If you’ve been struggling with eczema or psoriasis, you’ve probably been through the ringer. Maybe you’ve tried every “miracle” cream on the shelf, sat through countless appointments, or were told that your only option is a lifetime of steroid creams or immunosuppressants.
But here’s the thing: your skin is not the enemy. Did you know that your skin is considered your “third kidney” in Chinese medicine? When your primary detox organs: like your liver, kidneys, and gut, are overwhelmed by a toxic burden, your body has to find another way to push those toxins out. The skin is the most visible “exit vent” it has.
Instead of just masking the symptoms, we want to ask why the body is screaming for help. To do that, we have to stop guessing and start testing.
Here are the three essential labs recommended for anyone ready to stop the itch and start the healing.
We’ve all heard the phrase “you are what you eat,” but it’s more accurate to say “you are what you can digest and absorb.” When you have a chronic skin condition like eczema or psoriasis, there is almost always an inflammatory fire burning in the gut.
A standard allergy test (the kind that looks for immediate IgE reactions, like hives or anaphylaxis) often comes back totally normal for people with chronic skin issues. This is because we are usually dealing with sensitivities (IgG or IgA reactions), which are delayed. You might eat a piece of bread on Monday, and your eczema flares up on Wednesday. Without testing, it’s nearly impossible to connect those dots.
Candida is a type of yeast that lives in the gut. In small amounts, it’s fine. But when it overgrows: often due to high sugar intake, antibiotic use, or chronic stress: it releases toxic byproducts like acetaldehyde. These toxins can leak into your bloodstream and manifest as red, itchy, or scaly patches on your skin.
By identifying exactly which foods are triggering your immune system and seeing if a yeast overgrowth is contributing to your toxic burden, a nutrition plan can be created that actually allows your skin to calm down.
You can’t talk about skin health without talking about the gut-skin axis. Your gut lining is supposed to be a tight barrier, only letting nutrients through into the bloodstream. Think of it like a fine-mesh screen. “Leaky gut,” or intestinal permeability, is what happens when that screen gets holes in it.
When the gut is leaky, undigested food particles, bacteria, and toxins slip through the “holes” and enter your circulation. Your immune system sees these “intruders” and goes into a state of high alert. This systemic inflammation often travels straight to the skin.
For many people with psoriasis: which is an autoimmune-related condition: leaky gut is a massive piece of the puzzle. The body is in a constant state of hyper-vigilance because it’s being bombarded by “junk” that shouldn’t be in the blood.
A specific lab test for markers like Zonulin (a protein that regulates the opening of those gut junctions) can tell us exactly how compromised your barrier is. If the gut is leaky, the skin will stay “leaky” and reactive. We have to seal the gut to clear the skin. A fiber-based meal plan is essential to getting the right nutrients into the gut is a foundational step in repair.
This is perhaps the most important lab for anyone with chronic, stubborn skin issues, yet it’s rarely ordered in a traditional medical setting.
Your immune system has different “branches.” The TH1 branch is your cellular defense (fighting viruses and bacteria), and the TH2 branch is more involved in allergic responses. In a healthy body, these two branches sit on a see-saw in perfect balance.
However, in people with eczema and psoriasis, the see-saw is usually stuck.
A TH1/TH2 Cytokine Profile measures specific signaling proteins called cytokines in your blood.
Why does this matter? Because if your immune system is stuck on one side, even “healthy” supplements can sometimes make you feel worse. For example, some herbs boost TH1, while others boost TH2. If you are already TH1 dominant and you take a TH1-boosting herb, you might flare your psoriasis!
By seeing exactly where your dominance lies, the proper protocol to support immune balance can be implemented.
Results can be used to build a customized, root-cause protocol using:
Nature provides incredible tools for detoxification and immune modulation. Herbs can support your body’s proper elimination system (so the skin doesn’t have to do the work), clear out Candida overgrowth, and soothe the gut lining.
Homeopathy works on an energetic level to remind the body how to heal itself. It is particularly effective for the “toxic burden” aspect of skin issues, helping the body move through the layers of suppression that often come after years of using steroid creams.
Peptides are short chains of amino acids that act as signaling molecules. They can be incredibly helpful for gut repair (like BPC-157) or for modulating the immune system without suppressing it. They help “talk” to your cells to encourage rejuvenation and repair.
This isn’t about a “one size fits all” diet. Based on your food sensitivity labs, remove the triggers that are causing internal fire and add in the specific nutrients: like Vitamin D, Zinc, and Omega-3s: that your skin needs to rebuild.
From a naturopathic perspective, TSW is your body’s desperate attempt to reboot its natural inflammatory response after it’s been artificially suppressed for so long. It’s yet another reminder that blocking elimination pathways has serious consequences.
Think of your body like a house with multiple exits. If you lock the back door (your skin), the pressure builds up inside. The toxins that were supposed to leave through your skin now have nowhere to go, so they either:
When you suppress skin inflammation with steroids, you’re not healing, you’re redirecting the problem. The toxic burden doesn’t go away; it just festers deeper in your system.
This is why I often see clients whose eczema “improves” with steroid use, but who simultaneously develop new issues like digestive problems, anxiety, chronic fatigue, or autoimmune symptoms. The body is always trying to communicate, and when you silence one channel, it will find another way to speak.
In my practice as a Traditional Naturopath, I don’t suppress symptoms, I support the body’s innate healing wisdom. When someone comes to me with eczema or inflammatory skin conditions, here’s what we focus on:
I use specialized testing to assess heavy metal levels, environmental toxin exposure, and total body burden. Unlike conventional approaches that ignore these factors, we need to know what your body is trying to eliminate before we can help it do so safely.
Before we start detoxing, we make sure your elimination channels are open and functioning. This means supporting your liver, kidneys, lymphatic system, and yes, your skin, with gentle, targeted protocols.
Most skin conditions have roots in gut dysfunction. Leaky gut, dysbiosis, and chronic inflammation in the digestive tract can all trigger systemic inflammation that shows up on your skin. Healing the gut is often the missing piece in resolving eczema for good.
Instead of steroids, I use homeopathic remedies, herbal medicine, and peptides to support the body’s natural healing response, without shutting down inflammation or blocking elimination. These approaches work with your body, not against it.
Chronic stress keeps your body in a state of fight-or-flight, which impairs detoxification and immune function. Nervous system support is a key part of any root-cause healing protocol
It’s important to understand that eczema and psoriasis are not just “bad luck.” They are symptoms of an underlying imbalance. In the world of conventional medicine, the goal is often to shut the symptom up. If you have a rash, they give you a cream to make the rash go away.
But if your body is using that rash to push out toxins, and you block that exit with a steroid, where do the toxins go? They go deeper into the body. This is why many people find that their skin clears up for a few weeks on a cream, only for the issues to come back worse, or for new issues (like asthma or digestive problems) to appear.
The goal is to help you open the proper “drainage” pathways so your body doesn’t need to use your skin as a trash can. We want to clean the internal environment so the external environment (your skin) can shine.
You don’t have to just “live with” itchy, painful, or embarrassing skin. Whether you are dealing with the dry, red patches of eczema or the silvery scales of psoriasis, there is an answer.
By looking at your food sensitivities, checking your gut health, and balancing your immune system’s see-saw, you can stop chasing symptoms and start true healing.
Steroids are a band-aid, they mask the symptom without ever addressing why the inflammation is there in the first place. In my practice, I see the same pattern over and over
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