What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
Hi,
I've been dealing with eczema and allergies throughout my life. About five years ago, I started to notice something like mild thrush on my tongue. It's like a thick coating on my tongue but not exactly like patches of yeast or anything. It comes back even after I've brushed my tongue. I've seen my general practitioner about it but she dismissed it and said it was normal, however I don't think it is. Of course I have good oral hygiene and brush my teeth (and tongue) twice a day, morning and night. I floss regularly. I don't smoke, drink, do drugs, or eat a diet high in sugar or carbohydrates. I take medication for my allergies which is Allergra and Nasonex. I've also been applying various corticosteroid creams and ointments for my eczema. My overall diet isn't extremely healthy nor is it it extremely junky either. I've been trying to consistently get more fruits and veggies in my diet since that is the right thing to do. I drink plenty of water also.
Another thing I've noticed is a few years back, I've experienced a vaginal issue that would cause somewhat of a mild burning irritating discharge, a strong vaginal odor that would occasionally vary from one odor to the next depending on what day I was on of my menstrual cycle, and something of a yellowish discharge. I've been to the gynecologist for it and never really got a straight answer as to what was going on. I was told it was a resistant yeast which I got treated for. Prior to that, I was told it was bacterial vaginosis. And later on ... a few years later, I am told it is a non-infectious vaginitis (inflammation) that is possibly related to my eczema and my allergies. I just need to put this out there: If your someone that has experienced this or know someone that has, please let me know I'm still not satisfied with this circumstantial diagnosis I was given. I need to also put this out there, I notice all of my symptoms (thrush and vaginitis) increase when I eat certain foods, mainly breads and sugary stuff. The thrush on my tongue seems to decrease when I stop eating certain foods. My eczema is actually clearing up pretty well, it flares up from time to time but I keep it under control.
If you have any helpful tips, products to recommend, medications to recommend relating to any of my symptoms please share it with me because I would really appreciate it.
P.S. I have allergies to dust, mold and dust by-products and that's about all I'm allergic to as far as I know.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
I have all the symptoms you have. How do you keep it under control now?
And another question ....is it a yeast infection or a eczema. I was diagnosted with non albicans yeasts which made sense to me, because whenever I eat something sugary my symptoms get worse. Also I had lots of cultures done, and only one - after I used acid boric - tested positive for non albicans yeasts.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
***Sorry about the long post. I like to be detailed ***
I do a lot of things to keep my symptoms in check, ranging from stuff I do to keep my skin, allergies, and vaginal issues in order. For one, I keep the consumption of junk food to a minimum since I don't want to "add fuel to the fire." I avoid anything that has weird chemicals/ingredients and by-products because it isn't good for my health anyway since my immune system is really sensitive and reacts easily to various things. Even stress can flare up my eczema a little. A lot of the common candies and fast food that people enjoy on a regular basis, I don't eat.
I avoid refined carbohydrates since it's still also bad for intestinal health and does a good job of feeding yeast which is exactly what I don't want. Most refined carbohydrates are converted into sugars which is still bad. I also avoid things that have added sugar or are high in sugar. I quit drinking coffee since it also can cause inflammation.
I'll assume your probably inquiring about what I do to keep my vaginal issue under control. I don't even know what to call it except vaginitis because apparently all of my yeast cultures come back negative every time. I get routine cultures done with each visit. I was prescribed hydrocortisone suppositories to do every night to combat the vaginal inflammation and it helped. But my gynecologist says that there was a link between my eczema and my vaginal inflammation. And she said sometimes there is unexplainable inflammation for some women. Other than the inflammation she noticed everything was fine. My pH was 4.5 which is kind of borderline good and bad. A pH over 4.5 usually signifies infection.
