Tired of Eczema Creams That Don’t Work? Could a Gut-Healing Approach Be the Key to Lasting Relief?

Lucy Bassett
Apr 8
3 min read

If you or your child has struggled with eczema or skin allergies, you’ll know how frustrating it can be. The itchiness, the flare-ups, the endless rotation of creams, steroids, and lotions… all promising relief but rarely getting to the root of the problem.

I’ve been there. I healed my own skin issues using the GAPS nutritional protocol and simple, traditional lifestyle shifts—and I’ve seen the same transformation in my clients.

✨ Your Skin Is a Reflection of Your Gut

Eczema, allergies, and other skin conditions aren’t just “skin deep.” They’re often signs that something is out of balance internally—especially in the gut.

Modern diets full of ultra-processed foods, sugar, seed oils, and additives can damage our gut lining and disrupt the delicate balance of microbes that live there. For those with eczema, there’s almost always some level of candida overgrowth, leaky gut, and microbiome imbalance at play.

🦠 Candida, Leaky Gut, and Missing Microbes

When the gut lining becomes damaged—something we refer to as "leaky gut"—tiny particles like undigested food or toxins can pass into the bloodstream. This triggers inflammation and immune responses, which often show up in the skin.

An overgrowth of candida, a common yeast, is another major contributor. It loves sugar and thrives when our beneficial bacteria are low. This imbalance can drive skin flares, itching, brain fog, and even food sensitivities.

Recent studies show that people with eczema often have a less diverse gut microbiome, and particularly low levels of beneficial strains like Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. These bacteria help keep the immune system calm and the gut lining strong.

In fact, research has found that children who develop eczema often lack exposure to these protective microbes early in life. This is where ancestral practices—like eating fermented foods, getting dirty outdoors, and consuming nutrient-rich animal foods—come in.

🥩 Healing with Ancestral Nutrition

What helped me most was increasing fats and animal foods—slow-cooked meat stocks, egg yolks, organ meats, raw dairy—and cutting out processed foods and sugars.

This is the heart of the GAPS protocol, which focuses on deeply nourishing the body while removing the things that damage it. I found it life-changing. For skin issues especially, it's incredibly powerful.

Fermented foods like sauerkraut, kefir, and yoghurt help repopulate beneficial bacteria. Meat stocks provide the building blocks needed to heal the gut lining. Animal fats help the skin heal from the inside, giving us the fat-soluble vitamins and cholesterol we need to repair.

🧴 And What About the Outside?

Topical treatments can still play a supportive role, but they work best when paired with internal healing.

One of the best things I’ve found for the skin? Tallow balm. It’s made from rendered beef fat and is incredibly close in structure to our own skin’s oils. It’s rich in fat-soluble vitamins and deeply nourishing—unlike commercial creams, it doesn’t just mask symptoms but helps support true repair.

There really is nothing else like it.

💬 You Don’t Have to Live With It

If you're exhausted from trying creams, elimination diets, or short-term fixes, it's time to go deeper. I offer personalised nutrition support rooted in ancestral healing, gut health, and the GAPS approach—with a special focus on skin, allergy, and immune issues.