Skin Diseases

Article #1: Skin Diseases by William Howard Hay, M.D.

Like diseases of every other sort, those of the skin are traceable to toxic states of the body. The skin, being wholly visible, is merely the covering of the body, and blends with the mucous membranes, lining the exits and entrances to the body, so that these orifices are merely inversions of the skin. Thus the skin is a most valuable index of internal body condition, when we know how to read its appearance.

Of the emunciories whose duty it is to keep the internal body clear of accumulations, the skin stands in importance. It is therefore mighty important that this organ which covers the body and at the same time takes care of certain of the chemical wastes of the body should be kept as healthy as possible, in order to function properly.

It is not enough that the skin be kept clean in the ordinary sense, for no matter if it is washed thoroughly three times every day, scrubbed with a brush, rinsed thoroughly after a soap bath, it is still in far too many cases a dirty skin, because through it is continually passing all sorts of chemical debris from a body that is throwing off poisonous materials, which, if retained, would cause death in five hours or less.

It is the passage of an extraordinary amount of toxic material through the skin that sets up the irritations and inflammations that we have classified and named through these many years of medical study and research. Seldom do the so-called diseases of the skin arise from outside irritations.

As the toxic material accumulates in the body it must have an outlet or we would soon perish, and it is in seeking such an outlet that the body uses all means available, including acute fevers and colds, indigestion and chills, and tonsiliuses and eruptions of the covering membrane, our external organ, the skin.

Without internal congestion due to intoxications there would never be evidences of the condition visible on the skin.

We so often see eczema alternating with such internal conditions as neuritis or rheumatism, or asthma, and while the skin is broken out, the internal condition is not in evidence, but when the skin ceases to throw off the accumulating debris then it again is manifested in the internal condition. It is a realization of this fact that makes the specialist say that eczema and asthma are merely expressions of the same internal conditions, the one manifesting on the skin and the other through the bronchial mucous membrane. This is all that disease is, one thing, a toxic state of the entire body, and such toxic states do find expression through many and varied symptom complexes or syndromes.

If one doubts this, then use the skin as an index of internal conditions, and no matter what the particular skin disease presents, detoxicate the whole body, keep the laws of nature in the matter of nourishment, and bring the lazy colon up to date and keep it there, and observe that every one of the many and varied skin diseases will disappear as readily as will any other condition that we attribute to internal uncleanliness.

It is the fine delicate skins that are the most subject to eruptions, as we have always known, and when the internal condition is brought back to anything like a normal balance the skin will again be as clear and fine as before it was affected, if you are a victim of eczema or psoriasis, two of the commoner forms of skin eruption, you can very easily prove to yourself that what has before been said is all loo true, and that when your internal chemistry is approximately normal so will your skin be. Ichthyosis, or fish skin disease, is a condition of dryness and harshness of the skin that is congenital. The victims of this condition are never handed any encouragement or hope of ultimate recovery, and their health is impaired to the extent to which their skin is deficient in function.

Yet the one case of this condition that has come under direct treatment by this system improved in four weeks to such an extent that normal perspiration was easily obtained through either the hot air bath or exercise, and in six weeks the skin returned to a normal softness and fineness with complete absence of the usual dryness and harshness and continual scaling…

In the nearly thirty years of application of the principles of natural treatment of disease I have seen no case of psoriasis or eczema that did not recover, even though both conditions had failed to improve under the most “scientific” treatment of many prominent skin specialists.

Acne vulgarus is the commonest of the skin blemishes met with, especially in the young, and every case of acne is merely an expression of an internal condition that is all wrong, and means that the lungs, skin, kidneys, and bowels are among them unable to keep the body clear of its own irritating acid debris. Every boil or pimple means the same thing: every carbuncle, eruptions of whatever nature,
except the few caused directly by external irritants such as poison ivy or nettles or the bites of various insects or snakes or the application of chemical irritants to the skin.

Skin allergies, by which we mean those very sensitive skins that will break out with a sort of eczema whenever brought into contact with the primrose or other vegetable irritants, are merely evidences of the internal condition of the body that makes these particular pollens irritating to these particular skins, and “allergies” of every sort will disappear when the body is again in proper chemical balance.

This applies also to foods, arid if certain foods are “allergic” today, it does not follow that the same food will disagree next year, even though the so-called “allergy” has been life-long. …In every case these “allergies” will disappear when the wrong body chemistry has been corrected, and the food that was formerly “allergic” may then become the favorite food and agree better than other common foods that had been the chief items of daily use.

If you have had years of eczema or psoriasis, you can correct the skin irritation in a few weeks or a very few months by detoxicating the body, and with such correction of the dietary habit as will stop the excessive, formation of these irritating acid end products of digestion and metabolism. But when the whole manifestation is fully corrected, this does not mean that your skin will become as resistant as that of someone who has been born with a strong organ instead of a weak one, and it does mean that if you again let yourself get far out of chemical balance you may expect a similar manifestation, for your skin is your weakest organ and its resistance will break down first.

Women consider the skin chiefly from the standpoint of cosmetics, yet mention a woman’s skin and its relation to health and you excite her interest almost immediately. The sallow and dry skin lacks the normal elasticity that smooths out all wrinkles. The skin has so much to do with health that next to breathing pure air our second duty in keeping right inside revolves about the function of the skin. Julius Caesar attributed the health of his very efficient army to the fact that every man had to sweat at least once every day. To keep the skin active it should be given the advantage of one real sweat every day, not artificially induced sweating, but the sort that comes from sufficient activity to compel free sweating.

When the pores are thus opened, it gives opportunity for the skin to unload freely the chemical waste matter that is carried in every body, the result of its combustion of fuels, the death of its cells, and the metabolism of food materials taken in every day.

These all produce waste matter of great diversity, and those chemicals that cannot pass out through lungs, kidneys, or bowels must be taken care of by the skin. To accomplish this fully this organ must have the proper cleanliness and exercise, through activity sufficient to produce sweating, aided very materially by a brisk brushing with a bristle skin brush.