Another treatment fail. Could Dr Aron be the answer?

I haven't updated for a while. I could go on and on about this but long story short, the nystatin and candida diet didn't work for me. I really gave it a good go - I didn't miss a dose of the anti fungal and I was so strict on the diet - I actually lost a lot of weight on it and people started commenting on how thin I looked (and not in a good way).

I might have continued if I had even minimal improvement, but I didn't. My hands looked awful at the end of it all.

So I began to think through my options:

1. Do what the dermatologist had suggested: 2 weeks of dermovate (a strong steroid) twice a day, then a week off, then top up at weekends

2. Strong oral medication - methotrexate or toctino

3. Homeopathy

4. Dr Aron


I ruled out option 1 quickly - it was the same old same old strategy I had been trying for months. Yes, dermovate clears most of the blisters up, but they flare up again within a couple of days of stopping. Why would it be any different now.

Option 2 was very unappealing - both drugs have significant side effects for the liver/kidneys and neither are compatible with pregnancy should we want to add to our family. I put these aside for now.

Option 3 I did think about and have not ruled out, but the evidence base is poor. Would it just be more money spent on something with little likelihood of success?

And that left option 4. For those who don't know, Dr Aron is a dermatologist based in South Africa. Rather gallingly, he used to work privately in London, in a clinic just minutes from my house. But anyway, he is now abroad but you can consult with him online.

Dr Aron's approach is not startlingly different from the norm - he still believes that eczema needs to be treated with topical steroids, however he believes that the role of the staph bacteria in eczema is massively underestimated. For this reason, his treatment combines a steroid, an antibiotic and an emollient in one compound cream, which is applied regularly at first, and gradually decreased. He doe not believe in the "short burst" treatment so popular in the world of eczema, and which has never worked for me.

I was hesitant about signing up. Firstly I worry so much about long term steroid use - just look at my first post back in November 2016 where I adamantly claim that steroids are not the answer. Secondly, his success is mostly with atopic eczema in children. He does have good results with atopic eczema in adults too, but very limited examples of success with pompholyx treatment - not because his treatment doesn't work, just because it is less common and there are fewer case studies. Thirdly, as a newcomer to his Facebook group, the love and adoration for this man is slightly overwhelming....he is almost treated like a God of some sort. But to be honest, having suffered the pain of eczema as I have, I can imagine the utter relief people must have when something finally works, especially when it is their child who is affected. Finally, I guess the whole idea of consulting with a doctor via the internet with funds being sent online seems a bit dodgy.

But - there were a huge number of people in the group who had done just that and had success and honestly, I was feeling desperate. I decided to go for it.