Before and Afters...

So – I first met Cameron when he was three years old, and suffering from eczema so severe that he looked as though he had been burned. His beautiful, exhausted mother Chayla had taken him everywhere, searching for help. Her last stop had been a consultant who offered to put Cameron on heavy-duty immunosuppressant medication.

“But,” Chayla said, “Doesn’t that mean his whole immune system will be suppressed? He’s only three! What happens if he catches the flu?”

That could be an issue, the consultant acknowledged.

Chayla took Cameron by the hand and led him straight out of the doctors office. She brought him to our farm, because she had heard from a friend that we might be able to help.

I took one look at Cameron and lost my heart to him. He was gorgeous. Big black eyes that glinted like obsidian – and you could tell that there was a sparkling bright mind underneath all those waves of distress.

I worked with Chayla and Cameron for eighteen months. That’s a long time, when you’re three. It’s a long time even for a grown-up. But in the end, Chayla, Cameron and I won that battle – together. Here’s Cameron, before and after:

I wrote my first children’s book, The Critters Inside You, for Cameron, to explain why he had to drink this funny stuff called kefir to make his skin better. Just recently, he and his mum and sister came back to the farm to visit. And just look at him now, so grown up and handsome!

Cameron at age 12 is even more wonderful than I suspected he might be – so clever, and quick, and interested in everything. And just look at that gorgeous skin! Made me a bit teary. Or maybe there was a bit of dust in the room – or something. He has promised to come and work for me when he gets old enough.

Then there was Eleri, who came to the farmhouse one Christmas Eve in terrible distress because her skin cancer treatment had left wounds that wouldn’t heal. She was so nice, and so distraught, that I promised I would try to come up with something to help her (though I wasn’t at all sure what that would be, as all the supply shops were shut! But I had to do something -) So I just raided my personal herb cupboard and boiled up a balm from what I had on hand – beeswax, plantain, comfrey, chamomile, yarrow, chickweed and nettle.

It worked a treat for Eleri, in only 21 days. One of my proudest results:

Today we call this Super Sensitive Skin Balm, and we still make it here on the farm. I always think of Eleri, when I see neat rows of the balm, stacked on the shelf. And I remember Rich, hollering through – “What are you doing in there! Stop working, woman! It’s CHRISTMAS EVE!” Isn’t mad, how things turn out…

There have been so many other special people through the years – many of whom have remained friends.

There was Betsan, the gorgeous singer-songwriter who came to the farm with her wife, desperate to clear her skin so that she could get back onto the stage. That took a long time too – around 18 months – but we got her back under the footlights in the end!

And so many others…

Here’s the thing. I get it. You don’t come to see the crazy American lady on the Welsh goat farm about your skin problem until you have been everywhere else. Every doctor, every consultant, every hospital, every antibiotic, every steroid cream. Because let’s face it – why would you go to a goat farm, for answers to a medical issue?

The people who ended up at my door were desperate, because they had already been everywhere, and nowhere had they found answers.

So – you want to know what I know?

You wondering how I was able to help all these people, when they had failed to find solutions elsewhere?

Here’s what I know (and what you need to know, if you love someone who is struggling to clear a persistent skin condition):

Eczema (or psoriasis, or rosacea, or acne) is not a skin condition. These conditions are actually all gut disorders, which are mapping onto the skin.
No topical treatment alone will ever work.
You must heal the gut, in order to clear the skin.

And it really is that simple.

Treatment time will vary, depending on how severe and how long-standing the condition is. But I can honestly say I’ve never seen it fail, if clients are patient and disciplined enough to work the Gut-Skin Protocol. (Note – I have since discovered that if you have an underlying pathogen biofilm infection, it will stall results. In this case, we recommend a Microbiome Test to identify the pathogen, which can then be treated with one of our Antimicrobial Vinegars).

The most effective treatment works by applying both topical and oral immunotherapy at the same time. This means applying a probiotic from the inside and outside – i.e. taking Probiotic Kefir + Complete Prebiotic, while also applying kefir topically in the form of probiotic soaps and lotions. This is what we call our “Gut-Skin Protocol.”

If you want to read more science about this topic, it’s all detailed in my best-selling book The Good Skin Solution: Natural Healing for Eczema, Psoriasis, Rosacea and Acne (Hay House, 2017).

And if you’d like to talk to someone about it right this minute, jump onto live chat with one of our trained Nutritional Therapists. This is exactly why they’re here – because these days there are just too many people to invite everyone to come to the farm for a cup of tea and a chat. But I’ve taught my lovely NTs everything I know, and everything I’ve discovered. They will know which products you need – and they’ll be very happy to explain it to you, and answer all your questions.

Good luck on your gut health journey!

Hugs,

Shann.x