Your skin absorbs vitamin C?

[digitS']

"Your skin is much better equipped to absorb vitamin C than your digestive tract." Henry Ford Health

What's this - I can rub it into my skin? So, this could be a part of winter skin care ... hmmm. Protection against colds while benefiting our skin .

My MD has again tried to get me off the prescription steroid for my digitS'. I put up with the minor rashes and often painful splitting for 12 months about 5 years ago. I'm 8 months into using other creams again and have found that Benadryl-types help some but, I'm cheating and using hydrocortisone cream right now. It didn't have much benefit in the past but this "ultra moisturizing" seems to work better even if the addition is just water. I don't know what the MD would think of me substituting an over the counter steroid for the prescription ...

Do you think a Vitamin C serum would help?! I'm fairly sure I tried Vitamin E oil just ages ago with no benefit. Vitamin C? It couldn't be like rubbing orange juice on my sore

digitS', ouch!

 

[Nyboy]

Steve my hands are chap most of the winter, (always in water then out in cold) I found fisherman hand cream works the best.

 

[thistlebloom]

I was in so much discomfort from cold chapped raw hands and the splitting that happens around the tops of my fingers that I rubbed some A&D ointment on them the other day. Soothing, but greasy. So this morning I rubbed it in right before I put my chore gloves on. That worked. Probably takes most of the benefit away by rubbing off on the interior of my gloves though.

 

[Nyboy]

Have to try A&D have it at work.

 

[Beekissed]

Castor oil is great and has multiple reasons for using in on skin...we use quite a bit of it around here for various things, but mostly for skin and hair conditioning, as well as for joint pain relief.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...28/castor-oil-to-treat-health-conditions.aspx

 

[so lucky]

There are skin disorders that work the same way Rheumatoid Arthritis does, as you probably know, Steve. Has your MD ruled out Lupis and Psoriatic Arthritis?
I know you have said the damage has already been done and there is no reason to start new meds now, but after having RA for 15 years, I recently added Plaquenil to my RA meds, and found it helps a lot for the nightly painful inflamed areas.
(Not skin related, but maybe auto-immune related info)

 

[Just-Moxie]

Bag Balm works great too, for chapped skin.

http://www.bagbalm.com/

 

[Nyboy]

I forgot about bag balm. A old lady who grew up on a farm told him about it.

 

[thistlebloom]

Growing up castor oil was a staple at our house. Mom used it on everything, scraped knees, bruises, sunburn.

I used it on a tremendous shoulder wound one of my horses got. My vet spent 3 hours stitching it all back together and she tore all the stitches out one week later. Since there was no stitching the wound possible then, *and it was bigger than my flat hand and deep enough that my hand was below the surrounding flesh* I slathered it with castor oil and fitted her out with a split t-shirt that I slid up her leg and fastened with one of my little boys suspenders around her neck to keep the flies out.
That wound healed with just the slightest lightening streak scar. It was amazing, and I credit the castor oil.

 

[digitS']

I don't remember that lupus was ever discussed but it probably was. I was in my twenties & thirties and only showed up at the MD when I felt as sick as a dog ...( just how much or little is a dog sick ..?)

Because I had problems with the anti inflammatories while the inflammation lessened it became a little senseless to continue with the rheumatologist after about 12 or 15 years. I wasn't interested in the narcotics if I could move around, at all. The anti inflammatories gave me quite a bit of relief but I couldn't continue with them.

Beyond the damage, only minor skin problems persisted but, they still do. I didn't know about psoriatic arthritis until recently. It would be interesting to have a conversation with the medicos about why I was so sick during those years.

Someone once said that a doctor mostly distracts the patient while the body heals itself. In my case, that was about right. I would have appreciated being drug off the trail so that every stampede didn't go right over the top of me but that never happened.

I have tried A & D but never castor oil. Wasn't that a "spring tonic?" I can keep the skin problems at an absolute minimum with the steroids but there has to be some reason he doesn't want me to use it year after year.

I think I've got yet another reason to turn up at the health food store tomorrow .

Steve