Dead Sea Salts as a Treatment for Eczema: My Negative Experience

I recently suffered a pretty bad eczema break out and was pretty desperate to find relief. Though I've usually been able to contain my condition with essential oils and things like shea butter and vaseline; when I have a pretty bad breakout; all I can do to suppress it is to see a doctor to get it cleared up and then switch back to the natural methods. Doctors usually treat my breakouts with either oral or topical steroids. Though these medications work very well; I worry somewhat about their long term use which is why I try to use natural methods as much as possible for maintenance of small breakouts etc. and only see a doctor when I have something that I can't treat. Well, currently I don't have health insurance and the local free clinic wouldn't see me for an appointment for a month because they were so backed up.

I decided to look around online to see what was available in the meantime. I saw a few sites touting eczema treatments that were supposed to be a miracle. But, many of them had the exact same before and after pictures of the exact same baby though the companies were not supposed to be connected. The treatments usually cost upwards of $100-$150 for something seemingly made in someone's basement. Spending so much money for something that may or may not work from an unestablished company just didn't seem like a good idea. So I began to search for something that I could buy from my local store and make that might be a bit stronger then the creams I had made myself. They worked very well to suppress my eczema but it seemed I just needed something like 2 or 3 times stronger for breakouts.

I began to read a lot about dead sea salts and in fact a lady in my area shared with me that this method had worked well for her son. Well; at the time I didn't have a bath tub so I started turning the salts into a lotion. It burned a little when applied; but didn't really clear up my eczema significantly. But, since I realized I wasn't using it as recommended; I didn't worry too much. I then moved into an apartment where I had a bathtub to use. I bathed in the dead sea salts as was recommended. I had stopped using the salt lotion I made awhile ago so this did not conflict with my results. The salts bath did nothing but dry my skin considerably. It didn't burn too much but it did nothing for me and actually made my skin worst. I followed the exact directions listed on the bottle and throughout the internet and the salts absolutely did not work for my condition. I used the Masada Dead Sea Mineral Salts without fragrance, color or anything. I purchased them from Whole Foods. This seems like a respectable looking product; but it was a total dud for this eczema sufferer.