Eczema Isn’t Just a Skin Issue. It’s a Whole Body Signal.

Podcast Intro and Guest Introduction 0:00

We start in the kitchen because that's just the number one thing you can do as a mere mortal parent is start with their next meal. Food is in its instruction. It's no longer benign. it's going to heal you or it is going hurt you. You're absorbing it and you're digesting it, and your detoxing from it. Just the same as you put anything that you've put in your mouth. Her skin is a reflection of what's happening at the level of the gut. Again, when you have barrier dysfunction anywhere in the body, whether it's in lungs and now you've asthma, or whether its in skin and you now have this eczema or dermatitis or atopic arch.

Whether you'll have allergies, that's another big one. Welcome to the TBD Fit Podcast on Dr. Talks. I'm your host, Daniel Keeley, and I will be guiding you through this wellness journey in terms of optimizing health and longevity, where we unpack the science, the do's, and everything in between. Come join us. Look forward to seeing you inside. Today's guest is someone whose work is changing families' lives every single day. And I'm thrilled to welcome Andrea McHugh, founder of Eczema Kids, creator of the Exema Elimination Method, mama for, and a passionate educator helping parents understand how to truly heal eczeme naturally.

Her journey started like so many parents with moisturizers, steroid creams, sleepless nights, and the constant cycle of flares with no real answers. But with her own children facing severe eczema, she realized something life-saving. That ectoma isn't just a skin issue, it's a whole body signal. and one that can absolutely be healed from the inside out. Through gut healing strategies, detox support, non-toxic living, and eczema-safe nutrition, Anders reversed all four of her kids' severe exema naturally, which we'll get into that process today.

So she teaches families around the world how to reduce inflammation, interrupt the flare cycle, And rebuild healthier skin from within. Get ready for an empowering parent journey for simple tools, clarity, Things will improve when we're on the right treatment plan. Andrea, welcome to the show. Thank you, Dr. Daniel. I'm really excited to be here. So I love starting every episode by identifying the guest origin story.

Andrea's Eczema Origin Story 2:12

Pain drives purpose and clearly yours is no different. What led you into doing what you're doing today? What really sparked me into what we were doing is a visit into the pediatrician's office. When my third baby was just a month old and I had a two-year-old and a four- year- old at home, I brought in... My third, baby, was basically born with eczema. It was so weird. In the discharge papers, they said she has a neonatal rash and then it just got worse and worse. She got like flakier and flaker every day.

And then simultaneously, my two year old just came down with eczema like you would a cold. It started as just this tiny little thing on the inside of her thigh and just took over her whole body. And then, you know, I just didn't have any history with it and neither did my husband. But, then we had two kids that were just really, really struggling with bleeding head to toe. So I brought them into the pediatrician as one does when you have sick kids. They said, wow, this is really bad. You're going to need two different, steroid prescriptions.

Put both on both, put gloves on yourself before you put them on your kids because they're admittedly very caustic. you know, throw some bleach into their bath and then hope in a prayer. Hopefully they grow out of it. That's really the best we can do. And I was like, well, that's just not going to work. You know? I'm holding my month old baby with one arm and holding the hand of my two year old with the other. It's like it just can't be it, it can be. path for my kids and I just left there with this resolve to solve it naturally and we did.

And that's why I feel like it's my moral obligation to teach other families to do the same. So let's dive into the tools. Obviously, you had to figure out a way to fix this problem. I don't know if you consulted with other practitioners, physicians at the time, certainly derm doctors. We too are seeing a huge rise in this atopic march and treat a lot of young kiddos, unfortunately, who suffer from eczema. And once we start looking under the hood, we do a GI test, often paired with a food sensitivity test to see kind of what are some of these dysfunctional markers or immune implications.

But in terms of the patients that you see, where do you start? We start in the kitchen because that's just the number one thing you can do as a mere mortal parent is start with their next meal. In our case, I was exclusively nursing my baby. We were healthy people. Everyone that I talked to are healthy. People like they eat vegetables, they're fit, there they filter their water. They've been gluten free, dairy free for years and we were in that exact same boat and still we weren't just intensely struggling with this.