After I've done various changes, mainly in my diet just being considerate of everything I put in my body and researching ingredients. I go without underwear at night and when I'm around the house just to let the vagina breath and ventilate. I don't wear tight non-breathable underwear, mainly just white cotton panties. No tight jeans or anything. I drink about 6-7 glasses of water per day and I make sure I take a probiotic and a fiber supplement since fiber acts as an internal roughage and helps the body excrete the bad bacteria and it encourages "good" bacteria growth, it increases immunity too. I make sure I eat a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables because they are loaded with fiber/prebiotics and complex nutrients. I avoid eating meats and dairy products since it stimulates allergies and it usually increases inflammation in the body. Too much red meat or meat in general isn't good for anyone.
After making slight dietary changes over time, my symptoms have greatly improved.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
Thanks for your answer.
Could you let me know what symptoms did you use to have? For me it started with pain at urination, burning but only inside the vaginal canal, tingling and pinching outside on the vulvar area, redness and irritation inside and out, and erythema and eczema inside and out. And when the symptoms were the worse, I had vulvodynia, pain and extreme burning, especially after urination.I was diagnosted with non albicans yeasts. What makes you believe that you got rid of non albicans yeasts and now you have eczema? I have always lived under the impression that I have the non albicans yeasts is creating these problems and once this is cured I will get rid of all these nasty symptoms.
Is vaginal cancer a concern for us? Could this infection lead to vaginal cancer if not treated? My gynelogical exams are painfull. The sexual intercours I can only imagine that is painful as well, I was too scared to even try that.
Could you tell me what treatment you got for your non albicans yeasts? My dr. didn't prescribe me anything. She acted like I was the only one in America who has had this problem and that she doesn't know what to do. From the articles I read on internet, I understand that non albicans yeasts are very difficult to treat with azoles.
I have made changes in my diet to and my symptoms have improved a lot. Also I don't use soap anymore, just rinse with water and that have helped. I totally avoid coffee and coffeine, sugar and that has helped. I also try to wear panties at least as possible. If there is anything else I can think of I will let you know.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
My symptoms before getting treated was a yellow discharge that would irritate and burn and these symptoms were also accompanied by an odor that smelled musty, sometimes kind of raw, stale, putrid, just plain bad. I could smell the odor through my pants most of the time so it was pretty embarrassing. I've consisted tested negative for any yeast, including non-albican yeast each time I got my routine cultures done after I was treated with the boric acid. The kind of strain of yeast I had was c.parapsolis, which I probably didn't spell right. I think my eczema developed as a result of all of the irritation of wiping and friction. Each time I would experience any weird discharge, I would go to the bathroom to wipe it away because it made me feel uncomfortable. As far as I know, non-albican yeast isn't linked to vaginal cancer. Vaginal cancer is actually very rare compared to uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, and cervical cancer.
The treatment I got for my non-albican yeast infection was boric acid for 14 days at bedtime. You don't do the suppositories when your menstruating. And after that course of treatment was done, I would go to my follow up appointment to check again for non-albican yeast. And I was also prescribed after that, another round of boric acid just to make sure the infection wouldn't come back. They were suppositories I would do once a week for 6 months. And then I would also get a follow up exam. I've gotten used to seeing my gynecologist pretty often which I don't mind anymore since I just want everything to be okay. Non-albican yeast infections are very resistant or "stubborn" as my gynecologist would say. Non-albican yeast requires stronger antibiotics to treat. I however wasn't prescribed antibiotics for mine but boric acid. You should consider getting another opinion or seeing a specialist.
My vaginal symptoms would get worse when I was menstruating, possibly because of the pH decrease that happens during menstruation. My symptoms weren't as bad when I was ovulating, possibly because of the estrogen increase during ovulation which stimulates the production of the "good" bacteria. I can assume the odor would also get worse because I would wear a pad, and then that would attribute to the chaffing near my perineum causing more irritation. When I wore tampons the odor would increase for sure to the point were I would have to take it out. I sure know those symptoms aren't typical.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
Your symptoms seem a bit different than mine. I don't have that discharge you are talking about. Since I got this infection, I almost don't have any discharge at all. Maybe I have a different type of non albincans yeast but I am not sure.
