Post by Lannie on Sept 27, 2009 14:05:22 GMT -5
I know this has been discussed before, in fact I just pulled up and read a couple of old threads discussing it, but I'm still battling this problem and thought I'd share a couple of things I just learned.
Specifically, what I'm talking about is dermatitis from milking. Mine started a month or so after Bandit calved last year, and was to the point of bloody sores on my hands until I finally got some nitrile gloves and started wearing those to milk (I have to cut the fingers off, but the backs of my hands are still covered that way). I tried most of the suggestions in the previous threads, but nothing was working for very long. Sometimes it would get a little less, but it never went away. I finally decided I am allergic to cows.
But why? I wasn't allergic to Bandit BEFORE she calved. Only after I started milking her. This summer, when I dried her off, I expected the red, thick, scaly patches and itchiness would go away, but it didn't. Then I started washing my hands after EVERY visit with her (even if it was just to pet her or feed her) and using a diluted solution of grapefruit seed extract applied with a cotton ball. It started clearing up then, and in about a week was almost gone. The only thing I had left was the little bumps that are almost like small warts on the backs of my hands. When I get a new rash (like every time I milk!), there'll be a couple more of these little bumps and they itch like mad, but never go away. Even if the itch finally passes, the bumps stayed. It was really nasty looking, even just before I started milking again, when it was at its best.
So now I'm back milking, and once again, the itching and red, thickened skin are back. It's so DRY, it cracked in a couple of places and was bleeding. And this only a week or so after I started milking, so very quickly compared to last year. The lotion I'd been using seemed to make the itching and redness worse, and I was much more comfortable and less itchy if I left my hands dry, but then the skin was cracking and bleeding. Oh, what to do?
I got a tube of antifungal (athlete's foot) cream from Wal-Mart last Thursday when we went shopping, and a hand cream that doesn't have any perfumes or dyes in it, but it does have lanolin. Between the two of these, now it's getting a bit better. But the real breakthrough was that I pulled out a book I've had for TEN YEARS (go figure...) and looked up Atopic Dermatitis, and sure enough, it seems to be a contact allergy. There obviously must be a fungal element as well, because the antifungal cream is helping a bit, although it's not going away. Anyway, this book (The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine) says that in certain individuals, there is a fault in the prostaglandin metabolism that causes a hyper reaction to common allergens. Mostly the book deals with food allergies, but mine is a contact allergy - only on my hands.
Without typing out the whole section (that would take too long!), basically it says that taking burdock root and dandelion root supplements (capsules of powdered root) every day, along with fish oil internally, will stimulate the ACP (alternate complement pathway) that determines how much histamine is produced in response to an allergen. Restoration of the ACP mechanism also apparently restores the body's ability to fight off surface pathogens such as bacteria and fungi. How interesting....
So I'm thinking that most, if not all, cows have some sort of common skin fungus that to THEM is completely benign, but to those of us that don't have properly functioning ACP mechanisms, it becomes problematic, causing an overactive immune response, and in turn the itching, dry, red, scaly skin.
So I've just reordered my stocks of burdock and dandelion root powder and will make up a bunch of capsules and start taking them on a regular basis every day. I also ordered some fish oil capsules. As soon as I start this, I'll discontinue the antifungal cream and see what the difference is, if any.
Another supplement that was recommended (and I forgot to order, duh!) is quercetin, which is a flavenoid found in many fruits. Quercetin inhibits histamine formation and reduces inflammation. I'll add that in later, if warranted.
Other things that have been helpful (according to the book) are:
Vitamin A
Vitamin E
Zinc
Grape seed extract (not grapeFRUIT seed extract)
Green tea
Ginkgo biloba
Licorice (the herb, not the candy )
Topically, witch hazel, chamomile and licorice tea.
One of the things that made this go BING for me is that the book says that most people who have this problem ALSO have a problem with too much bacteria on their skin, specifically Staph aureus. I have that problem, too. It causes boils anyplace there's constant pressure (which is unfortunately my butt and my waistline... ). I think what happens is that hairs get rubbed off, and the Staph A on my skin infects the follicle. So maybe I'll be able to kill two birds with one stone here.
I've had a problem with my immune system (and health in general) all my life because of the crap I was fed when I was a kid. I've had systemic candidiasis most of my life, and only in the last few years, since I went off so many junk foods, have I been able to get anywhere near "healthy." And then this thing with my hands pops up, and I see I still have a ways to go. sigh... but I'm getting there, slowly but slowly.
Anyway, I wanted to bring this subject up again because I'm going to be using myself as the guinea pig to see if there's any truth to the defective ACP theory, and to see if it can be corrected. According to my book, after a period of time, the burdock and dandelion should stimulate my system to work correctly, even without the herbs. So we'll see. And if anyone else is still having this problem and nothing else has been working, maybe once I find out if this works, you can try it, too. Hey, you never know! It just might!