And so we start, we started there knowing that's your baseline. What else can you do to make things more digestible? Cause ultimately if you're experiencing an issue like this, you are not absorbing the nutrients from your food. And oftentimes that's paired with failure to thrive type of things. Like these kids are just malnourished, you know, first and foremost. So we do everything we can to just make those more digestible. That's like warm cooked foods. No processed foods, I mean, even as like a healthy family, it's actually shocking how many processed food like we're still relying on.

If you really go into your pantry, things like that, It's a lot. And so if you can just do away with those things, like actually cooking your food, pairing them, So that your body can digest them like, you know, different digestive enzymes to process different types of food.

Starting with Food and Kitchen Changes 5:32

So you wouldn't want to pair, things like fruit that digest very, very quickly with things, like meat that are very dense and heavy and digest, because then something's going to be left into the stomach and it's gonna start to. ferment and add to this systemic inflammation that's already going on. So all of those type of things you're making sure you are properly preparing and cooking the food that your kids need so that they can have the energy to heal. I love that that is where you start in the kitchen because that something you can control.

And I say this all the time that food is in its instruction. It's no longer benign. Its gonna heal you or it's gonna hurt you. Our goal is to redefine the paradigm in terms of what healthy eating means. Simplistically, I always say if nature made it, it's okay. If man made, stay away. And so my goal is just to empower, educate parents and ideally starts with avoiding anything that comes out of a bag, box or plastic more importantly. But in terms of nutrition, It's highly, highly personalized. This is why we often start with a food sensitivity test.

I'm sure parents ask you, okay, what do we eat? Where do you start? Well, like you said, that's the best place to start. It's just like, okay, if God made it great, then, you know, it can be grown amazing. Or if it lives on this earth or sea, great. Just do that. That's, just, I mean, It is so much bigger than what, Like I said even healthy families are doing. So that is a really big deal. And then like I mentioned, the way that you are pairing these foods, even if you're eating pasture raised, organic, full real foods.

When you eating beans with steak. Right? You're doing your body a disjustice, right? They're not compatible in your stomach and you're going to be able to digest those completely. And then you and I can handle this type of digestive upset, and deal with just like a stomach ache or whatever for a little while. But these kids are so sensitive. They are fragile. to begin with, like their immune system is just already so dysregulated. That's the best thing you can do is really, really nourish them in a way that you're understanding the properties of these foods.

And so you get the most from all that food that your taking the time and energy to prepare and the food you are spending so much money on. Yes. I love that you mentioned the immune system in that, and ultimately this is kind of where I see the problem resides. Obviously there's barrier dysfunction, which then triggers inflammation. And we're looking at eczema, atopic dermatitis in particular. This is a disease of the skin barrier. Looking at our immune cells in particularly, we have T helper cells, when they're first manufactured called naive cells and they need to be activated through dendritic cells, which is then information passing from our organs in the outside world.

And when we become infected, that's where the barrier dysfunction begins to commence. We see that then happening very aggressively with eczema at the layer of the skin as the body is trying to push out some of these pathogens often associated with Staphylococcus aureus or Structococcos species. which then kind of sets the foundation for Klebsiella to come in and overgrow and you have this kind fungal burden that begins to take hold. But going back to the nutrition, dive deeper because so many clinicians I think overlook this point.

When you look at a lot of practices, they don't dive deep into nutrition. And I love that that's exactly where you're starting because again, it's so approachable. What are some dos and don'ts? Because you already mentioned, you know, protein with carbohydrates or protein specific carbohydrates like beans or fruit, right? And usually, we're eating these big salads that has everything inside of it. And that is the last thing I'm suggesting. So I loved that you were underscoring the food combination.

what are other food combinations that are dos or donts? So, I mean, like you can make sure everything warm, right? So that just gives your digestive system a big leg up, like ice cream that's cold and dairy and frozen. It's the worst thing for your immune system, there's so many things that your body has to overcome to just process that. So it's like, keep that in mind, stewed apples with cinnamon, incorporate spices into everything, non-spicy spices, as often as you can. That's just like It gives you so many extra antioxidants and it gives your body the things that it needs to help break down these foods, cumin and coriander and fennel and all those types of things.

