Story Of How An African Dermatologist Saved Our Lives From Eczema

Eczema kills,not just physically but mentally, and not just the sufferer, but whole families.

This is a long story of how Eczema had caused pain and taught me many lessons in the suffering of it. 

My first baby was the unfortunate bearer of these lessons, and I felt it would be selfish to keep the learnings to myself after all that we had been through.

Eczema is a disease that creeps up insidiously onto anyone. When my baby girl first started scratching at joints, I was that confident mum that all super mums started out as, thinking that it is just normal to have itchy skin for kids. 

Like most first time mums, I did my best to give the most natural and clean things in life to my baby. From exclusively breastfeeding for two full years, to spending more on organic, preservative-free, chemical-reduced products.

What in the world did I do wrong to cause Eczema to get so out of control in my precious toddler girl?

Mum guilt was tough, however it propelled me to be brave, to face difficult decisions, spent countless money and to own the studying process that back up the decisions. After all, my baby counted on me to save her life. 

Being a Pharmacist can be a double-edged sword when it comes to deciding on treatments. I am more than aware of the short-lived successes that steroid and antibacterial creams can bring on, and having seen my own mum battle with continuous bouts of skin inflammation using such evidence-based cream treatments without much improvements, I was really hesitant to start my own daughter on this typical eczema treatment route.

There was a struggle against time, money, pain, sleepless nights that only families of eczema sufferers can identify and empathise with, and yet, these eczema patients who need help most are hardest on themselves and the resistance to accept failure of treatments, explore yet more potential protocols further prolong this monster in disguise.

For many months, I avoided conventional steroid and anti bacterial creams, instead I gritted my teeth and teared through my girl's screams, tiredness and frustrations while putting her through different diets, ointments, homeopathy and all things "natural".

What we tried:

Allergy testing through NAET (Numbutripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques) with a case report on successful treatment of a 3 year old's food allergy. 

We visited the only general practitioner in Singapore trained in this method and started on food elimination diets. It was migraine-inducing to apply the needed treatment strategies as the food chart restriction was simply formidably intense. My girl who was about 4 years old then was tested allergic to almost everything, from white sugar to grains, gluten, fruits and milo!

Is this effective? We tried for a few months, stuck to all the appointments and diet protocol. Bottom line is that while allergic episodes of hypersensitivity in the form of large swollen patches were avoided to a greater extent, the eczema still persisted.

Manuka honey for bandaging of arms and legs.

Manuka Honey with Varying degrees of antibacterial (UMF/MGO) factors

Honey based treatments are very well studied for their healing and antibacterial successes. Here is a reference study on honey-based treatment templates in wound healing amongst a huge amass of research and success reports that you can read if interested. Manuka honey costs a few hundred singapore dollars for those with higher activity in antibacterial functions. I faithfully applied on my girl's skin like kaya to bread. The healing experienced is slow, if any and it is painful as the honey probably acts like an astringent to the raw broken skin. Each bandage change was a heart and gut- wrenching process for me and her. 

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Being a Chinese born in Singapore, I am more than a believer that a disease of the skin must be treated from within. TCM was nothing new to me and I had been a beneficiary of acupunture, reflexology, chinese brew medicines for a whole lot of difficult-to-treat illnesses myself. 

However, on seeing my girl's skin at a well-established TCM hospital, even the physician had to admit upfront that TCM is such a slow process that there is not much she can do and eczema treatments has not been so successful in her own experiences.

All these trial and errors lasted for at least a year and by then, my whole world of mummy friends, childcare teachers and relatives knew about my girls' skin and food allergies issues. 

The eczema patches spread and got so raw that every night was a dread. The continuous itch, blood and sleepless nights got to an extent when grandma piggybacked the girl just to distract her from scratching, to the point that grandma had to crawl to the toilet from muscle exhaustion. These memorable sacrifices would be forever etched on my mind as I grappled with the stress, pain and guilt from not being able to improve the situation.

There were not just once but many breaking points, when I screamed in despair at my girl to " STOP SCRATCHING!", only to be faced with a numbed and forlorn expression that cuts deep into the heart.

What were my options?

To start her on immunosuppressant therapy, strong steroids and sedatives? 

What were the risks?

Having seen many cases of skin thinning and steroid withdrawal rebounds from friends and patients, these risks are real and for a young girl whose hormones are so crucial for development, I was not ready to plunge into this easy way out or so it seemed at that time.

As with all diseases that take life out of everyone, I started turning to religion, to pray for clarity and wisdom, and for the right guidance to pop straight into my life.

At this turning point or rather breaking point when I was about to surrender my girl to traditional western eczema therapy, the miracle happened.

My girl's childcare best friend's mummy casually said, " I remembered that my neighbour's kid's eczema got cured by a Dr, let me ask them who is it."

I never knew that would be the ANSWER to my years of trauma. 

