pregnant, it's so easy.

You're just going through all your vitamins and minerals so quickly that, you know, I think all of us woke up with charley horses and like the leg cramps that were horrible, you know, and all of the things and then making sure you're having a lot of good fat.

So for some people that's taking some sort of oils or just utilizing a lot more olive oil. things like just keep very nourished right think of nourishing even though you're kind of cleansing through detox but think of it more as nourishing your system and preparing for pregnancy.

Yeah really good advice and it's like the same you know that's what we we talk about here it's just like how can we make each bite as nourishing as possible because now we're in the state of dis-ease and we just need to get back to it.

So just every spoonful needs to have that extra like power punch of all the things we just talked about. Yeah, our body can start to, you know, create more glutathione and function more optimally and have that next, you know, round of cells come out better and plumper and more intact.

Yeah, and it's because it's I mean, a lot of these foundations, they're important for everybody all the time, right? But again, it's almost like front loading your system, cleaning it out a bit and then preparing it for that time that is going to be just a stress on your system when you're pregnant, because it's so many changes and then really optimizing your and supporting your liver.

Because a lot of us have, you know, some issues with like histamine and that surge of all the hormones, especially when you have girls. So again, kind of in Chinese medicine, when you have girls and you already have some issues with maybe histamine or mast cell or just, you know, you get headaches, migraines and things, your likelihood of getting a lot of long-term morning sickness is very high.

And so like I was one I had, I was sick until the day I gave birth. So it was a very long process. I kept hoping for it to go away, but it didn't. And it kind of figured it out in hindsight.

But again, sometimes the boys give the mom like this extra energy and chi. And sometimes women feel amazing when they're pregnant, right? But I would say not all of us did.

But there are some, you know, they're like, this was the best I ever felt. And a lot of times it's with the boys, they have that young energy and it like gives them energy.

Yeah, yeah. I know. I can't say I felt my best, most vibrant self. No. But it's worth it. It's worth it. It's so worth it. It feels like what you're saying is be really cognizant of what's coming in and your exposures.

Cause we know too, we all have like the best hopes for how we're going to eat when we're pregnant and all those things. And a lot of the times you're just really trying to not be sick all day or whatever it is and just kind of like get through till the time it's a little bit easier to manage.

But again, yeah, just give yourself grace during all of that. Cause it's. your body is working so hard. And then again, you're building the foundation for your child, so it's important.

So according to TCM, this is just a different line of questioning, but I was just wondering like, why do why do children seem to be itchier at night? Like what's going on with their organ system so that that presents like more intensely at night?

Sure. So well, I was gonna say definitely with the histamine can be more active at night, right? So and then again, in Chinese medicine, heat is more active at night.

So we talk about night sweats right during perimenopause or menopause. So it's kind of the same thing in the fact that the heat is more active, and so it can create more of a response.

And, you know, a lot of things are actually more active at night, right, like asthma attacks. And then there's that usually happened around that long time, which is 3 to 5 a.m.

So a lot of the times, too, that's also an overlap with like a histamine surge as well. But again, yeah, the way in TCM it works is things that are kind of yin-oriented, which is at night, but when there's a heat component, that's like a heat that's not supposed to be there.

it can flare. And then, of course, that's very difficult because it's in the middle of the night and your kids wake up, you know, itching and really uncomfortable and have a hard time sleeping.

But it's kind of similar to how we have hot flashes at night and perimenopause and menopause. And that's activating. Right. So what could we do to counter that, to get just a few more hours of sleep?

Sure. So you could look and see if there's like a time that comes up. So the liver time is one to three. The liver also is responsible for almost like eczema indirectly in the fact that it deals more with the toxin breakdown, right?

So if it's more of a toxin component, it could be, you know, a big flare between one to three. So then you would look to liver support herbs or homeopathics for liver drainage.

And then if it's more like three to five a.m., that's more of the lung time and the lungs correspond to the skin. like that's their sensory, their organ, their outward organ.

And so a lot of times there's a lot of problems around that time. And so then you could look at more lung supportive herbs if they felt like there was a bit of a connection with that and lung drainage.

But we also want to look in general, I love some homeopathics that work on the lymph, that work on the GI drainage, just because a lot of the times, again, it's just, it's all very connected and it's kind of hard to like piece it out of which one it is exactly.