Cinnamon, we put that in everything. So as much as you can give warm cooked foods the best, and then you're going to want to use those healthy fats. Ghee is like a staple here unless you have an IgE allergy to dairy, but the ghee is the most helpful food.

Food Combining, Histamine, and Testing 10:12

It's such an amazing fat. It has such a high smoke point, so it's really hard to obliterate it, you know, with your cooking. And it helps those butyrate producers. When your audience knows it is a short chain fatty acid, like it required for mitochondrial health, that just like things like that. So ghee, avocado oil is okay. There's just so much you could do by ways of the spices, the fats, and the warmth and then minding these I don't know if you've ever looked into Ayurveda, but the food combination rules is something very well known in Eastern medicine and it's been practiced for thousands of years.

For some reason here, we just completely ignore these rules, like you said. Grains with animal proteins is one fruit with really anything. Ideally wouldn't be combined like fruit just digest so quickly that ideally it's eaten by itself. Just, you know, like if you're looking at the properties of the food, so you you, trying to balance what you are eating with what you're experiencing. So, you know, when you are experiencing a cold, that's why like chicken soup or something like that is so, so nourishing, right?

It's like warm, it's cooked, its partially digested for you and then it has got all the minerals and everything, hopefully it is like bone broth or like something. All of those things are helping your body get over this and the same is true for this except for So like fermented foods and bone broth or something that's like very confusing, but it really doesn't do our little eczema friends a lot of good. Even though they're like touted as like these ultimate good health foods, they are generally really high in histamine.

So we try and steer clear of those. So avoiding starchy carbohydrates with protein, avoiding obviously fruit with proteins in some capacity as well, understanding how things are processed, how long things take to digest, and how quickly things can ferment. If that goes wrong and then how that contributes now to this histamine response when there's intolerance. And so that's why we often will couple a GI test with a food sensitivity test to see if this is the right food for this individual at the correct time.

That's the point is it's not all healthy foods. We think, you know, the sulfur family foods, but brassica family food, allicin high family, sometimes it is not right for the individual. I had an eczema patient who was in the and her trigger was ginger turmeric lemon lime stevia. That's interesting like so she's trying to replace to have all those nourishing anti-inflammatory foods but yet it was her fire was burning bright and this was gasoline on the fumes. And so that's the point of the power of testing in some circumstance.

But in terms of food combination, obviously we can follow one that is supportive. And I love that you mentioned dairy and ice cream, which again is just fuel for the fire because we don't recognize the damage that sugar does. It's like swallowing shards of glass on the endothelial lining of our blood vessels. Temporarily reduces our white blood cell function, it increases inflammation, worsens blood sugar. dysbiosis and ultimately to me this is the root of the problem. Are you doing stool testing with your patients as well or so let's say you know you you figured out okay what is right nutrition at this point for the individual given the context where do you go next?

Yeah we absolutely do testing but later like I don't let anyone do it until they've been doing this for a couple months like we get everything else in line like as I said we start with the diet we do symptom management you We're in the here and now, and we have to deal with these unpleasant symptoms, you know, while simultaneously making sure that we're not giving liver an extra burden. And then we are dealing with their homes, adding in supplements, then, we go to testing. Because if you're under 12 months old, like my baby, I couldn't even do a GI map on her, even for infants.

their immune system is too immature and it's really expensive and the blood draws are a little traumatic, you know, in some cases. And I've seen scratch tests and things like that just bring on a huge flare and, and you, know something that feels like almost unrecoverable. So we do that very last and ideally you don't have to go into that world at all. Cause if you're doing all of these things and your at it for a couple of months, then you are going to be seeing progress. Because we're just putting in inputs that are, that would behoove anybody, right?

And we're dealing with one specific issue. I know you see lots of different conditions, right? So we know, yes, if you're experiencing eczema, 100% there's a dysbiosis happening, Right? Yes, you should not be eating gluten or sugar or dairy for a period of time. Like there's just all these already knowns that we don't have to test for to help overcome it. So that's where it comes in for my patients. It's like when we've done all the things, they've experienced wellness in some degree, but if they're not quite at clear, calm skin come 90 days, then we have look further.

