Melasma as a Hormone-, Diet-, and Parasite-Related Issue
INTRODUCTORY UPDATE 2024: Melasma is a disease that doesn't cause physical pain. It can be covered up fairly easily. It often develops during the busiest, most difficult times in a woman's life (although some men deal with melasma too). As a result, melasma often gets ignored. It disappears suddenly or slowly and it can be hard to notice that it's gone away completely. I hesitate to edit this article extensively because it was one of the first articles I ever wrote for this blog. In fact, I felt strongly that if I couldn't solve the problem of melasma for myself that I was not abiding by the "physician heal thyself" rule (I'm not a doctor but I did complete a pre-med curriculum and I have a master's in psychology). As you read this article, please keep this in mind. At the end of the article, I talk about Lugol's iodine and how I used it and other supportive nutrients to cure melasma by accident and my husband's melanoma on purpose. By the time my husband had developed melanoma, we had traveled to nearly 50 countries to see how traditional healers and practitioners of other models of medicine were curing cancer. Despite all this knowledge and having seen people who had cured their cancer, I still hesitated. I was afraid to use those cures on my own husband. We saw a dermatologist and made an appointment with an oncologist that was 30 days in the future, luckily. I couldn't wait that long to start his treatment so we started with something simple and harmless: baking soda. To be honest, I never tried working with baking soda on my own melasma at this time. But my husband's melanoma dried up and fell off within 3 days of applying baking soda with apricot kernel oil and 1 drop of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO 99%) in the morning and in the evening. My melanoma is long gone now so I can't experiment to find out if this remedy would also work on melasma. Also, you should not use DMSO if you are also applying cosmetics or toxic chemicals to your skin. Click here to read about the non-toxic products that you can use on your skin when you are applying DMSO as a treatment for melasma or melanoma.
Be sure to choose an aluminum-free baking soda product if you want to get rid of melasma naturally. Bob's Red Mill is a good aluminum-free brand. Baking soda therapy, also known as Simonici Therapy is one of the most important and most powerful cures for cancer on the planet, but it has to be used according to the instructions. It is not something to be done "halfway". This being said, there's no harm in applying baking soda, apricot kernel oil, and a drop of DMSO to your skin to treat melasma naturally. If, however, you decide to work with the Simonici Protocol to treat cancer, Candida, autoimmune disease, or any number of other serious health problems, be sure to follow the protocol according to the instruction. Click here to read how to use baking soda to cure cancer.
Note that we also offer a QuickCourse video tutorial on how to use natural remedies to cure cancer. This course includes a full demonstration and description of how to work with baking soda to cure cancer.
Click here to buy Bob's Red Mill Baking Soda.
Apricot kernel oil contains vitamin B17 / amygdalin. This vitamin works to prevent degeneration of the body and degenerative diseases including cancer. As a cure for cancer, amygdalin has a 70-90% cure rate which is extremely high as a stand-alone treatment for disease. In comparison, chemo has only a 2-3% cure rate as a stand-alone treatment for cancer. Apricot kernels or grapeseed extract as well as grapeseed oil all contain vitamin B17 which was studied at Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital where this discovery about vitamin B17 as a cancer cure was made. If you're trying to cure melasma though, use either organic, cold-pressed, hexane free apricot kernel oil or organic, cold-pressed grapeseed oil. Put 1/2 teaspoon of oil with 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda in a GLASS CONTAINER. Add 1 drop of DMSO to the mixture. Mix well.
Click here to buy organic, cold-pressed, hexane free apricot kernel oil.
Note that DMSO is nearly identical chemically to MSM, the nutrient. MSM contains sulfur and sulfur is one of the primary nutrients that our bodies use to make melanin. If you decide to take MSM supplements, be sure to buy the salt rather than capsules which contain an inert powder. Apply this mixture of baking soda, oil, and DMSO twice daily. As I said above, I can't try this mixture on myself as a remedy for melasma because my melasma is gone, but I'd love to hear if it works for others.
How to Get Rid of Melasma: A True Story with Updates
Melasma is one of those problems that doctors can’t explain. Similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or fibromyalgia, when brown spots inexplicably take up residence on a woman’s face, medical professionals don’t know what to say. Some doctors might claim that its sun damage or merely genetics. Others don’t venture a guess as to the cause but hand out free samples of hydroquinone cream that will most certainly turn your skin blue and make it “hard” to the touch (seriously…don’t use that stuff).I’ve read many theories in melasma forum discussions including those that cite poor liver function or yeast overgrowth. I’ve even tried remedies that were based off of hopeful discussions that I saw online including taking large doses of MSM daily and three glasses per day of water spiked with prolific quantities of Grape Fruit Seed Extract. Some women have noted a connection between copper and estrogen and for a while I actively avoided anything with extra copper in it (including chocolate). The connection between melasma and hormones seemed viable and I even tried using progesterone skin cream briefly in an effort to create balance. Though I don’t doubt that some women had success with these remedies, I’ve seen few results from them.