But you can tell if there seems to be an exacerbation or again, if you look at the body of like where the eczema is popping up, sometimes that can help too.

So most commonly it's popping up, right? Like just in the, those, those damp places, right? Yeah. A lot of the times Again, we still mostly look at long gut and with gut that's large intestine and then still liver because of that kind of heat component as well.

Yeah, absolutely. So we know everyone experiencing eczema also has this digestive weakness happening, right? There's bloating and constipation and there's food reactions and low appetite, how does that show up as eczema in TCM?

So lung large intestine is the pair, skin is the organ connected to both organs. So the large intestine especially, if you're not going to the bathroom regularly, it can also show up as…

So spleen and stomach are also part of the gut, right? The spleen has to do with the digestion and it also has to do with the emotion of like worry. So a lot of people or a lot of kids, sometimes even when they're little, have a lot of anxiety and worry.

And so sometimes if you have a little kiddo who has that. We look at nourishing the spleen and the stomach. And so for the little kids, I would do something to where it's the color is yellow.

So I'd have them do like a little meditation or visualization of just like a bright yellow like surrounding their abdomen and coming in. Because sometimes the kids can visualize things nicely like before bed, right?

And so that's kind of like a healing color for the kids if they're having eczema and especially if they have a lot of digestive issues too. Interesting.

So can you expand on that? What does that mean when you say like the color is yellow? Yeah, so that's one thing I love is in Chinese medicine, they have a color associated with every organ, which is associated kind of with a season.

So there's certain foods that help with that. And so for this lean stomach, so most of the digestive issues, yellow is the color that either one would visualize or wear or eat more foods that are yellow, things like that, to help nourish that organ pair.

And so for the liver, it's green, the liver and gallbladder. So a lot of the times that's where some of the green foods and like green apples, those can help the gallbladder and the liver.

but things that are sour. So we also have a taste. So with spleen and stomach, it's sweet, right? But too much sweet creates dampness and then that damp heat, right?

So that's why more things like ice cream are not ideal, but like a little bit of sweet is good. Like a natural fruit is sweet in a good way, but not sweet.

We're not talking about graham crackers. We're talking about… Then you've gone on to the part that will create more dampness, because as you know, there's a big correlation with sugar and eczema.

So someone can go and have too many sweet treats and get a big flare, because it can create a lot of that dampness and the damp heat. Yeah. So what about the lungs then, since you said it's so correlated with the skin?

What's the color of the lungs? Yeah, so white is the color for lungs. And so then I would tell the little kids, just imagine like a bright, sparkling white just sitting on their chest and clearing that out.

How interesting. Is there one for like the brain? So we don't talk about the brain in the same way. It's not part of the organs. really, in a strange way.

But you would still go with probably the spleen-stomach because of the gut-brain connection. So they have a different concept, which is the heart and the mind together.

It's called the shen. So that is, again, it's not really its own organ, but it's a big part of the energy centers. And you can't separate the heart and the mind in Chinese medicine.

It's its own thing. So the color for the heart would be? Red. Yeah. This is so fun. Yeah, and it's great for, and again, like I love it with kids, right?

Because you can just tell them about a color and like for, before bed or if I, when I was giving acupuncture and if it was for little kids, I would just tell them the color and just have them focus on the color while they're just laying and relaxing or before bed.

And then again, yeah, if there's someone who's like very irritable and angry, that's green, that's the liver. So, you know, a lot of the kids get frustrated, right, because they're in pain too, and it's itchy and things like that.

So, if they're more on that side, then green is the color. So, that's so great. That's like a really practical thing that we could all do, right? That it will also just help with their nervous system, help with all the things.

I love that. If a parent who's listening wants to just start supporting their child holistically today, what are three easy TCM-aligned steps that they could do at home?

So yeah, so for TCM type of purpose, I would say, well, and I guess this goes with it, yeah, a lot of the things would be to look first at maybe, like, how is your child reacting, right, to get an idea of their emotions that are kind of flaring up.

If there's someone who gets more sad versus mad, you know what I mean? Or like if they easily cry or they're frustrated, kind of just look to see, you know, again, like how is their nervous system really reacting to everything?

Because that's such a big piece. Like if you have a child who's very dysregulated, it's hard for these things to really help as well as they potentially could.

Right. So maybe implementing some practices, like we do the legs up the wall at night. Right. So just, and you can do that with the kids. It's so easy.

