Dr. Mark Hyman answers viewer questions about eczema and excess gas, connecting both to gut health and diet. He explains what causes these problems and offers functional medicine approaches to treat them.
Hi everybody, it's Dr. Mark Hyman. Welcome to my weekly house call, your chance to ask me your questions. In today's episode we're going to discuss the causes of eczema and what to do if you have excess gas, which isn't fun for anybody. Now our first question comes from Twitter. It's from Cori and she says, can you tell me the causes of eczema that's only showing on my inside of my elbows and back of thighs? Well, eczema is eczema, so wherever it is, it matters. So eczema is a terrible condition. It's itchy, it's uncomfortable, it's unsightly and it's even embarrassing. So we have to look at the cause of eczema because you can't just slather lotions and potions and creams on it and take steroids which actually get absorbed and are harmful. You have to look at what's happening inside the body and how to fix what's going on on the outside. Most of the outside conditions of the skin are actually caused by something going on inside and slathering stuff all over it doesn't really help. So There are a number of causes. One is gut problems. In fact, they're all really related to the gut. It's a leaky gut, which means proteins from food and bacteria that are abnormal cause damage to the gut, particularly gluten, and that leads to the breakdown and the barrier between you and your immune system and what's in the gut, which is foods and proteins and bad bugs and all that leaks in and your immune system is right there. It starts to create inflammation. The biggest drivers are really food sensitivities. gluten, and dairy. And imbalances also in the gut. One of them is yeast. Yeast is a big common factor that drives a problem with eczema. A diet that's not good in omega-3 fats, a diet that contains gluten if you're sensitive, a diet that creates imbalances in the gut flora, and all those things, even heavy metals and other toxins, can disrupt the immune system leading to eczema. Really the first place I start is the gut. Get rid of the bad foods, fix the gut, get rid of the bad bugs in there. And the best way to do that is do an elimination diet. It's the first thing to try. And people can get better within days and basically take out the bad stuff you put in the good stuff. And the 10-day detox diet that I created is probably the best way for you to get an immediate sense of is this something that's just related to what you're eating in your gut floor or is it something else? Now I had a patient once who had eczema all over her body. tons of medications and antihistamines and steroids and it was pretty much a mess. It turned out she had terrible yeast overgrowth. We gave her an antifungal and she did much better and we found out she had mercury which can cause yeast overgrowth. So it was perpetuating and we got rid of the mercury, we got rid of her fungus and helped her gut heal. And it was amazing. I saw her for many, many years and after the first treatment she basically just resolved and never had anything again. and she lost like 25 pounds in the process. So it's very powerful when you use functional medicine. Skin issues are really a problem for many people and whether it's acne or eczema or psoriasis, all these can be addressed. And I think that no matter who you are, doing this approach can have a big impact. So I encourage you to focus on getting your health straight and focus on getting your gut straight and you can actually overcome eczema pretty easy. It's one of the easiest things to fix. So thanks, Corey, thanks for helping us learn more about eczema and getting more strategies to heal. I'm going to link to a blog I wrote about eczema in 2015 and you can learn more there. So the next question comes from a reader who left a voicemail but not her name. You can wonder why. Let's listen.
She says, hi Dr. Hyman, I have a problem with excessive gas and I sure would like to know how you can get rid of it. Thank you and I hope you'll answer my question next week.
So the colorist question is how do I get rid of excessive gas? We've all experienced it. It's uncomfortable. It's embarrassing. So let's talk more about this. What causes gas? Well, most of you don't know, and I didn't really know this either, is that humans don't make gas. Humans don't produce gas. Bugs in your gut produce the gas. So there's a lot of things that can trigger it, and a lot of it has to do with bad bugs in the gut and poor digestive function. So it could be food sensitivities like dairy causing lactose intolerance, it could be other things, it could be problems with not enough functioning digestive enzymes, too many bad bugs. So how do you deal with that? Well, there are billions of good bugs, in fact, probably there are trillions of good bugs that are supposed to be living in your gut helping to break down all the food and allow the nutrients to get in and get maximum absorption. And these good bugs, actually do help you, but the bad bugs can create a problem. So the bad bugs really are causing fermentation. It's like a brewery inside that ferments the food, and the things that get fermented are mostly sugars and starch. Protein a little bit, but sugars and starch, actually they drive trouble with your gut flora. That results in all kinds of yeast issues, bacterial overgrowth, in the small intestine and that creates this fermentation. So if you feel bloated after you eat, if you don't feel like you digest your food, you really have to get on this and you probably should follow some of the guidelines that I put out in some of my blogs on how to fix your gut and also the 10-day detox diet can be very helpful. But if you're not getting better, you probably need to see a practitioner and get help with getting rid of the bad bugs, putting in the good bugs, helping you with digestive enzymes all these things can really, really help. You also might want to try a special diet which is called a low FODMAPs diet. And FODMAPs are fermentable starches. Now, nobody probably knows what this is or has heard of it, but it stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. That's basically starch, different kinds of starches, and sugar alcohols. Now, try to say that 10 times fast. Basically, there are types of sugars found in a bunch of common foods like wheat, beans, milk, apples, honey, sugar snap peas, peaches, plums, cauliflower, sugar-free treats, especially the ones with sugar alcohol. Now that's not a comprehensive list, but you're gonna learn more about the FODMAP diet in the link below. But there are strong links between high FODMAP diets and bloating and gas. But if you fix your gut flora, you might be able to fix it so you don't have to restrict your diet. The idea is to get it back in balance. Also, you could supplement with enzymes that help break down some of the foods you're eating. You can avoid dairy and you can add fiber and prebiotics that can all help. But make sure that if you don't get better, you go to see someone because that's not just symptomatic of gas, there's other imbalances going on. So we all occasionally have gas, and it's a natural byproduct of our digestive machine that's in our intestinal tract. But when it becomes too much, it's kind of unbearable. And I would give these easy fixes a try. If you aren't feeling better, go find a functional medicine doc to get to the root of the problem. All right, well that's all the time we have for today. If you liked this video, be sure to share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter. And if you have any questions, You can tweet them to me or send video submissions to DrHymen.com and maybe next week, I'll make a house call to you. Thanks for watching.