Did you finish those 6 months of treatment with boric acid? What symptoms do you have now?
And I am curious what is your next step in dealing with this problem if you still have symptoms?
I have been to a specialist to UCLA, and she didn't really do anything. She prescribed me estrogen cream, which I personally think made the things worse.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
I've finished the boric acid treatment for a good year and a half. I recently went back a couple of months ago and was told I have signs of inflammation and it was treated with hydrocortisone suppositories. Now that is taken care of also. I have little to no symptoms after I changed my eating habits. So basically as of now, I don't have any symptoms. I was hoping to get a concrete diagnosis rather than "your vaginal inflammation is potentially linked to your eczema." That just isn't an answer I'm happy with. I wonder with all of the things that went on throughout the past couple of years is something that is related to one thing (that hasn't been diagnosed yet) or is it just a separate occurrence.
Have you read The V Book by Elizabeth G. Stewart? That has to be the only book that gave me the answers that I was looking for. It helps that it's the only book that I know of that is solely about vaginal health.
A lot of the times, getting a diagnosis can be as easy as visiting the right doctor. Some doctors really are just out of touch or not very updated with the latest medical research. Most vaginal specialists have to be up to date in vaginal diseases and disorders since that is their specialty so it's kind of a bummer that the one you saw didn't help much. Your just going to have to keep looking for the right doctor.
Was there anything that helped you in the slightest?
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
What were your symptoms that made you go back and for them to tell you "signs of imflamation"? Did you use to have any burning at all when you had the non albicans yeast?
Yes, there are few things which helped with my symptoms....acid boric, diet, and Grapefruit seed extract. And some things which made it worse...sugar, coffee, clotrimazole, monistat.
However I don't think we have the same type of yeast. I don't have the discharge you talked about. My main symptoms are burning and stinging of the vagina. As a matter of fact I don't have any discharge at all.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
About the V book, I read the chapter where she talks about the yeast infection. Yes it helped me to understand where I stand but it doesn't talk about the amphotericine and flucytosine - vaginal tablets, or the amphotericine douche.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
The symptoms that caused me to go back was the burning and soreness that I was experiencing at the time. I do remember having signs of burning with the non-albican yeast but it wasn't the same sensation. One of my labias were irritated and kinda swollen and hurt. So there was an exterior affect that I haven't experienced and of course I mentioned to you before the eczema and the dry irritated skin near my perineum which I also didn't experience before.
Dr.Stewart's book was written a good 8 years ago so between that time and now there's definitely going to be current medical text regarding vulvo-vaginal diseases and treatments missing unless she decides to release an updated version. I may ask her about that.
When you say you don't have any discharge at all, do you mean in the sense of vaginal dryness? Did you gynecologist tell you what strain of non-albican yeast your dealing with?
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
What do you mean by "it wasn't the same sensation"? Did you experience a different kind of burning?
It almost makes me believe that your initial infection wasn't completely cured. Did you know that the non albicans yeasts not always culture out? I have had about 10 cultures in about 1 year, before they found my non albicans. And the time they finally "picked it" was when I was less symptomatic, after I had used the acid boric. And even though right before I was burning really bad, on the diagnosis it said '"non albicans yeasts - few". And I never received a treatment for my infection. My doctors refused to prescribe me any antifungals. I lived one year in hell with continuous burning, soreness, and stinging - maybe the worst year in my life.
After I was diagnosted with non albicans yeasts - which means I had more than one non albicans - they never told me which ones (I believe I have glabrata), they still didn't prescribe me any medication. They just shook their shoulders and told me it is vulvodynia. I had to tell them that this is an infection even though I didn't go to a medical school. I have hated my doctors for so long.
My vagina felt pretty dry, the only discharge I had was the discharge which comes with the ovulation. You know when we, women get aroused, we get a discharge, I am not getting that either. I am completely dry. When my symptoms get better I somehow get a bit of a discharge.
