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Toxic Skin – My Mother’s Nightmare

ByLaurie Neverman

Sharing my own problems with toxic skin wouldn’t be complete without some background information on my mom’s skin story. Back in the late 1990’s, she was diagnosed with rosacea, and given a prescription skin cream. This seemed to help for a while – until her face erupted into large red, itching welts.

toxic skin follicular lymphoid hyperplasia

What followed was a series of topical and systemic treatments. Sometimes they provided temporary relief and sometimes they didn’t help at all.

Out of all six kids, mom and I were the closest in build and general appearance, so I’ve always wondered if I might be more prone to skin problems as well. I guess I got my answer in 2015.

I learned too late to help mom, but hopefully our stories will help others. I know she would want that, as she was one of the most giving, loving people I’ve ever known.

Toxic Skin, Years of Pain and No Answers

My mom lived on the other side of the state. During much of her illness my husband was working two hours away and only home on weekends, so I was on my own much of the time with two young boys and a budding homestead.

I wasn’t there for mom as much as I would have liked to have been, but my brother and two sisters lived near mom. They worked together to get her to appointments and see that she had help when she needed it around the homestead. I was very grateful that my brother lived just across the road so he could watch over momma.

It started with rosacea…

Mom’s skin story started with the rosacea, as the official record goes. It developed into follicular lymphoid hyperplasia AKA lymphocytoma cutis or lymphadenosis benigna cutis, which is a type of rare pseudolymphoma.

It’s not lymphoma, which is cancer that attacks the immune system, but resembles a cutaneous lymphoma in appearance.

DermNet NZ lists possible triggers:

  • Tattoo dyes
  • Insect bites
  • Scabies
  • Stings and spider bites
  • Vaccinations
  • Desensitization injections
  • Trauma
  • Acupuncture
  • Gold earring piercing
  • Infections with Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease), Varicella zoster (chickenpox) and Human immunodeficiency virus (AIDS virus).

Of these, it’s likely mom had exposure to Lyme disease, insect bites, trauma, chicken pox, and vaccinations. There was also exposure to herbicides and pesticides on the farm, which would fit the general “foreign agents” description.

Medication Side Effects?

I noticed that several of the medications she was one had skin problems listed in their possible side effects list. Even Medscape notes: “The onset of drug-induced pseudolymphoma is insidious.

Most patients present with a single slowly enlarging papular, nodular, or plaquelike lesion several weeks following the initiation of implicated medications. However, several patients have demonstrated drug-induced pseudolymphoma after more than 5 years of therapy.”

I don’t know what caused her skin to go berserk, and the doctor’s sure didn’t know. Given that the skin is the body’s largest elimination organ, I think her body was trying to purge something that was causing problems.

Inflammation and Fluid Retention

I know she had problems with edema (fluid retention) in her ankles. She had an inflamed lymph node removed from her armpit area years earlier. She also had a history of bursitis – more inflammation.

Around the time her skin started acting up, she was also diagnosed with myotonic muscular dystrophy (MMD). I couldn’t find the medical record related to the MMD, but she must have had type 2. Her mobility became more limited, and type 2 commonly starts with muscles closer to the center of the body, such as the hips.

When she ended up in the hospital a few days before she died, the doctors said her guts basically shut down.

Older woman with lymphocytoma cutis

What if there was a link between the MMD and the pseudolymphoma?

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I’ll never know for sure. What I do know is that they tried a huge number of topical creams, hardcore antibiotics, immune system suppressors, oral steroids, and UV therapy. Nothing cleared the itching and irritation for more than a short period of time.

Nothing was mentioned about how poor elimination and slowed down digestive system could have easily contributed to a back up of toxins in her skin. They didn’t suggest probiotics after multiple rounds of antibiotics.

Nothing was mentioned about how the edema was a sign that her lymphatic system was not working properly to help clear toxins from her body.

Some Improvement with Detox Therapies

My sister took mom all over the place looking for options, and she finally saw some improvement when she went to a lymphatic massage therapist. The therapist was able to relieve some of the swelling and improve the circulation in mom’s ankles and feet.

There was also some improvement with the use of an ion cleanse machine. Each time she used it, the water would turn black. (I’ve used an ion cleanse machine in the course of my treatment, too. The first time the water came out black and green, but now it hardly changes color. Same water, different me.)

grandmother making fruit salad with grandson
Mom at Easter 2006, prepping fruit salad with Dunc. You can see where she scratched her right cheek raw.

Unfortunately for mom it was too little too late, but it did improve her quality of life. She felt up to traveling across the state with my sisters to visit our home.