Then there is something that is living inside that. that needs to be addressed and we need to know what it is. And, and, we'd like to pair that with food sensitivity testing. Most of my patients that come in have already done IgE testing at the allergist and you know, like a lot of times there isn't an Ig-E allergy, but there's still plenty of IgG sensitivities that need. You know just take a back burner and I've seen the turmeric and ginger Igg a, lot as well. Cause you, know a of the people that we work with, they're incorporating these foods very cognizantly, like to try and do what's best for them.

And these would be traditionally healthy foods for that. So yes, that has a time and place. But yeah, so we start, we do everything we can at home. That's the whole point is because no matter who you're working with, you are the one that's implementing. You're the ones that are going to have to do this and know this, and follow through. Otherwise, it doesn't matter, who are you working, with it's not going work. Yeah, it's interesting because obviously this started out earlier for you and most of our patients are not infants, but they are young adults and the prevalence, unfortunately, is earlier and earlier, right?

And we see now infertility on the rise, we're treating infertilty in our clinic, But the environment, the terrain is set in parents, let's pass down while they're a kid. So we have to value the health of mom, health to dad. the health of the parents, meaning the parent's parents or grandparents. All of that is, it's almost becoming kind of this hereditary problem, but certainly our modern environment is only aggravating and exacerbating the problem. And when you mentioned, you know, the product of histamine, which is heavily driven by our mast cells, Which are immune cells that act like the body's rapid response to an alarm system, especially in the skin.

We also found obviously in lungs, several other worries around the blood vessels and nerves. but they're best known for their role in allergy or allergy mitigation and they help with defense, healing and inflammation control. What's happening with this high histamine response is kind of we're dumping right into these mast cells, which creates this trigger, inflammatory cascade.

Topical Skin Support and Detox 17:28

Now it's a right environment where you have high inflammation, low commensals, so low healthy microbes. So looking at a younger population, meaning infants, it should primarily be dominated by bifidobacterium species but we see a lot of other buggers in there that are unfortunately really causing perturbation to the whole digestive process and as such then as you said with nutrition obviously that's going to be instruction and that can drive the the worsening of symptoms. In terms then of the testing, I understand when it's so young and it can be, right, costs can add up very quickly.

So what are you doing then in terms of treatment, whether it is topicals, nutraceuticals? I see you have a bunch of tinctures behind you, so I'm curious kind of in term of, treatment now, what does that look like? Obviously it contextual, but in general, how are, you what is that kind process that you adhere to? I said, we have to deal with symptom management because these kids are uncomfortable and they're not sleeping and all the things. And so, you know, I didn't start developing skincare until a couple of years into this and people were asking for it.

But when with my own kids, You know I started with herbal oils and it's like taking supplements through the skin. This is also an Ayurvedic practice. When you infuse these anti-inflammatory, just really nutritive herbs into a base oil like jojoba oil. those those herbs like due to its lipophilic properties fat likes fat it infuses those properties into the tissues and it just really helps like kids cells That's why it's so rewarding to work with kids because their cells regenerate so quickly, right?

But you're really helping reinforce that next round of cells to come out a little bit healthier and a bit flumper, and then you just keep going. So that's step one. We do that in herbal oil with all just skin-focused herbs like neem and amlaki and few others. And then we have a comfort spray. And that's just what really helped me get my kids to make longer stretches throughout the night. You know, when we were really going through it, we had some Chinese herbs in there that address staph and address itch.

It's got, you know yin carin there, which is prescribed a lot in Asian hospitals for women with vaginal issues, so it deals with that kind of stuff, the yeast and the itch in the staph. And then we follow that up with a telecream, which is just the most nutritive, most moisturizing, dense, you know, substance that you can put on your skin of the skin that's like just chronically dry and we're working on rebuilding the, of skin barrier. So. All of those things that we call that the skin comfort trio and it's just a layered process that really, really helps while you're doing everything you can on the inside.

It just helps steal in what you are doing on outside and everything is bioavailable and your body actually recognizes it and just doesn't add to what your liver is already having to detox from. number one. So were you using also tinctures then to support the detoxification process or to sport the liver concurrently? Well, we do like put in some things to Uh, via supplements for sure. Like we add in turmeric into everything that we possibly can. We, you know, do things like that. Look, again, these, a lot of these kids are, are very young or they're, they are teenagers and a little resistant.

