Over the last 2 and 1/2 years, since I made my first video about Seborrheic Dermatitis and published A Seborrheic Dermatitis Survival Guide, I’ve conversed with hundreds of people afflicted with this frustrating condition, and have noticed some VERY uncanny similarities between SD sufferers that I’d like to share with you so that we can all better understand this condition.
But In order to understand how these commonalities relate to SD, I want to lay some groundwork that may seem redundant if you’ve watched my other videos, but just bear with me.
You first have to realize that this condition is not one-dimensional in nature. What I mean by that is that it is psycho-somatic. It is caused or aggravated by a mental factor such as internal conflict or stress.
3 years ago, when I was still suffering, some holistic practitioners would tell me about this aspect, but I never really took it seriously.
As an American, I am programmed to believe that for every health problem, there is a magical product or diet that can resolve it, so I experimented with all kinds of supplements, and tried all kinds of diets, but if you are focusing on that, you are really missing the bigger picture.
I feel obligated to elaborate on this because many of you are like I used to be and don’t take this association seriously because it’s hard to comprehend.
To put you in a different frame of mind – I’m sure there was a time in your life when you did not have SD and during this time, I doubt you were on some strict diet, and I doubt you were taking a bunch of supplements everyday, and your skin was fine.
This was also probably when you were a child or adolescent, or during a time when you were more happy-go-lucky.
So, how do you explain that? What happened? What went wrong?
First of all, you have a sensitive skin barrier. 100% of people with SD have that. This can either be genetic (maybe you’re northern European) or it was damaged by too much sun exposure, skin creams and alkaline soaps)
So that’s the first thing. The skin barrier makes it possible for Malassezia yeast to penetrate it, but why this autoimmune reaction?
I believe there is a reason why SD typically rears its head around adolescence or in early adulthood. This is a transformative, stressful time that everyone copes with differently. Every individual is going to respond differently to the same situation.
During late childhood and young adulthood, we become less ignorant and start seeing people and things for what they really are.The rose-colored glasses of childhood begin to fade away at this time, which can be traumatic, especially if you were dealt a particularly difficult hand. Maybe you had to deal with a broken family, the loss of someone close to you, maybe you were bullied, or had abusive parents and siblings. Maybe you had an injury or a breakup.
In early adolescence and as a young adult, our brains are mature enough to finally begin digesting our childhood, and using what we’ve learned as a child from the surrounding adults to cope with adulthood, which isn’t always ideal.
So how does this relate to SD?
This emotional trauma makes your CNS become imbalanced because the sympathetic nervous system was activated too often at some point. The sympathetic nervous system is also known as the fight or flight response. Parasympathetic is the rest and digest mode. But being in this survival mode too often can lead to physiological imbalance, or a deregulated nervous system.
Now, we’ve already established that SD is an autoimmune response to Malassezia yeast.
Well, the nervous system and immune system are closely related. The central nervous system modulates the immune system via the secretion of hormones and neurotransmitters’.
If you have an imbalanced nervous system, you’re going to have an imbalanced immune system that reacts in unusual ways, and an autoimmune response certainly is an inappropriate way to react to a yeast that is naturally present on everyone’s skin.
Not only do these two systems depend on each other, but the CNS and immune systems are very similar and essentially act in the same way.
For example, when you’re sick because of a bacteria or a virus, the acquired immune cells are expanded and stored as memory so that when the same pathogen is encountered again, you can fight it off more easily.
On the other hand, your emotional response to experiences leaves memories in the nervous system. The existence of these memories are constantly altering the immune response.
Both systems use accelerators and brakes. In the immune system, there is allergy and autoimmunity.
In the CNS, there are excitatory and inhibitory neurons, and the appropriate balance is important for normally functioning neuronal networks. If your immune system is overreacting to a yeast, your emotional response will also be more intense than what is considered to be normal. How we do anything is how we do everything.
So, as an SD sufferer, you are a highly sensitive person that feels things deeply and intensely because any individual’s CNS functions in the same way as their immune system.
If your immune system is overreacting to a yeast, that means your brain must be overreacting to experiences.
Because of this close communication between the brain and the immune system, any alteration in one system is going to impact the functioning of the other system.
There are animal and clinical studies regarding the effects of early-life stress on immunity , and it’s been proven that excess activation of the sympathetic nervous system due to early-life adversity makes the immune system overactive.
So having established the relation between the nervous system, immune system and SD, here are the strange similarities that I’ve noted that certainly play a part in the onset of SD. all of these things put unusual stress on the CNS, whether you are consciously aware of it or not.