And so just some sort of practice to kind of like calm their system down. This is still TCM thing, but so food-wise, we only eat warm cooked foods, right?

It's not really cold and raw. Like, of course, if they're going to have some fruit and some, you know, veggies, it's okay, but we really like everything warm and cooked.

And so especially for digestion, even with the skin connection, that would be ideal, right? Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, more so ideal is like actually just whole foods that aren't processed.

Right. So that's probably like the utmost thing. You know what I mean? As opposed to, I don't want to limit someone's raw carrots and things like that if you're trying to get away from cookies.

You know what I mean? Yeah. And then the same too, if you're dealing with kind of the heat component and the damp heat component, just sugar, right? Looking at sugar I think is one of the top tier things because it really just pours gasoline on a fire that's already burning in their gut and skin.

So I think that's one of the most critical things to minimize if possible. Yeah. Yeah. So if your child is like leaning more like on the mad side of the spectrum, like if their default is anger, what is that?

I would say then to look for what toxins are probably implicated, right? So that's where we would for sure look for mold or sometimes people have, you know, like strep or staph or things like that.

And then again, I think we talked a little bit, but parasites can be a big piece with eczema. And so, you know, if your child is kind of really all over the place, which is what we see all the time now, right?

Like there's so many neurological issues and PANS and PANDAS and all these things, their system is just overwhelmed, right? And it's showing up neurologically, which again is a step further than the skin.

So if someone has this big outburst and rage and things like that, then I would really look at maybe what toxins could be implicating, like the, or creating the eczema and the same with some parasites too.

Like if they also flare up around the full moon, if their skin flares up around the full moon, that could be a sign that parasites might be a piece. The same if they're sensitive to dairy, that's often one to look into.

that's kind of a big connection. But if they're, they lean more sad, they're crying a lot and they respond with sadness. So again, what's interesting is it's still the liver, right?

So it just could almost default to their personality of if there's someone who like kind of goes inward or versus the anger is usually the sadness like directed outward.

So it's still probably, it still points us to the liver. being overburdened. It just might be their personalities different. Yeah. And like you said, I mean, these kids are under duress, right?

They're uncomfortable. They are sad. They are mad. They are frustrated. And so a little extra grace there. But yeah, those are good things to check out and certainly parasites.

are worthwhile knowing, like if this is a long-standing issue and diet and all the things that you're setting up aren't moving the dial, then that's something absolutely that we need to start addressing.

And anything you can do… And the parasite testing isn't very reliable, so it's mostly I go off like as symptoms, you know, if they're like grinding their teeth or again, of course, if they have itchiness and things like that, you know, a lot of people, a lot of kids get pinworms and things like that and they have symptoms.

So, or again, a lot of kids love sushi, right? Because they eat sushi with their parents. And so in that regularly, I would just, I would put some of these gentle cleansing, you know, either parasite cleansing foods or herbs in their kind of rotation and see how it helps with their skin.

So what are those herbs and foods that would service like parasites? So pumpkin seeds are one of the foods, things that have kind of like clove, is one.

And then again, a lot of the herbs are more of like the black walnut. So if they're, you know, make sure they don't have a nut allergy. There's mimosa pudica, which is a seed.

There's the artemisia. There's just a few good herbs that are wormwood that have been used a long time. And, you know, I work with the TCM. Like he's kind of like my family doctor.

I see him and I don't bring the kids in like hardly ever. I just tell them what's going on with the kids. Yep. Chinese herbs are so powerful and they're so great, but dang, if they're not hard to take because they do not taste very good, do you have any recommendations to make them go down a little smoother?

So for Chinese herbs, I do use herbal tinctures, and they might have glycerin for the kids or adults that want them to be a little more palatable. So you can use herbs that have that or a lot of times I'll open up capsules and then you can mix them in with kind of like applesauce or nut butter if someone can tolerate that and you might need to kind of hide them.

That's really the only time I kind of suggest any juices like if you're trying to get a binder in or something. Basically it still should, the benefit of the binder or the herb should overpower whatever the juice is going to do, right?

And then sometimes with parasites, the juice helps kind of like draw them out because they want to have the sweets. So yeah, applesauce. Again, a lot of kids can't tolerate yogurt, but if they can, or coconut yogurt, then you could mix things in there too.