I personally believe that as long as we still feel burning and soreness, we still have the infection. I think once the infection is cleared, the skin and mucosa will heal automaticly. I dont think it is normal that once we eat something sweet or a coffee to still get symptoms - this is a sign of infection. Do you ever get a warm feeling in your vagina after you pee?
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
I do feel like there is a piece missing, I'm only looking for a straight forward answer. My gynecologist doesn't see anything wrong under the microscope, I pass the whiff test, I pass the wet prep test, my pH is "normal" enough to turn the litmus paper yellow, there are little signs of inflammation that were already taken care of with hydrocortisone suppositories, she says my secretions look normal and smell normal (a little musty or like sour milk but normal to her standards), everything is just normal, and my cultures always come back negative. My yeast cultures are done with a special broth called sabouraud's broth for culturing non-albican yeast. If anything was wrong she should have at least noticed during the physical exam ... but nothing. I always did think it was unusual that my symptoms would flare up depending on what I ate. Then I read The Yeast Connection and it all seemed to make sense. Apparently I'm a likely candidate for yeast sensitivity and yeast over growth. I stopped eating certain things and my symptoms improved.
I didn't notice a warm vaginal sensation when I peed. The whole time I had my infection I didn't experience vaginal dryness, if anything I experienced a little more discharge. My burning and irritation wasn't the main issue, mainly just an issue when the discharge came out and irritated/burned the skin around it.
Have you considered that the vaginal dryness your experiencing is the main problem? I know about a vaginitis called atrophic-vaginitis that is actually very similar to what your experiencing. Something else I want to put out there that my gynecologist told me, the vagina contains all kinds of yeast, bacteria (good and bad), and a broad variety of other organisms, but they all live symbiotically unless there is a disruption and something overgrows. There can be e.coli in the vagina and streptococcus B., yet everything is normal and in check. I was experiencing a non-albican yeast over growth. If you had a few non-albican yeast then that may not be substantial enough to be a diagnosis. Your doctors aren't sure enough to prescribe you anything because they may feel it's something other than non-albican yeast. The fact that you said your vagina is pretty dry is a huge red flag in my mind. Vaginal dryness is most definitely going to come with intense burning and stinging. I think the main issue is the vaginal dryness and that should be addressed first to see if it helps the situation.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
I think that the dry feeling I have, it is because of the glabrata which is a non albicans yeast. I read that with glabrata there is minimal or no discharge at all. Also I noticed that when I have more discharge, then my symptomes are not so bad.
My pap smear and all my og gyn tests are within normal. There was only one culture which showed non albicans yeast. The litte discharge I have, doesn't seem like a yeast infection to me.
I just don't know what to do, because my dr. doesn't prescribe me anything, even though I have all these symptoms.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
It's interesting that you mention c.glabrata causes little to no discharge because I've done a lot of research on non-albican yeasts especially since I was diagnosed with c.parapsilosis and I've never been able to find a credible source that lists the tell-tale signs or symptoms that occur with the colonization of non-albican yeasts. I actually haven't been able to find anyone on message boards or forums that has experienced similar symptoms as me so I'm questioning if symptoms vary from person to person or not.
Your probably going to have to start shopping around for another gynecologist. From the stories I've read from women that were affected by resistant yeast infections or non-albican yeasts, their symptoms were always comparable to the classic yeast infection except the infection is unresponsive to OTC yeast treatments. Have you tried a probiotic named Fem-dophilus yet? That was one of the only OTC products that I've tried that actually helped a lot. And I still take it although it is pricey.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
SwtSimplicity, you say that you have thrush but that it doesn't look typical; I believe I have the same thing (even though I'm a guy). About a year after my scrotum turned red (Dr. thinks its ecxema), my tongue slowly turned white. It isn't chunky and my gums don't seem to have the typical thrush-looking symptoms but the whole top of my tongue is white which gets worse as the day goes on. I can scrape most of the crap off, but it still looks white even after I do this.