You know? Like you can, like you could do so much while you're just preparing their food. But yeah, so the liver support comes via diet and via supplement. And then the skincare is just like another way to just. help the body calm and also detoxify. Okay. And then I love that you had mentioned also short chain fatty acids earlier on and butyrate production. Interestingly, that's to me is an absolute essential because when we look at the damage to the gut lining and the ability of some of these microbes to, from sacrolytic fermentation to butyrate through certain nutrition, something like butter, which has been demonized for so long or even better still, key with some of the inflammatory components that have been washed off which really helps feed the the colonocytes for repair because ultimately again going back to this model of barrier dysfunction which is what's happening at the level of gut and then at level the skin that's driving these inflammatory markers obviously and one way to do that is to replace with butyrate often enough the best way is through fiber and resistant starches but I wanted to highlight short chain fatty acids in here because that's a very quick way that we found to move the needle in this kind of patient population.

So the healthy signal that drives the effects of these, the Kupfer cells, which are like the dendritic cells in the gut, are the innate immune cells and the liver, as you mentioned, that maintain liver health, unfortunately get compromised with elevated levels of staphylococcus aureus or lipopolysaccharides. So 80% of these colonocytes is metabolized of butyrate and butyrite is oxidized through beta oxidation, use a lot of oxygen, sucks out all the oxygen from the colon to create this anaerobic environment.

which is necessary for the growth of these healthy commensals which most people don't understand. And if fiber is low and butyrate is lower, the cells have to use glucose which doesn't use much oxygen. Now you have a lot less of this healthy anaerobic commencal bacteria. Most oral butyrite doesn t reach the colon so that's why it's critical to go to prebiotics and fiber. That's the problem I think here is we have fiber deficiency going back to nutrition. Again, I'm referencing perhaps a little bit younger, not birth population, but a younger now as they're getting into solids and food.

And for me, the impact of addressing the short chain fatty acid deficiency is going to key at helping reduce NF kappa beta and decrease inflammation at the level of the gut, which is then reflected in the level of the skin. Those are kind of some things that I wanted to make you mention because I know you mentioned that previously which was absolutely key. So in terms of your three, the it's kind, I don't know if you call it your trifecta but say those again because i love those ingredients. I love how how selective you are in in ingredients or your 3. We start with the herbal oil and Yeah, that's got neem, amulaki,

Gut Healing, Probiotics, and Timeline 23:58

marshmallow root, palo de arco, and oh my goodness, mangesa. So that all for right lymph movement. It's like a biggie. Like, you know, I recommend if you can't put it all over your body, at least focus on those like lymph dense areas, like the neck, arm, things like that under the bottom of the feet. But it's huge. Just every single part of it. The herbs in in and of itself, right? And when you even put it on, if you put on yourself or if we put in on a child, like the way that it calms the nervous system, just through touch in any way, kids really respond to this.

And then it also serves as a protectant to the water. Like I recommend doing this before bath or shower. When you have this thin skin barrier, even water is something that your body needs to be defended from. So start there, then take a nice daily Epsom salt bath like that really with baking soda. That really helps with detoxification and remineralization. Just every step, everything that we do is for a reason and it's supportive. And then we, and then you do the, the comfort spray just to help with the staff and the itch and you seal it up.

with the tallow cream. So that first one though, that's a topical? That's not an oral tincture? No, it's all topically. Can you take that? Because interestingly, you're addressing with Paldiarco some of the yeast burden, fungal burden which coincides with a lot of what we see like I mentioned earlier when Klebsiella comes in and there's this extra production of acetylaldehyde or alcohol fermentation. And then that kind of sets the stage for this fungill burden to feast. Could you use that orally?

You know, taste good. That's our standard. Everything you put on your skin, you should be able to eat, right? Because you are. You're absorbing it and you're digesting it, and your detoxing from it just the same as you would anything that you've put in your mouth. So that's out standard, but no, none of these solutions would taste delicious. But yes, they're more effective. I mean, especially with this child population. It's just, it's hard. We can't load up 20 supplements on them. Like it is just too much.

