Natural Eczema Treatment

Eczema, also known by its clinical name atopic dermatitis, is at its heart a skin barrier condition. Whatever first causes it, including genetics, the result is the same: a barrier that doesn't hold moisture in or keep irritants out the way it should. What you put on your skin matters, but it's rarely the whole story. Triggers, diet, gut health and stress can all play a part, and this page covers each of them.

If you're looking for products, our creams for eczema-prone skin page explains how our water-free range fits together and which to try first.

Is It Eczema, or Could It Be Topical Steroid Withdrawal?

If you've used steroid creams regularly for a long time and your skin has become more widespread, burning and harder to control, this can be topical steroid withdrawal (TSW) rather than eczema getting worse. Many people going through TSW say they were told it was "just eczema", which is why the hashtag #ThisIsNotEczema exists. Our TSW page explains the signs, how it differs from eczema, and where to find support. Whichever it is, please involve your doctor. Stopping long-term steroid use suddenly can affect the adrenal glands, so don't stop without medical advice.

Look After Your Skin Barrier

The outer layer of your skin is your first line of defence. In eczema it tends to be weakened, letting moisture out and irritants in (see How Your Skin Works). Plant oils rich in linoleic acid, such as sunflower, shea, rosehip and borage, give your skin what it needs to make ceramides, and research suggests plant oils can support barrier function. Soap, detergents and bubble baths can damage the barrier, and studies suggest soap-free cleansers are preferable.

It's also vital to look after your skin's microbiome, the community of bacteria living on its surface, which helps keep more troublesome bacteria in check. Preservative-free products and avoiding antibacterial products both help it stay in balance.

Eczema Triggers

Eczema isn't always triggered by something identifiable, barrier dysfunction and genetics are often enough on their own, and plenty of people never pin down a specific cause. But if your flares do seem to follow a pattern, working out what's behind it can make a real difference to managing the condition day to day.

Hormonal Triggers
If your flares track closely with your menstrual cycle, pregnancy, puberty or menopause, hormonal changes are likely playing a role for you. This is a recognised pattern, not just a coincidence, hormone fluctuations affect immune activity and skin barrier function directly.

Food Triggers
Food is a genuine trigger for a meaningful number of people with eczema, particularly infants and young children, and especially in more severe cases, though it's far from universal, eczema itself is caused by genetics, immune activity and barrier dysfunction, not by any specific food. Reactions can be immediate (itching or hives within minutes to an hour) or delayed (worsening over 6 to 48 hours), which makes delayed reactions much harder to spot without paying close attention.

The most common culprits are cow's milk and dairy, eggs, wheat (where there's a genuine sensitivity, allergy or coeliac disease), nuts and soy, particularly in young children, and generally, a diet high in processed food and sugar. See our Foods for Healthy Skin page for the fuller picture.

A genuine word of caution here: don't cut out major food groups on your own without professional guidance, especially for a child, unsupervised elimination diets can lead to real nutritional deficiencies. A simple symptom diary and a conversation with a GP, dermatologist or dietitian before making any serious dietary change is the safer route.

Skin Irritants
Keep an eye on harsh soaps and detergents, washing powder and fabric conditioner, hair products, household cleaning products, hot water, and rough or scratchy fabrics like wool. See our Skin Irritants page for the full list.

Stress
Stress is a well-documented eczema trigger, acute stress has been shown to directly worsen symptoms, and the relationship runs both ways, living with eczema is itself stressful, which can perpetuate flares. See our Stress, Blood Sugar and Skin Health page.

Histamine, a Secondary Piece Worth Checking
Eczema's itch mostly travels through different pathways than histamine, which is why antihistamines so often disappoint, most of what drives a flare is broader immune activity and barrier breakdown, not histamine specifically. That said, there's a genuine, documented subgroup of people with eczema who also have reduced ability to break down dietary histamine, and a low-histamine diet measurably helps their symptoms.

