Links Between Eczema and Other Allergic Disorders by Dr Morison

This title was suggested by Deborah, so is not of my making as will become immediately apparent!

Some years ago I coined a phrase, "ANY allergen can cause ANY symptom in ANY system of the body", and rather to my surprise (‘cos I’m a humble chap!) it has been taken up by other members of our medical society, although recently a more flippant version has been doing the rounds, "Anything can do anything to anybody"!

Flippant or not, it is basically true! We all know – don’t we? – that pollens cause hayfever in susceptible subjects? Well yes, that’s true for some people, but what is true for some is never true for all: -

Some of you will be aware that high pollen counts make your eczema worse – indeed a few of you may only get eczema when the pollen count is high: ‘Hayfever of the skin’, if you will.

Most of you, however, may be surprised to know that pollen-sensitivity can also cause symptoms in other systems of the body: I well remember the matron of a home for handicapped people who watched me neutralising the violent hayfever of one resident, and she was so impressed with the speed with which it worked – within minutes of completing the neutralising process – that she asked me if it would work for the low-grade gastroenteritis she got every year during the pollen season. To cut a long story short, it did! She was eternally grateful and it was most gratifying to be able to end her annual ‘Hayfever of the gut’.

Each individual is just that – individual! No two are totally alike, even identical twins, so the medical world is chasing its tail by looking for ONE cause of eczema (or any other allergic condition)…there isn’t one! Every sufferer has a number of factors which affect him or her, and although some may have factors in common with other individuals – like a monkey on a typewriter might write a Shakespearean sonnet if left to play on it long enough – NO two individuals will ever have all the same factors involved, any more than two monkeys would type the same Shakespearean sonnet.

To get rid of your eczema, we must find and eliminate (or neutralise) as many of your factors as possible, otherwise we will not get rid of the causes of it. I make no apology for repeating Dr Doris Rapp’s question, "If a child has a pain in her foot from a nail in her shoe, would you give her an Aspro?" Think about it – so why do YOU smear steroid creams on your eczema, soothing as it may be for a short time?

In short, the links between eczema and other allergic disorders – asthma, hayfever, migraine, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis and countless others – are as many as there are allergens to which we are exposed.

No great surprise then that eczema is one of the commonest allergic disorders, as our skin is the largest organ of our body. In researching this article, I was intrigued to discover that an adult’s skin can weigh as much as 20 pounds. [And please don’t ask how anyone worked this out!]

So you should NOT be looking for a cure for eczema – you should be looking for a cure of your eczema: as individual as you are! If you don’t remove the nail from your shoe, you will be swallowing Aspro for evermore … and isn’t that exactly what the drug companies want you to do?

(May 2001)

Further Information

Dr Stewart Rutherford Morison,
4 Orchard Close, Horndean,
Waterlooville, Hampshire. PO8 9LL

Tel/Fax: 023 9259 3529

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