Yeah, it's just such an integral piece for, for their, their healing. So that's the topical. There's a spray and then I know you said you seal it with tallow. Are you making your own tallows or are you sourcing it from a hundred percent grass fed grass finished massage cows? Yeah. And you know, all the things I learned how to do all this stuff. Cause it was like, well, You know, this is what's required. Like I tried, I started with just the tallow that you can buy at the grocery store. And, you know then my kid just smelled like a skirt steak.

You, know I was like, can't handle this. I cannot do this, love you. and I try to even like putting fish oil on her at one point, like topically is like I can, Can't do. This, so a lot of trial and error, but yeah, it just, mixed that with castor oil, which is, the most viscous moisturizing oil that can possibly have. It's really also well tolerated. Then we add that, with some supportive. essential oils, some anti-inflammatory essential, oils like frecklesense, a little bit of lutein C and geranium as well.

That sounds interesting because we have one that I like a lot, but definitely eager to try your combinations as, well and your formulations. So is there anything that you're providing orally that they're taking? I have a prebiotic tea, which is just a few herbs that help, like you said, just set the stage for the most, you know. the healthiest gut health that we can have. So yeah, that's just a combination of slippery elm bark, marshmallow root, and licorice root. And it just really helps feed those beneficial microbes that were trying to help proliferate and get over the dysbiosis.

But I don't even start there. We start We start with the topicals. We started with a few, you know, like I like to do, saccharomyces pilaridae to begin with. I liked doing IgG, those types of things. And, in addition, obviously to the diet at first, just to start like stabilizing and calming. calming things down. We don't want to feed the biotic microbes. So we want it just only be the beneficial one. And then in phase two, we start adding in the probiotics and things like that. Then you're getting so many probiotic also from the healthy diet that you are eating.

In terms then of, so say you're quieting things down, are you using two in general? So for the histamine response, we use a lot of quercetin and stinging nettle and vitamin C to stabilize kind of the mast cells as well. Are you, using some of that? I really like, you know, the springboard, like the orthomolecular kids brand, the DHIS Jr. That's really helpful. But you know, everything, but I don't lead with that. And even with the kids that are just allergic to everything because I found that it doesn't work immediately.

Like we, you can't skip that calming stabilization step. You got to go there first and that lasts a couple weeks. and then go into things like that. But even quercetin, you don't want to be taking that super long term, right? Then you're inhibiting your stomach acid production and things. The goal is for all of these things is to phase it out and stop. taking these supplements as quickly as you can. Like I don't want any of the people I work with to be reliant on any pill or powder. So again, if it comes from mother nature, I'm a proponent.

And so that's when you said a phase in phase out as quick as possible. My goal is always to get my patients better yesterday, but we have to change the internal terrain. and it starts with kind of this intestinal permeability or what's colloquially now known as leaky gut, which then drives leeky skin. so I know you're working kind outside in. Historically, we incorporate both inside out, outside in at the level of the gut to try to kind of heal and seal the lining, change the internal terrain, reduce the dysbiosis and histamine production, support the over activation of immune system as you've done so beautifully with your pharmacy behind you.

And I say pharmacy with like a. it's food-based pharmacy, which is brilliant. Say you're going through that process, how long does it typically take and anything else that's usually overlooked? Because you mentioned, you know, with some of these nutraceuticals and ingredients, I see often enough paired with a high fungal burden. Do you see any other co-infections or kind of any of other microbes that come hand in hand that are often overlooked. What is the duration of the process that you find? Obviously, it's contextual, but in general, start to finish in terms of expectations.

If there's no pharmaceutical use, Like no history of steroids or, uh, you know, a big antibiotic history, which, if that's, it's fine. But if there's none of that, that one bucket, then 90 days is like a really realistic expectation. Like you get all these, like 90 years from when you got all this plugged in, and you really are diligent about it. It's not hard, like, you know, once you get into the practice and you're, I know everyone listening, if you are listening to this podcast, You're already the person that's making your meals and not using plastic, right?

And you use clean things around your home when you open your windows. So, Once you got all that plugged in, 90 days is a really good expectation. Like, okay, should be significantly better, If not all the way better. 90 Days is like a very good baseline. If there is pharmaceutical history, unfortunately, then that is something that extends your timeline. could go to a good while, which is fair, right? You know, steroids are immune suppressants. And so we're just telling your body, you know like don't do what you're meant to do when you using those.

