Vera Matsuda-Brownlea doesn’t remember life before atopic dermatitis. Now 76, she’s had AD – and many other skin sensitivities and allergies – since babyhood. She’s learned how to make her AD treatments work for her, even as they’ve changed over time.
Managing AD requires a lot of trial and error, says Matsuda-Brownlea, a Big Island, Hawaii, resident who devotes hours to studying hula and line dancing every week. “You always expect your eczema to improve with a new product, or whatever,” she says. “You believe in miracles.”
That part can be frustrating, she says. For example, when she tried the corticosteroid injection triamcinolone (Kenalog) in more recent years, it not only improved her eczema, but it also amped up her energy, too. She found she could go on more hikes on the world-class trails nearby. But side effects such as weakening bones – which can lead to osteoporosis – led her doctors to stop prescribing it.
AD Can Show Up Early
“The very earliest mention … of my having eczema was when my mother came home from the hospital after having my sister,” says Matsuda-Brownlea. She was just a year and a half at the time. Her mother “was very upset that my eczema had acted up again.” AD often starts in infancy.
Having long lived with eczema at the back of her own neck, her mother could spot a chronic – meaning ongoing – condition. “It was all over my body – my back, stomach, neck, back of legs, feet,” Matsuda-Brownlea says. Her mother would bandage the skin that bled from the toddler’s constant scratching.
First, they tried calamine lotion and anything they could find to help relieve the itching. None of the remedies lasted for long, though.
Seeing a Specialist
When Matsuda-Brownlea was about 3 or 4, her grandfather took her to see a dermatology specialist in Long Beach, California, not far from the family’s home in West Los Angeles. She doesn’t remember the flare-up that prompted the visit or the results. But when she was 5 or 6, her family doctor suggested they try skin allergy tests for contact dermatitis.
“I was allergic to everything,” Matsuda-Brownlea says. Even though she was taken off eating eggs, wheat, milk, and citrus fruits all at once, then the standard elimination diet, “that didn’t seem to help.” Neither did alternating hot and cold baths, aka contrast water therapy. Hot baths aren’t recommended for AD these days, since they dry out your skin even more.
So they tried medicine. “They put me on allergy pills that made me very sleepy,” Matsuda-Brownlea says. “So then I had a hard time keeping my eyes open at school.”
That wasn’t acceptable either, so she stopped taking the pills. “I tried all these medicines,” as well as UV therapy, also called phototherapy, at about age 10. “Really, nothing seemed to help.”
The doctor said she’d outgrow it, which reassured the family. (Matsuda-Brownlea’s three sisters never had the condition.) She still often has AD on her arms, back, and legs, as well as between her fingers, on her feet, and sometimes on her neck.
Natural Solutions
The sun has been a key remedy for Matsuda-Brownlea. The revelation happened early. “My eczema cleared up in the summertime,” she says, especially when her non English-speaking grandfather, remaining her best advocate, often took her to the beach.
The blend of vitamin D from the sun, the warming rays, and saltwater was and remains a tonic for Matsuda-Brownlea. It’s good to live in a location that doesn’t have much cold weather, she admits.
When Your Location Limits Treatments
Just as the sunny weather where Matsuda-Brownlea lives helps her AD, living in a rural place can sometimes limit access to specific health care. For example, her insurance doesn’t provide for a dermatologist in nearby Hilo.
By far, the best treatment she’s had for her AD is triamcinolone injections, which greatly improved her condition for about three years. However, her doctor stopped feeling comfortable prescribing them because the drug had been shown to weaken bones. So Matsuda-Brownlea resorted to going to urgent care when she had a serious outbreak. But now that’s off the table, too, because of crackdowns in medical care.
It’s been about two years since she had a shot. But she can understand the doctor’s hesitance. “With my age, so many of my friends have had bad falls,” with osteoporosis a dangerous risk, she says.
Topical Steroids Help Ease Symptoms
Matsuda-Brownlea currently takes a prescription corticosteroid medicine to put on her skin called betamethasone dipropionate lotion, which helps control redness, itching, and swelling in conditions like AD. She applies a heavy cream over it to keep in the moisture. “It’s the only thing that’s worked in the last 20 years” other than the steroid shots, she says.
Mixing It Up
Though some things might work well for you, at least for a time, often a combination of approaches works best to improve your AD or keep it in check, Matsuda-Brownlea says.
- The right skin care. Matsuda-Brownlea uses topical steroids for flare-ups. Also, keeping her nails short and well-buffed keeps her from drawing blood when she scratches.
- Nature and movement. Some components of Matsuda-Brownlea’s go-to AD treatments are free or inexpensive, like sunlight, hula, and line dancing. “Dance when you get the chance,” she advises. “It’s better than drinking.”
- Minimizing stress. “Staying calm and having a good relationship” is the best scenario, she says. A lifelong Catholic, Matsuda-Brownlea also leans heavily on her religion and prayer to maintain inner calm and keep her hopeful.
- Monitoring nutrition. Matsuda-Brownlea doesn’t spend a lot of time trying to sort out what she might be allergic to. “I try not to eat a lot of anything,” she says. She naturally avoids processed sweets. “Since I couldn’t have chocolate as a kid, or flour, I never developed a sweet tooth.”
- Maintaining a healthy environment. Since being sick or having a temperature is a body stressor, trying to stay well goes far in managing her AD. Rainforest life includes water collected from rainwater catchment tanks, which is mineral-free “soft water.”
- Cultural remedies. It never hurts to stay close to your roots. Matsuda-Brownlea suggests an occasional warm liquid diet of chicken or beef broth to quickly clear up her skin. Then there’s the “old Japanese cure for everything,” she adds: Okayu, a rice porridge.
Show Sources
Photo Credit: iStock/Getty Images
SOURCES:
Vera Matsuda-Brownlea, Hawaii.
Mayo Clinic: “Triamcinolone (injection route)," “Betamethasone dipropionate (topical application route).”
National Eczema Association: “Atopic Dermatitis,” “Bathing and Eczema.”