This is worth a look if the triggers above don't fully explain your pattern, particularly if your flares seem to follow histamine-rich foods specifically, aged cheese, wine, cured meats, rather than the more classic allergens above, or if you notice other symptoms alongside your skin, flushing, headaches, or digestive upset. Our Histamine Sensitivity and Intolerance page covers what triggers it, what raises your overall load, and gives practical, step-by-step ways to reduce it if that turns out to be relevant for you.

Zinc has a longstanding place in managing histamine-related itch too. Zinc ions are well established as stabilising mast cell membranes, which can help reduce the histamine release behind itching, part of why we use it in Zinc and Calendula Cream.

When Eczema Becomes Infected

Eczema-affected skin is far more prone to bacterial infection than most people realise, studies have found Staphylococcus aureus colonising the skin of 46-80% of people with eczema, compared to around 10% of people without it, a direct consequence of the barrier weakness at the heart of the condition.

Signs worth knowing, since catching this early makes a real difference: increasing pain rather than just itch, weeping or oozing that turns yellow or crusty, spreading redness, small yellow-topped spots, swollen glands, or feeling generally unwell. If you notice these, please see your GP promptly rather than trying to manage it yourself, antibiotics are often genuinely necessary at this point, and delaying treatment can make things considerably worse.

Interestingly, dilute bleach baths, a common medical recommendation for reducing staph on eczema-prone skin, have been shown in lab studies not to actually kill the bacteria at the concentration typically used, researchers think any benefit may come from a mild anti-inflammatory effect rather than genuinely reducing bacterial load.

Most of the specific research on zinc oxide directly killing Staphylococcus aureus relates to nano-formulated zinc, which ours isn't, so we wouldn't claim that effect for our cream specifically, but zinc's drying, astringent action is genuinely useful on weeping or oozing patches regardless. Dead Sea salt has real evidence behind it too, for improving barrier function and reducing inflammation, both of which matter for skin trying to keep bacteria in check in the first place.

Some practitioners we've worked with, including a dermatology nurse we collaborated with who specialised in eczema care, have found a Dead Sea salt bath followed by Zinc and Calendula Cream a genuinely useful everyday combination for keeping skin calm and supported between flares, alongside medical treatment when skin is actually infected, not instead of it.

Medical-grade Manuka honey is also worth knowing about if skin is genuinely weeping or infected, unlike ordinary honey, it's sterilised for this purpose, and its active compound, methylglyoxal, has real evidence behind it for fighting Staphylococcus aureus, including breaking down the biofilms that can make infections harder to shift. It's typically applied thinly and covered with a sterile dressing, worth discussing with your GP or pharmacist alongside any infection treatment, rather than a substitute for it.

Nutritional Deficiencies

A varied, healthy diet is a good start. See our Foods for Healthy Skin page. A few deficiencies come up often in eczema specifically:

• Many people with atopic eczema seem to have trouble converting linoleic acid into gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). Our calendula products contain borage oil, which is rich in GLA, and some people also take evening primrose or borage oil supplements.
• Omega-6 and omega-3 need to be in balance, and most of us eat far more omega-6. An omega-3 supplement can help redress that. B vitamins, zinc, magnesium and selenium are involved in the conversion of linoleic acid to GLA. See our skin supplements.
  
  

Our Approach in Brief

Simple, gentle skincare is the foundation for everything else on this page. That means cleansing without soap, moisturising daily with a plain balm, and keeping a soothing calendula product on hand for patches that flare. Our products are water-free, so they contain no preservatives or emulsifiers, which helps leave your skin barrier and microbiome undisturbed. Whatever you use, patch test first. For the full approach, sample sets and help choosing, see how to choose and use our creams for eczema-prone skin.

Where to Find Support

Eczema, especially on the face, can hit your confidence hard. These are worth a look:

• ITSAN, for topical steroid withdrawal
• What Allergy, Ruth Holroyd's award-winning blog

A nutritional therapist is often the right person to help investigate diet and gut health. Your GP is still worth seeing if your skin looks infected, isn't improving, or you want to rule out anything more serious.