It was such a pleasure to have her here, and to see the house perform as it was designed to perform. We made the place handicap accessible in the hopes that we could talk mom into moving in with us, but she knew my stepdad would never be comfortable under our roof so she never came. Even with my history with my stepdad, for mom I would have made it work.

With zero clearance entrances and wide doors, she was able to maneuver her walker wherever she needed to go. She loved the handicap accessible shower and grab railings in the bathroom.

Toxic Skin, Toxic Body?

I was terrified when my face got so bad in 2015, but I’ve come to realize that it was a blessing in disguise. I thought I was doing enough eating “less bad”, exercising regularly and working to reduce my stress levels. My skin was telling me otherwise.

Humans are complicated critters, made up of many critters (our bodies are roughly 90% bacteria cells and 10% human cells), and everything has to cooperate.

If you have visible symptoms – like skin conditions (including acne), swelling, bloating, dark circles under the eyes, funky body odor, flaky scalp, constipation, etc – then something is also not working where you can’t see it. We need to be our own advocates and listen to our own bodies.

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Laurie Neverman

This article is written by Laurie Neverman. Laurie is a lifelong learner with a passion for natural remedies and holistic healing. She’s successfully improved her eyesight and cleared her psoriasis.

Originally posted in 2016, last updated in 2024.

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11 Comments

  1. Sorry, I misread and what I am interested in is the upcoming posts in the series. It was mentioned in the last paragraph on this page. I hope I did not seem insensitive about your mother. I found her to be a real gem as I read about her. You were all blessed as a family. May your blessings continue! Thanks for the site!

    Reply

    1. No need to apologize. Mom’s a peace now.

      I ended up shifting gears a little with my herbal explorations. For whatever reason, the herbal posts never got as much reach as many of the other topics on the site, even though I enjoy them. I did end up doing a series on wild plants called the Weekly Weeder. You can view a listing of those and other herbal posts at https://commonsensehome.com/wildcraftingweekly-weeder/

      Reply

  2. I have had several ailments and I find that they are almost always related to food sensitivity/allergy. The first time I noticed it was food was when I was on the hallejuah acres diet.
    My husband ate shrimp to his hearts content for years and one day had a reaction.
    It is not easy to give up foods we have loved. We often don’t, even when we know they are hurting us. But it is probably better than using medicine to suppress the symptoms.

    Reply

  3. I’ll be interested to read about your journey Laurie. My son has acne fairly severely. We eat very clean, no processed foods, all organic and sugar is a rare treat in our house. We’re Gluten free, and truly almost grain free, drink raw milk and are just very aware of what we put into our bodies. He has a leaky gut (and so do I) and we’ve been doing fermented foods, bone broth and all sorts of healing for years. When I looked into treatments for acne, it was sad to see how little natural help there was. So many of the kids he hangs out with suffer from acne- and even with their parents know the toxic side effects, so many of these kids are on Accutane which can cause lifelong damage to the body. So, as a mama, I’m always looking for more ways to help my son. I feel like we’ve maximized what we can do with a healthy diet. My skin looks fantastic eating the way we eat (and better than it has in my whole life) and I’m definitely middle aged now. Waiting to see where you will go in your journey!

    Reply

    1. I just started reading the book Brain Maker, and it’s really fascinating. It’s focused primarily on the brain/gut connection, and how gut health affects whole body health. Even with including live culture foods in the diet, some people require more aggressive bacterial inoculation (like probiotic enemas or fecal transplants) or different types of bacteria to do a full system reboot to address chronic conditions. It may be another area worth looking into for your family. I know my boys break out, too, but thankfully not severely at this point, but several of my siblings have had serious acne problems. My guys definitely get flare ups when they eat the wrong stuff.

      Reply

  4. I will be following your journey with great interest. My mom had psoriasis in her 30’s and 40’s. Sadly she was killed in a fire at work in her late 40’s and since I was just a teenager at the time, I didn’t know much about her condition. Over the years, I have heard that psoriasis skips a generation (don’t know whether that is truth or fiction), but in any event, although I have never developed it myself, in the last 15 to 20 years, (I am now 69), I have often dealt with un-explained skin itching, rashes that come and go, and skin to skin itching that almost seems like I am allergic to myself. My doctors offer no suggestions other than cortisone ointments and creams. So perhaps your journey will offer some suggestions that I may try and get some peace. Thanks for all you do.

    Reply

    1. So sorry that you lost your mom so young. Thankfully my skin patches aren’t usually itchy, so at least there’s that. Thank you for kind words, and I hope you find something in the series that is helpful for you.

      Reply