Healthy Skin

Hi Karen and Bonnie,

I have been on FID for 1 1/2 months. My eczema on most parts of my body is subsiding. Yeah! Last night, for the first time, I didn't wake up in the middle of the night itching.. However, one small patch of eczema (which started out small 1 1/2" diameter, became psoriasis because I scratched it), is now getting twice as big rather quickly (1 mm bigger per day). It's weepy and shedding skin, not hurting, no longer itching. (This patch of eczema turned psoriasis started in the summer of 2023.) I am doing what Karnen recommends in her article on psoriasis (twice a day: water, oil (Skin Rescue), sunlight, (instead of sunlight, I receive light therapy 2x/week because we are in the winter here). Daily, I get my calcium from the PM supplements (300 mg), and 164 mg calcium from 2 c. oats (84 mg), 3 c. oat milk (54 mg), 1 c red cabbage (40 mg), 1/2 c Brussel sprouts (28 mg) and 1 c green cabbage. From these sources, altogether I get 504 mg calcium daily. Is this enough? I am a 73 years old woman, weighing 112 pounds, doing Qigong 20 - 30 minutes daily. For protein, I ate beans and grains, but when I read that Karen' eczema got weepy whenever she ate legumes, I thought maybe I should eliminate beans and grains for 2 weeks to see if my psoriasis stops weeping. Two days ago, I ate one meal of freshly cooked beef flanked steak (it was delicious) but that night, I suffered insomnia, runny nose, stopped-up nose, a flare-up of an old muscle ache and the psoriasis felt like a mild cut. So, I switched to eating lentil soup (recipe from the book) and oat for lunch and dinner to get my protein. Today is the 2nd day that I eat lentil soup and oat. I'll continue to get my calcium from food as described above. I envision I probably can do this for 2 weeks straight (I hope) because I like the taste!!! Is this advisable?

Is it OK that I take 1 1/2 dose of the PM to get extra calcium? Here, I can not get calcium-fortified plant-based milk.

Is it OK to drink more oat milk (to get more calcium)?

I don't understand why my eczema is subsiding while the psoriasis is not. Is it normal that psoriasis becomes worse before it gets better while eczema is subsiding?

BTW, I think the reason for this eczema/psoriasis break-out is that for almost 2 years straight (2022 - 2023), I ate mostly foods that are very high in salicylates and amines at every meal; yes, 3X/day. I ate them because they are supposed to have great nutrients (kale, mushrooms, fermented foods, avocado, nuts, dried dates, dried figs, sourdough bread, left-over cooked animal proteins, sausages, etc - Yikes!)

Given this high chemical diet for 2 years, should I switch to the Detox diet to help my liver detoxify? I dread this switch because it means I have to learn a whole new way of cooking.

What are white beans? Do they include all white beans (cannellini, navy beans, great northern beans?) Each type has a different calcium profile. I think I react negatively to black beans. Twice, after eating them, I itched all over. This is not a mere coincidence, is it?

My husband is super supportive. He is eating the same food I do because it's just too hard to shop and cook 2 differents types of food (besides he likes the way I cook!) He also takes AM and PM supplements. Is this diet OK for him until I can eat normally? He had a heart attack 2 years ago and has edema now. Although he does not show skin problems, when he took the questionnaire on liver in the "Eczema Diet Book", he checked several symptoms.

Thank you so much for helping us. Thank you for your patience in reading this long cry for help!