I mean, certainly no judgment. Like I got those steroids from the doctor when he prescribed them and I kept them in my back pocket and was like, okay, I might use them today. like I'm really teetering on the like. If we were going to make it, but you don' because things get really, really dire and there's certainly worse things like If that's where you are and you're not sleeping and your child is miserable, I mean, that is real, real suffering.

Toxins, Prenatal Factors, and Hope 31:58

So I get it. But if there is any of that history or some kids like come out and they've just been sick and all of the things and a million pure infections and things, and, they had a billion rounds of antibiotics. Okay. Now we're looking at six months to just. to really achieve the results that you want, like the clear skin, not just any improvements, but just a full turnaround. But there's a consequence. Obviously, long-term exposure of any of these are going to cripple the immune system and our healthy native commensals, especially the use of antibiotics.

It's estimated that one use can decimate our health in microbes up to 50%. and two uses of antibiotics can decimate up to a hundred percent, some of which cease to return. We don't recognize the impact of the antibiotics. While it can be life saving, there's a huge consequence. I know with our European counterparts, once upon a time is you cannot administer antibiotics without the use of a probiotic concurrently. Now you're not taking it the identical same time, but throughout the course of the day, you were ensuring that you replace the healthy microbial species.

But too often the administration of antibiotics is far too ubiquitous. And to me, again, that is an egregious offense because again you are damaging this very fragile ecosystem, especially so early on in life when the immune system is underdeveloped and weak. Again, I applaud how you're thinking about things in terms of the expectations. It's interesting you said 90 days, which is three months. I always say my goal is 1% better daily. So it's 90% after 90. That's exactly the timeline. that I wanna see reversal, right?

So progress over perfection, but it's these baby steps incrementally and while progress is never linear, when we are layering some of the testing, especially the food and then the patients, specially the parents are looking at me like, what can I have my kid eat? Because the problem is everything that they're eating was driving the inflammatory cascade, Right? But a lot of these foods often enough are not healthy foods necessarily. And some which are, and the good part about the list is I provide then a list of 300 other foods that they can eat, right?

It's not only just about kale, broccoli, and sweet potatoes. There's so much that exists that we can explore with food. We can make the journey one that is nourishing in terms of helping the child take stock and cook for themselves. That's what we do at home. So I have three little girls, eight, five, and three. And my goal is to educate and empower them what healthy nutrition can look like. Your skin is a reflection of what's happening at the level of the gut. Again, when you have barrier dysfunction, anywhere in the body whether it's in lungs and now you have asthma whether its in skin and you now have this eczema or dermatitis or atopic arch whether you had allergies that's another big one allergies to me are not normal even say seasonal allergies but we begin to normalize the abnormal And we don't realize that's barrier dysfunction, that we have to come in and change the internal environment, reduce the inflammatory burden, which you so elegantly do from the outside ends.

But the good part is there is hope, we can heal. We don t need some of these aggressive interventions with the use of antibiotics or steroids. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if there's anything you take away from this, just know you 100% can reverse this. Really, you really, really can. Even if things look really dismal, even if it feels like yourself or your child is reacting to every single thing, like there, in today's modern world with plastics and the. glyphosate, all the things. You can still, you can reverse this.

So toxins is another big one. Do you see any environment, because you mentioned glyphasate. That's a huge component in terms of crippling the immune system. I mean, it's, a natural antibiotic. And I don't think people recognize that. We're spraying that on our crops. to avoid infestation of insects. Well, we've evolved kind of in some respect in the same way. And so you can't expect to kill off these insects and not impact our skin barrier or our nervous system or healthy gut microbes, um, in terms of toxins, do you correlate or any sort of specific toxins?

I mean, I know you mentioned plastics and glyphosate, anything that you see that's very correlative here in term of this patient population? All of it. Right. Like you've mentioned that, you know, everything is passed down and I grew up on, You know Kraft macaroni and cheese and, and skim milk and margarine. and diet coke, you know, and like, then I took birth control as a, as 20 something year old and all of those things, like all the pharmaceuticals, all that glyphosate, everything, I always had a plastic cup and plastic water bottle.

