Traditional Chinese Medicine for Eczema

HERBAL COMBINATIONS SPECIALLY FORMULATED FOR EACH CASE CAN SAVE THE DAY FOR MANY STUBBORN ECZEMAS

Eczema is a many headed beast. Some cases are textbook-clear and relatively easy to treat, while others fall between types, present paradoxically, or engage in shape shifting deception.  Successful treatment of these conditions resembles a chess game, with the practitioner trying to stay a step ahead and to eventually checkmate the wiley opponent. Fortunately, in most cases the eczema has met its match in Traditional Chinese Medicine, but the first ingredients in all the successful formulas, and the ones that need to be administered at the highest dosage, are patience and persistence.

Let’s look at the most common scenarios found in severe eczema, and the famous combinations used to treat them.

Erythrodermic Eczema

This is a severe inflammatory flare of eczema that covers the entire body, from head to toe, so that the whole person appears lobster red. The great inflammatory heat scorches the skin cells, causing them to shed and flake profusely. The sufferer is feverish and chilled, extremely agitated, itchy, uncomfortable and unwell. Erythrodermic eczema can quickly become a hospital emergency, but before full onset, when an eczema is clearly on the march and getting worse, and the patient is just beginning to feel chilled, herbs can stop and reverse the inflammatory cascade.

One formula that may often be used is “Huang Lian Jie Du Tang: Coptis Decoction to Relieve Toxicity.” This famous formula was composed in the year 752 AD. It contains bitter, cold, yellow coloured roots, rich in strong anti-inflammatory constituents such as berberine. The herbs can penetrate deeply to the blood level where the fire toxin has lodged itself, to cool and detoxify.

Supportive ingredients such as the rich, black Rhemannia  and Scrophularia roots are often added to moisturize and repair the skin and fluids. Many other ingredients may be added depending on the severity of the flare-up and the constitution of the patient, and on whether there may be other factors such as weeping/oozing lesions. This potent combination can bring about a visible change within a couple of days. Once the condition is controlled, the formula is changed to something less harsh for long term treatment.

Adult Atopic Eczema

This type of eczema usually has its first onset in infancy or childhood. Up to half of kids may outgrow it by adolescence, while the remaining unlucky ones continue to suffer into adulthood. The adult forms are more stubborn and tend to present with paradoxical symptoms, such as skin that looks thickened and very dry, but in fact oozes and weeps. This concurrent dampness and dryness poses a challenge in treatment, for using traditional formulas to treat one may well worsen the other. Here I rely quite heavily on self-devised, smaller herbal combinations, rather than ancient formulas, to walk a fine line in treatment. Knowing the taste classifications of the herbs we use is priceless in such cases:

Herbs such as Similacis Glabra, Lonicera stem, and adzuki bean will treat damp heat and clear toxins without aggravating dryness, due to their sweet rather than bitter taste. Other combinations are: the sweet, salty and bitter Scrophularia root encountered above, with the acrid and drying Atractylodis lancea. Together they dry dampness and moisturize the blood, and therefore the skin, and using them together will neutralize any side effects of each alone.

Another way to be effective is by careful assessment of the depth of the toxins which nearly always present with this eczema. If there is little weeping of the skin, the toxins are fairly superficial and can be treated with lighter herbs such as Lonicera flower, Forsythia fruit, and Crysanthemum. If deeper, with skin weeping and well defined very red lesions, we will use deeper acting herbs such as Dandelion root and Violet and again, Coptis and Scutellaria roots.

Stasis Eczema

This eczema develops on a background of poor circulation and varicose veins in the legs, with edema - fluid swelling. The inner leg often shows spider veins and a bluish coloration. The lack of proper nourishment to the skin, combined with excess fluid accumulation predisposes the skin of the legs to dryness, irritation, ulceration and eczema. Herbal treatment must address all of these factors.

We may combine the famous lower body damp-draining, slightly diuretic formula Bi Xie Shen Shi Tang with a couple of circulatory herbs such as Carthamus flower or Peach pit, and as the condition improves we would change the proportions of herbs so that the blood circulation, rather than the dampness and swelling, are addressed more. In this way, all of the roots of the problem are treated for lasting effect.

Seborrheic Eczema

This is also known as seborrheic dermatitis, and is dandruff’s inflammatory cousin. This condition, though it ranges from fairly mild to a very severe form that resembles psoriasis, can be very stubborn. The severe form – sebopsoriasis – requires an extra dose of the secret ingredients mentioned at the start: patience and persistence.

Many elements need attention here: regulating the secretion of waxy fat (sebum) from our scalp; treating the opportunistic yeast infections with Malasezzia species which feast on the oils in our scalp and leave them degraded (essentially turning healthy fat into bad fat);  the abnormal turnover of cells causing plaque or crust formation; and itching and inflammation. Phew. No single formula can form the basis for such a complicated treatment, rather we start with one that is customized as much as possible to signs and symptoms. For instance, some seborrheic dermatitis cases are very dry, while some cases are greasy and weepy. For the dry type, burdock seed , rhemannia root and wild crysanthemum are useful ingredients. The greasy versions, on the other hand, may require gentian, scutellaria, and alisma, as in the famous formula Long Dan Xie Gan Tang, first published in 1682.

Conclusion

Careful and well considered herb combinations can save the day for many stubborn eczemas. But while many herbs have been named here, self treatment is highly discouraged. For skin disease, close supervision is required to navigate through the intricacies of treatment and yield the best and safest results.