Atopic dermatitis – commonly known as eczema – is when people get red, blotchy lesions on their skin, that often becomes very itchy. It is thought to be an autoimmune disease of the skin. But what if it’s not? What if it is neither an autoimmune disease or a disease of the skin.

 

I’m about to put forward a new theory for the cause of eczema, at least most cases of eczema. And the theory is going to be a shocker.

 

 

I’m going to propose that eczema is not a disease of the skin at all, but instead, a disease of the lungs.

 

Many people who have asthma also had eczema at some time in their lives. The most common pathway is to have eczema first – often as a baby – which later evolves to become asthma. Often the eczema goes away, but the asthma then stays. How could this be happening?

 

I found a clue, observing people who try to improve their asthma by doing aerobic exercises to remove mucous in their lungs, sometimes in combination with a daily dose of apple cider vinegar, which has antimicrobial properties. For some of these asthmatic people, their eczema inexplicably returned. In fact, the more they tried to remove mucous, the worse the eczema got.

 

Here’s the theory. Microbes – mainly fungi – infect the lung. The fungi behave in a different way, depending on whether the infection is new and on the increase, or established. When the fungi is not well established – as in babies – it emits different toxins to fend off competition from other microbes. These bleach-like toxins travel through the bloodstream causing the redness and lesions we know as eczema. Once established, the fungi changes its state, and the chemicals it releases. This established state is what causes asthma.

 

Doing exercises that reduce mucous in the lungs, as well as taking acidic apple cider vinegar, destabilises the microbial equilibrium. It puts the lung microbes back to a similar state to a baby, and eczema reappears, which continues regardless of whether the participant has stopped taking apple cider vinegar.

 

I’m not recommending that anyone adopt these measures or change their treatment. That could be dangerous. But I’m putting forth a new theory about the causes of eczema that will hopefully guide future research.