Like I, recently read there's like a you can find a spoonful of microplastics in everyone's brain nowadays. I mean, it's just. It's a lot, it's lot. The burden is a and our bodies are asked to do a And they can, given they just have this foundational support. Cause ideally, right, everyone should be able to run across a field eating gluten, you know, on their way to a birthday party. You should to tolerate that. Right. And then a of these kids can't. And so that's where the work is. It's just getting that foundational support.

So that, so. You're right. We should be able to, unfortunately, our food is not that of our ancestors and then it's highly, highly sprayed herbicide, fungicide pesticides. And the principle is to fear monger. This is just the reality, right? Within the FDA regulations, you can, it allows for a certain level of pesticides to be sprayed on our organic produce. and Then you have runoff from neighboring farms and obviously from the wind and in the soil devoid of of minerals and interestingly more still, when you mentioned, you know, gluten, 90 plus percent of our wheat comes from Southern Illinois and much of it is bleached and hybridized.

And so what happens is it strips the wheat of the germ and the bran, which has a lot of these micronutrients, vitamin E, Vitamin B, Which also takes healthy microbes to synthesize. and what's left is this very starchy center endosperm. That's very carbohydrate rich, but also very gluten now heavy. The reality is it's unfortunately everywhere, But it doesn't mean we can't overcome the body does an exceptional job of being able to detox. As you said, it just, we have to support the right internal ecosystem to do that.

How to that with, with our nutritional instruction. I understand that so deeply. The premise is nothing without consequence anymore. And there's two sides of a coin. You're right. I mean, my goal is to definitely instill hope. Right. A good part is there is so much still in our control and health is you have to work at it. We have prioritize it, but the stage is set prenatal. We see with C-section babies, the prevalence and dominance of Klebsiella and Clostridium species, Dercococcus species and Turcococus species.

Some of which that can be healthy, but not necessarily always early on. And so C signature babies have this increase in prevalence of asthma and allergies and skin issues. and then if you couple that without breastfeeding and without the IgG support and the HMO support that's provided through breast milk. And then if you have a flood too, a gene carrier, which I am, makes things even more difficult and more challenging.

Final Advice and Where to Find Andrea 39:28

So these are things that we're all considering and addressing within our patient population, certainly discussing with our parents. But the good part, all of this can be managed very effectively, but the stage was set earlier on. And the Good part is if, you do the right things, our foundation five is you got to eat right, sleep right. You mentioned sleep. eat right, sleep right move right talk right poop right you're going to feel right and so much of that is under our control. Are there any last pieces of advice or takeaways that you want to leave our audience with?

I just want say you know it's not your fault right we just talked about all the things and I've done all of the thing and it is okay you now as long as you do something with the information that you are presented with and you start just actually making changes. And that's what's going to move the dial. It's just small changes every day and consistency. That's why we'll get you there. I love ending every episode with asking one final question. If you could have one superpower, what would it be? I wish I didn't have to sleep and then I could just work all night and get my stuff done during the night, and then just be a mom all day.

That'd be fantastic. Your passion shines through, especially with that answer. I see you love what you do. You approach it with a level of beauty, really. Thank you so much for sharing everything today. The clarity, the practice wisdom that you provided, your formulations, any other notes that, um, you want to leave our audience with. Where can people find you? If they have any inquiries, want reach out for you. Sure. You can find everything at eczemakids.com. And you can all the skincare and. the program and my podcast is by the same name, ExSama Kids, and we're even going to have you on, so come check it out.

You are absolutely awesome. This has been a genuine pleasure. Thank you so much to everyone who listened. If you feel this has brought any value, please like, review, subscribe, share this with someone who's struggling, who hasn't found answers. Obviously, Andra is a wealth of knowledge and a tool to help accelerate treatment process and if for nothing else there is hope you will heal things will improve we just have to change the internal and external terrain until next time thank you so much and for everyone listening stay healthy stay wealthy my friend Thank you for tuning in to the TBD Fit Podcast on Dr.

Talks, where we unpack all things health and longevity. If you enjoy the show, like, review, and subscribe. This allows us to have a greater reach and help others on their health & wellness journey.