Eczema invariably is associated with a damaged skin barrier–sometimes called “leaky skin”, and it also may be accompanied by a leaky gut barrier, as well. One of the challenges is helping to restore and strengthen the barriers, and we still have much to learn in this area.
One exciting paper was able to show that adding an amino acid–L-histidine–to the diet seemed to not only improve the skin barrier, but also decreased the severity of eczema in study participants! This appears to be a safe and inexpensive supplement that can be found online or in stores that specialize in nutritional supplements and vitamins.
Here is the key line from the abstract:
Data from the clinical study indicated that once daily oral l-histidine significantly reduced (P<0.003) AD disease severity by 34% (physician assessment using the SCORingAD tool) and 39% (patient self-assessment using the Patient Oriented Eczema Measure tool) after 4 weeks of treatment. No improvement was noted with the placebo (P>0.32).
Reference: Tan SP, Brown SB, Griffiths CE, Weller RB, Gibbs NK. Feeding filaggrin: effects of l-histidine supplementation in atopic dermatitis. Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology. 2017 Oct 5:403-11. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2147/CCID.S146760
What does this mean? While we’re not totally sure, it suggests that adding L-histidine to the diet may be beneficial for some eczema patients.
To approximate the dosages used in the study (4 g per day), an adult could take about 2 teaspoons each day of a powdered form such as:
L-histidine powder: https://www.amazon.com/BulkSupplements-L-Histidine-HCL-Powder-grams/dp/B00GGZFWKG
Or 4 capsules per day of these 1,000mg per capsules: https://www.amazon.com/Horbaach-L-Histidine-Capsules-Non-GMO-Pharmaceutical/dp/B07JXCT5J6/