I just want to be able to milk my cow with no physical discomfort. I don't think that's too much to ask.
~Lannie
Specifically, what I'm talking about is dermatitis from milking. Mine started a month or so after Bandit calved last year, and was to the point of bloody sores on my hands until I finally got some nitrile gloves and started wearing those to milk (I have to cut the fingers off, but the backs of my hands are still covered that way). I tried most of the suggestions in the previous threads, but nothing was working for very long. Sometimes it would get a little less, but it never went away. I finally decided I am allergic to cows.
But why? I wasn't allergic to Bandit BEFORE she calved. Only after I started milking her. This summer, when I dried her off, I expected the red, thick, scaly patches and itchiness would go away, but it didn't. Then I started washing my hands after EVERY visit with her (even if it was just to pet her or feed her) and using a diluted solution of grapefruit seed extract applied with a cotton ball. It started clearing up then, and in about a week was almost gone. The only thing I had left was the little bumps that are almost like small warts on the backs of my hands. When I get a new rash (like every time I milk!), there'll be a couple more of these little bumps and they itch like mad, but never go away. Even if the itch finally passes, the bumps stayed. It was really nasty looking, even just before I started milking again, when it was at its best.
So now I'm back milking, and once again, the itching and red, thickened skin are back. It's so DRY, it cracked in a couple of places and was bleeding. And this only a week or so after I started milking, so very quickly compared to last year. The lotion I'd been using seemed to make the itching and redness worse, and I was much more comfortable and less itchy if I left my hands dry, but then the skin was cracking and bleeding. Oh, what to do?
I got a tube of antifungal (athlete's foot) cream from Wal-Mart last Thursday when we went shopping, and a hand cream that doesn't have any perfumes or dyes in it, but it does have lanolin. Between the two of these, now it's getting a bit better. But the real breakthrough was that I pulled out a book I've had for TEN YEARS (go figure...) and looked up Atopic Dermatitis, and sure enough, it seems to be a contact allergy. There obviously must be a fungal element as well, because the antifungal cream is helping a bit, although it's not going away. Anyway, this book (The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine) says that in certain individuals, there is a fault in the prostaglandin metabolism that causes a hyper reaction to common allergens. Mostly the book deals with food allergies, but mine is a contact allergy - only on my hands.
Without typing out the whole section (that would take too long!), basically it says that taking burdock root and dandelion root supplements (capsules of powdered root) every day, along with fish oil internally, will stimulate the ACP (alternate complement pathway) that determines how much histamine is produced in response to an allergen. Restoration of the ACP mechanism also apparently restores the body's ability to fight off surface pathogens such as bacteria and fungi. How interesting....
So I'm thinking that most, if not all, cows have some sort of common skin fungus that to THEM is completely benign, but to those of us that don't have properly functioning ACP mechanisms, it becomes problematic, causing an overactive immune response, and in turn the itching, dry, red, scaly skin.
So I've just reordered my stocks of burdock and dandelion root powder and will make up a bunch of capsules and start taking them on a regular basis every day. I also ordered some fish oil capsules. As soon as I start this, I'll discontinue the antifungal cream and see what the difference is, if any.
Another supplement that was recommended (and I forgot to order, duh!) is quercetin, which is a flavenoid found in many fruits. Quercetin inhibits histamine formation and reduces inflammation. I'll add that in later, if warranted.
Other things that have been helpful (according to the book) are:
Vitamin A
Vitamin E
Zinc
Grape seed extract (not grapeFRUIT seed extract)
Green tea
Ginkgo biloba
Licorice (the herb, not the candy )
Topically, witch hazel, chamomile and licorice tea.
One of the things that made this go BING for me is that the book says that most people who have this problem ALSO have a problem with too much bacteria on their skin, specifically Staph aureus. I have that problem, too. It causes boils anyplace there's constant pressure (which is unfortunately my butt and my waistline... ). I think what happens is that hairs get rubbed off, and the Staph A on my skin infects the follicle. So maybe I'll be able to kill two birds with one stone here.
I've had a problem with my immune system (and health in general) all my life because of the crap I was fed when I was a kid. I've had systemic candidiasis most of my life, and only in the last few years, since I went off so many junk foods, have I been able to get anywhere near "healthy." And then this thing with my hands pops up, and I see I still have a ways to go. sigh... but I'm getting there, slowly but slowly.
Anyway, I wanted to bring this subject up again because I'm going to be using myself as the guinea pig to see if there's any truth to the defective ACP theory, and to see if it can be corrected. According to my book, after a period of time, the burdock and dandelion should stimulate my system to work correctly, even without the herbs. So we'll see. And if anyone else is still having this problem and nothing else has been working, maybe once I find out if this works, you can try it, too. Hey, you never know! It just might!
I just want to be able to milk my cow with no physical discomfort. I don't think that's too much to ask.
~Lannie