You’ll never look at ecz-easy (or your salad) in the same way again!

Chickweed

The latin name for this beautiful plant is Stellaria media: stella means star in latin, and in this instance refers to the tiny white flowers that the plant produces. The flowers open when the sun shines, but close at night, or when the sky is overcast.

I love this little plant, which is a common weed in much of Europe and North America. Although it thrives in wasteland, farmland and gardens, one of the places I notice it most often is at the base of roadside trees in urban areas.

I strongly recommend chickweed as a salad base (when picked from an unpolluted source!) as it is delicious and highly nutritious: it is rich in Vitamin C, Beta carotene (Vitamin A precursor), Vitamins B (B1, B2, B3), Bioflavonoids (rutin), Omega-6 Essential Fatty Acid, Calcium, Copper, Magnesium, Potassium, Iron, Manganese, Zinc, Phosphorus and Selenium. It also contains triterpene saponins,
phytosteroles, and mucilage.

You can also take chickweed internally as a herbal infusion or tincture: these can help treat rheumatism, constipation, or urinary infections, and can cleanse your blood by expelling toxins. Of course, I recommend you see a professional herbalist before starting any course of treatment.

Traditionally, chickweed has been used to treat a variety of skin complaints such eczema, psoriasis, erysipelas, ulcers, nappy rash, contact dermatitis and minor skin wounds. I have chosen to use chickweed in Inlight products, such as Ecz-easy, is for its demulcent (soothing) quality, due to the presence of mucilage, and also its ability to reduce itchiness and speed up the healing process, due to its high saponin content.

Ecz-easy, like all Inlight products, is the result of traditional wisdom combined with the latest production techniques to create the perfect diet for your skin. Chickweed (so called as it is a favourite food of chickens) is an essential part of what makes Ecz-easy so effective, so I for one think that this wonderful plant deserves a more worthy name!

Dr Mariano Spiezia
Inlight Organic Skincare

Aqueous Creams Make Eczema Worse

Although aqueous cream has been prescribed for millions of sufferers from childhood, it is the first time research has been carried out on an ingredient called sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS).

Previously it was thought the ‘stinging’ sensation affecting half of users was due to a preservative or antiseptic in the cream. In a study by Bath University researchers, aqueous cream reduced the thickness of healthy skin in volunteers by more than 10 per cent in just four weeks and water loss was increased.

Professor Richard Guy, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Bath, said the remedy was likely to aggravate the dry, itchy rashes that plague eczema sufferers. He said: ‘The skin has a protective barrier layer of lipids, around one eighth the thickness of a sheet of paper, that stops chemicals from getting into the body and keeps moisture in.

‘SLS is a detergent used to mix oils into water-based moisturisation creams to give a nice creamy texture. It’s also used widely in shower gels and other cosmetics. 'Our study has found that rubbing aqueous cream containing SLS into the skin thins this protective barrier, making the skin more susceptible to irritation by chemicals. So to use this cream on eczemous skin, which is already thin and vulnerable to irritation, is likely to make the condition even worse.’ The study was published in the British Journal of Dermatology.

Aqueous cream is the most widely prescribed moisturiser for dry skin conditions. It costs the NHS £1.86 for a 500g tub and is also available from pharmacies. The principal ingredients are liquid paraffin, white soft paraffin and purified water.

Margaret Cox, of the National Eczema Society, said the charity did not recommend aqueous cream as a moisturiser. Almost four million Britons have eczema, which is mainly treated with steroid creams. Many eczema sufferers give up using aqueous cream because they find it so irritating - a study in children showed 56 per cent experienced a 'stinging' sensation when they used it.

Children said it caused more discomfort than any other product - and the latest research suggests SLS is the reason why.

Source: Daily Mail 19/10/10

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