Recently, I have concluded that this is a result of non-albicans yeast, more specifically C. Glabrata. I have had mouth swabs performed by ear/nose/throat specialists who determined that this was not thrush, however I do not know if they tested for all strains of yeast or not. When the specialist looked at my tongue she said right away that it wasn't thrush just based on the look. She ended up sending me home believing that it was geographic tongue even before she sent off my DNA for tests.
In your case you would get a pap test to determine if there is an infection, I think that I can only be tested via blood or stool and I have not had either of these tests done. I find it weird that nobody else on forums seem to be talking about other forms of yeast and how to treat them. Looking online it looks as if obtaining echinocandins or Amp B isn't going to be all too easy since most of these drugs are taken via IV. Did you by any chance as your Dr if you could be put on any yeast meds other than the azoles?
One thing that is different is I changed my eating habits and had no sugar for six months which seemed to have absolutely no effect on my symptoms. When you went on your diet, did your symptoms improve immediately? When I started drinking coffee and alcohol again, the only change is that my tongue gets really white while I'm drinking booze but that could simply be because I'm becoming dehydrated from the alcohol. This seems to be getting progressively worse as time goes on and so far everything that I have tried (fluconazole, doxycycline, capryllic acid, pau d'arco) has had no effect.
I looked up the femdophilus but unfortunately it looks like its specifically made for women. Any chance you have heard of the same type of thing for men? Acidophilus makes absolutely no difference.
Re: What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation?
BigRed2k4,
Both my gynecologist and my general practitioner said the coating on my tongue is possibly connected to my eczema. I actually did get my mouth swabbed and the yeast culture came back negative (I didn't ask if it was for both candida yeast and non-albican yeast). What you said is similar to me; as the day goes on and I eat certain things, the coating on my tongue gets worse especially if I eat bread. There are times when I would clean my tongue really well and all of the coating comes off, within the hour I can start to see it showing up again. I try not to clean it too hard because I heard about a controversy about brushing too hard leading to oral cancer because bacteria enter the gums or something like that. I've been trying to pay attention to how bad it gets after I eat certain things. Bread, coffee, and sugar makes the coating worse. I don't smoke or drink either.
I never bothered asking my gynecologist that I want to be put on yeast medications because my yeast cultures would always test negative (for all yeast including non-albican yeast) and I'm afraid I could be doing myself more harm than good taking something that I may not even need especially if their antibiotics. The last thing I want to do is over do it with antibiotics.
When I went on my diet, I didn't notice immediate results. I noticed a slow but consistent improvement. I didn't jump into the diet though because I tried to at one point and I lost so much weight and I have a small frame so that wasn't good. I began testing the foods that would flare my symptoms every now and then and within the hour I would start experiencing symptoms.
I'm kind of on a yeast-diet/macrobiotic/raw food diet. I also try to avoid eating meat since most meat is pumped with hormones and toxins including antibiotics. After consistently staying on the diet for many months, my eczema is clearing up, my skin isn't as dry, my vaginal and tongue issues aren't half as bad as they used to be, and my allergies weren't a huge issue. I can't do much about being allergic to dust/dust by-products and mold. I just continue taking OTC allergy medications.
I'm pretty sure you can take the Fem-Dophilus even though it's specifically made for women. It's just a probiotic, the worst-case scenario for you would be that it doesn't work. There aren't any other probiotics that I know of that contain those strains of bacteria except for RepHresh Pro-B which is basically the same thing.
Do immune related conditions run in your family (i.e. Hay fever, allergies, eczema, asthma)?
What Can Help My Eczema, Allergies, and Inflammation? 
I'm still not satisfied with this circumstantial diagnosis I was given. I need to also put this out there, I notice all of my symptoms (thrush and vaginitis) increase when I eat certain foods, mainly breads and sugary stuff. The thrush on my tongue seems to decrease when I stop eating certain foods. My eczema is actually clearing up pretty well, it flares up from time to time but I keep it under control. 