Dr Richard Aron, a dermatologist based in Johannesburg, has a unique Western medicine approach to eczema cure termed the Aron Regimen. When I first checked him out on his facebook discussion group, I could not help but be hopeful.

For the first time, Aron Regimen checked all the boxes on my Pharmacist mummy's list-

💘Dr Aron is a practising Dermatologist and attends international eczema conferences frequently

💘While Aron Regimen is not recognized and approved by his Dermatology peers, it is in the research process and it was featured online by National Eczema Association as a viable treatment regimen backed by many successful case reports, and this was published all the way back in 2008.

💘In the facebook discussion group set up by grateful mummies who had zero rewards from this massive administrative task, the testimonials on babies and people who experienced relief after a life time of Total Steroid Withdrawal syndrome were overwhelming and convincing.

💘After finding out more, I was extremely curious and reassured by how Aron Regimen, based on such a simple concept and gentle formulation, could be the miraculous cure of secondary eczema infection that had the whole world of Dermatalogists stumped for decades!

To be honest, I was in a wrecked state from anxiety and sleeplessness. Normal life was hard to carry on, time was ticking fast and my daughter's shine was waning day by day.

Eczema was killing us literally.

I decisively took a big leap of faith within 24 hours of reading about Dr Aron, went to his website at www.draron.com, clicked on the consultation button, paid a few hundred dollars for it and prayed.

After that, then I defensively informed my husband that I am trying one more treatment with an African doctor online. Believe me, he was mortified (no offence to the country but online scams were trending)!

Needless to say, Aron Regimen worked within 3 days to restore sleep back to normal. Her skin took at least 4 weeks to recover and another 6 months before the raw skin completely disappeared. 

Day 4 update for Dr Aron report

Bottom line of this miracle is: my girl could eat anything she wanted once her skin healed, sleep was restored, her cheeky mood came back.

To this day, I shudder when I think of the times when the whole family would take turns carrying or accompanying her throughout the night just to ease the scratching. 

What Have I Learnt From Dr Aron?

Be The Change In The World

As someone trained in the healthcare profession, we are taught many basic principles from our books and tend to accept them as "gold standards". The fact is that even when I tried to do local followups with doctors and shared my positive experiences in a professional light, many are fearful of being "caught" endorsing Dr Aron's regimen simply because of the lack of exposure. In Dr Aron's case, he had to fight negative professionals, insist on his regimen and allow his successful patients to help him "promote" agressively, against possible consequences of being denounced from the medical board for not following researched protocol. He, alone, with his belief and tenacity to stand up for what is right has changed the Eczema treatment regime.

Use Practical Results As The Guiding Light To Consistent Messages

Occasionally, Dr Aron would write about certain cases and concerns in the social facebook group. What was most convincing was his reassurances using his actual recorded experiences and his personal involvement in all his patients. His deep understanding of how skin bacteria reacts on the skin coupled with the empathy on all the eczema-associated sufferings, brought out key nuances of the Aron Regimen that makes the messages additionally strong and powerful.

Kindness 

Dr Aron has a charisma which exudes kindness in all his communication, from his prompt replies to his personal updates. Despite treating overloads of patients from all over the world, he gives us all the full attention to give us relief as quickly as we can. As a renowned and branded eczema doctor, he did not monetize it in a way that most businessmen would have done, but distributed his Aron manuals freely and professionally. The organic growth of Dr Aron advocates all over the world who can help locals to prescribe the prescription creams and compound them have resulted in a much larger group of beneficiaries than ever possible. This impact by Dr Aron is done without any official charity organization, and purely from the echo effects of Dr Aron's kindness which knows no bounds.

My long blog today was totally self-initiated, inspired by Dr Aron's work. In 2017, when my girl got cured, I was so grateful that I asked to start a Dr Aron Help Line WhatsApp group for Singaporeans and Malaysians, together with 2 more locals who have benefited from Dr Aron. Now I am no longer active but we have grown the group to more than 100 people.

One last word before I sign off, if you are in the same position as me then, desperate for relief and cures, always keep an open mind! I know it is difficult not to be wary of overly made up testimonials and easier to outright reject all multi-level marketing products and brands, however, ultimately we need to check back on what are the options we have covered, what are the risks for not improving the current situation and what is the impact if some therapy (no matter how bogus they seem) works. 

Many scientists and good innovations struggle with effective marketing communication, it would be a pity if a good research and innovation got muffled simply because of the route of marketing chosen. The bigger loss is that world's solutions to big problems may be right in our faces but we did not give them a chance.  

Thanks to Dr Aron, Eczema's suffering can be made extinct. Currently, my daughter has recovered for 2 years with slight flares and I am trying to maintain this skin bacteria balance by taking care of her gut-skin axis.

Do leave me a note if you want to know more about the Aron Regime and my experience. Otherwise, please join Dr Aron's Facebook Treatment Discussion Group.

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Dr Aron, if you ever get to read this - my family is indebted to your kindness!