1. Time spent abroad or in a place where you don’t feel really at home.
I’ve been living in France for nearly 10 years, and my SD worsened a lot when I initially came here.
I spoke with an individual who spent a year in New Zealand and his SD got worse. I believe that for sensitive people, travel is confusing to the identity and sense of self. Since you are not in the cocoon-like place of wherever you’re from, you have this constant, underlying stress and maybe don’t feel like you belong.
On two instances I came home to visit my family and my SD went away, but I didn’t make the connection at the time. I thought it was thanks to the supplements I was taking.
2. They often come from broken families.
This creates feelings of insecurity.
3. Low self confidence even before the onset of SD.
Maybe you were humiliated or harshly criticized at some point.
4. Obsessive behavior.
The SD sufferers I’ve interacted with are extremely thorough people who have a tendency to go down rabbit holes in all areas of life, and sometimes the wrong ones. This is an indication of trauma. You may not be able to put your finger on the source of that trauma, but the nervous system remembers every experience you’ve ever lived, even when you were an infant and child.
5. Intense workouts, especially bodybuilding.
Overeating to bulk up and weight training is stressful on an already compromised CNS.
6. People around them also having skin problems.
My sisters all have skin problems. They have eczema and acne. You may be saying, well that’s clearly genetic.I spoke with somebody who has SD who’s step-dad also has SD. Well, my Mom and her boyfriend of 4 years, who I recently met for the first time, came here to visit me last week, and he had severe SD all over his face. He did not have this before, which was very perplexing.
It’s possible that we attract specific types of people into our lives who are on similar wavelengths and have common karmic debts so we can grow and evolve together as spiritual entities.
The ego hates SD, but maybe the soul doesn’t.because it is learning from this difficult experience and is trying to teach YOU something. Maybe it’s trying to teach you to let go, forgive, be more humble, less vain, do things for the right reasons, accept and find peace with yourself. It’s going to be slightly different for everybody.
My roommate and best friend in college had severe psoriasis. He was Ukrainian and living abroad, depressive, paranoid; would overreact to everything. He grew up poor and had an emotionally abusive father. Psoriasis is also an autoimmune disease.
My best friend in High school had mild SD the last time I saw him, which was in 2017. His dad died when he was 18 of alcoholism, and his mother is in a psychiatric hospital. He did not have SD when we were in high school together. The accumulated damage takes time to add up and cause issues, but not always, sometimes it’s immediate.
Ray Charles developed glaucoma and became blind shortly after witnessing his brother drown. Glaucoma is an autoimmune condition.
I don’t believe it is a coincidence that I crossed paths with these individuals with skin problems. Like attracts like. People with similar personality traits have similar health problems. People with emotional trauma of a similar nature have similar health problems.
In the case of Ray Charles’ glaucoma, he didn’t want to see anymore. In the case of SD, you are not comfortable in your own skin. The body always tells the truth. There is no lie in nature.
Now don’t be discouraged because you can recalibrate the nervous system, and subsequently correct your immune system. The body is incredibly resilient and adaptive. If it can be thrown out of balance, it can also be brought back to a state of equilibrium.
First of all, get rid of your symptoms. The stress of looking at an inflamed flaky face in the mirror isn’t helping. There are many ways to do this:
- BioM8
- MCT oil
- Yogurt face masks
- Raw honey face masks
- Sea salt.
Once symptoms are controlled focus on balancing the physiology
- Get rid of toxic people in your life. Set boundaries. Move somewhere else if you have to.
- Get rid of financial stress. This activates the sympathetic nervous system even more.
- Spend time in nature
- Dry skin brushing
- Coffee enemas
- Cold exposure
- Acupuncture
- Visit an osteopathic physician
- Visit a TCM practitioner
- Listen to uplifting music
There is also promising evidence with regards to psilocybin. It can help reset your brain.
This is controversial, but I think that the correct use of tobacco also helps with nervous system disorders. This means never inhale tobacco smoke, only use occasionally, and consume in the form of pipes and cigars.
- Get enough sleep
- Go to bed early
- Wake up early.
- Get sufficient sun exposure
- Sun gaze
By using these methods and manipulating the nervous system system in a positive way, you can help create new, positive imprints, which will have a beneficial influence on this autoimmune disease.
All of the ways to eliminate symptoms and rebalance the nervous system and physiology are more extensively explained in my e-book found HERE.
References
https://www.scielo.br/j/rpc/a/rXdCBzrrL8Ghzdn7k5c6pdC/?lang=en
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cei.13355
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5866360/
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2019.00916/full
https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/how-do-magic-mushrooms-affect-the-brain