Sometimes people use honey, but again, it's very tricky, right? Because some of these very sweet or fermented things might not be the best for your child with these overgrowths in their gut and things like that.

Sometimes you just got to take it. And some of these kids, you'd be like, I don't know, I'm sure you see them all the time in your practices. They're just like, they can just take a shot of cod liver oil and then, yeah, it's just amazing.

I'm like, kudos to you kid, you should teach a class, like this is incredible. Yeah, I did not, my daughter was not that way. Like she will take homeopathic, you know, anything.

And then as she got a little older, you know, they can, they're like, What's in this water? You know, there's something in here and it's just a homemade pathetic, right?

They're just drops. And I was like, Billy, you can, you can taste the three drops in there. You know, I've had patients like bake Bolvik, you know, Bolvik things and to cookies.

And they were like, you know, they were dark, double chocolate chip cookies. So they were extra dark. And then, or they would mix it in chocolate ice cream.

And I was like, yeah, good idea. There you go. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Like my biggest successes are putting things in like homemade ice cream or, or, uh, popsicles.

Cause like they're definitely going to need popsicles are good. Good one. Yeah. So for the parents that are just exhausted and discouraged and it just feels like when works up till now, what, what would you want them to hear?

I would say the thing that moved the needle the most for my patients, and again, mold was a big piece, was a full-vacuumic binder, and that was one of the main things that helped the most.

Again, it takes a long time. They're on this for a long time, but usually their toxin load is pretty high. you know, again, you're not trying to like detox your kids aggressively.

You're just trying to give them little bits every day so that it's helping get out of their system in a very gentle manner. The last thing you want to do is exacerbate their condition and make it much worse.

Yeah. Yeah. Where could you get a fulvic or a humic binder? The one I use, two different ones, I use a cell core one called biotoxin binder is one I use a lot.

And then I use one from a company called Aegis and they have a toxic toxin binder that's a powder. We will link those things in the show notes. Everyone listening is like so well researched and on it.

Anything that will help where they are now. Dr. Ashley, I really appreciate your time today. This was so practical, so interesting. I really appreciate the time you took to just share your wisdom.

Of course, yeah. I'm very passionate about the kids because, again, it's You can really change their whole health trajectory, right? If you clean these things up too, you can potentially get rid of the anxiety that they might get as they're older or depression.

And then again, not to mention, a lot of people have eczema their whole life, right? It's not something that necessarily just goes away or it comes and goes.

And for most adults, it's a really big deal, right? It's not something that anybody wants to live with, let alone you see your kids suffering with it.

Yeah. Yeah. So where can everybody find, follow, connect with you? Sure. So my Instagram is drashleybeckman and my website is drashley.com. And yeah, I'm available and love to connect with people and then see if it's a good fit.

And again, just share information so that you guys can try to help your kids as much as you can as well. Thank you. Cause right, that's so true. It's just like, no matter who you're working with, you're the one ultimately doing it, right?

You're the one implementing it. And so, yeah. And you're the one that has to implement this and try to get your kids to take the things and eat healthy, which much easier when they're little.

And then as they get older, you know, they're not as always as amenable unless their symptoms are bad enough, right? Most of the time when they see the difference, then they will stick with it.

But I mean, most of us know even ourselves how long You know, sometimes you cheat and do things and depending on how severe it is, you get the consequences or, but you're really trying to teach them to make these choices for themselves for the rest of their life.

Yeah. No, that is what's beautiful. It's like you get their buy-in because they don't want to live like this. Your olds are like, I'm miserable. No, sure.

I'll eat this instead. That's fine. If it'll help with my spots. That's what I used to tell my two-year-old and everyone under two, they'll just eat what you give them.

And then, yeah, who went over? You just got to, you really got to get their buy-in, but it's usually generally granted because they don't want to, they don't want to live like this.

Again, it's something wonderful to work with kids so that we can really help them and guide them and then, yeah, it all ultimately comes back to the parents implementing things and setting them up for success.

Well, thank you. All those resources will be put into the show notes and thank you again and we'll talk soon. Of course, thank you so much for having me on.

That was so good, right? If you're thinking, this is us, here's your next move. You don't have to move houses or drop money on endless tests to see progress.

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A Chinese Medicine Deep Dive with Dr. Ashley Beckman

Andra McHugh

Dr. Ashley Beckman

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