UPDATE 2024: MSM capsules contain a powder that is mostly inert. It is essential that you take MSM as a "salt". Simply put the MSM in water and drink it throughout the day. Most Grapefruit Seed Extract products contains triclosan, a toxic antibiotic that can contribute to Candida which is often a part of the problem of melasma. Women who believe they have a systemic Candida infection should work with the Simonici Protocol and also take 2-4 daily doses daily of edible bentonite clay as soon as possible and read this article for more information about how to cure Candida naturally. If you'd like to try working with a non-toxic, triclosan-free Grape Fruit Seed Extract, however, HawaiiPharm is a good brand.
Click here to buy HawaiiPharm Grape Fruit Seed Extract.
I remember being afraid of copper for a long time, but actually zinc supplements can lead copper out of the body...but you need zinc in order to absorb and metabolize Lugol's iodine. So for me, taking a zinc/copper supplement along with Lugol's iodine was really important. I don't recommend that women avoid copper as it is a trace mineral that our bodies need in order to be "electrical". I do recommend that you read this article at this link about trace minerals and electrolytes and how they impact cellular health though.On the other hand though, I did recently discover that I have an infestation of parasites feeding off my intestinal wall. After several weeks of anemia, I finally started realizing what the problem was and started taking a wormwood concoction as a parasite cleanse. At the time of this writing, I can't say that my melasma has changed very much, but realizing how parasites are impacting my health has given me hope for a melasma cure A lot of the women who have been able to get rid of melasma naturally were doing a cleanse with Grape Fruit Seed Extract. Grape Fruit Seed Extract would also help eliminate intestinal parasites (though the triclosan content would cause other intestinal issues related to an imbalanced microbial flora once they quit using Grape Fruit Seed Extract). It would also likely help correct a vitamin B17 deficiency. If you have a parasitic infection in your intestines (and a LOT of people do, even though they don't know it), it stands to reason that after you get rid of parasites, your skin will look better in some way.
UPDATE 2024: One important fact that I didn't know when I wrote this article is that without Lugol's iodine as a daily supplement it's really hard to get rid of parasites permanently. You keep getting re-infected. Just this year, I started giving our 9 cats Lugol's iodine, magnesium glycinate and trace minerals in their drinking water because 1 of them had ascites and two of them had chronic parasite infections. It was like a miracle. All 3 of the sick kitties healed within about a month of treatment. Iodine deficiency and parasite infection are related things. Iodine deficiency and vitamin B17 deficiency are also an underlying cause of Candida infection.
Click here to buy Lugol's iodine.
When I first developed melasma, it began on my upper lip and I was terrified by it. I stayed out of the sun and switched to natural cosmetics that didn’t contain so many xenoestrogens. I wondered how bad it would get. It then spread to the area between my eyebrows, perhaps the most noticeable part of my face. Then, I started noticing patches on my cheeks. Slowly, I began to grow accustomed to seeing it on my face and I realized that I probably needed to accept my new look. Instead of trying to get rid of it, I decided that I probably just needed higher quality make-up to cover it up. I decided that having melasma was tolerable. It was perhaps less noticeable and less painful than acne and certainly easier to deal with than psoriasis or eczema.
I’ve had the problem for about 3 years now at the time of this writing and I’ve spent countless hours and a lot of money trying to get rid of it. Lately, I’ve made peace with the problem and I’m observing it with more objectivity perhaps because I’ve come up with some ways to hide it (Au Naturale make-up works really well and it is non-toxic) and make it less noticeable. I also have a lot of hope that it will go away someday on account of the fact that my brown spots “move”.
About five years ago I became a vegetarian. Slowly over time, I changed to a vegan diet. I started writing for a company that works with bioidentical hormones at the same time and suddenly realized that my melasma occurred within about a year after I stopped eating meat. My husband came down with a killer sinus infection around this same time and after several courses of antibiotics he went to the acupuncturist who told him he needed to start eating meat in order to regain the health of his respiratory tract. We decided to change our diets together.
About a week later, the melasma on my forehead just went away. I was thoroughly amazed and very hopeful. I ate chicken every day religiously, but the rest of the brown spots held on. I began inspecting the little specks more closely though and I noticed that they were worse during high hormone peaks (ovulation and menstruation) and lighter and less noticeable when my hormones ebb. I also started to realize that the spots would “move” into a slightly different position over the course of time. And the skin overlying the melasma was often very dry and flaky. Often, it would seem as though I could just peel the brown stuff off, but underneath was always a layer of skin that was still darkly pigmented.
Click here to read this article on vitamin B12 deficiency -- what EVERY American needs to know about this essential vitamin. Note that vitamin B12 deficiency and iodine deficiency compound each other. You need vitamin B12 if you have an iodine deficiency so don't neglect this nutrient. If you're over age 50 or if you have a digestive issue like Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, you may not be able to properly absorb vitamin B12 which can lead to dementia. Vitamin B12 is another very colorful nutrient that likely plays a role in melanin production.
I went to a medical intuitive several years ago who told me to take moderately coarse corn meal and scrub it on my face. “Scrub vigorously.” she said, “Do it several times a day if you can.” To me, this seemed like a piece of advice that I might read about in a book for teens called, Every Girl and Her Skin. I liked the sophisticated chemical-laden remedies in pretty packaging that promised to expertly remove wrinkles and age spots. “Buy some brewer’s yeast, lemon juice, and yogurt and use them as a mask every day.” Again, I was disenchanted with the simplicity of the advice, but decided to try it anyway. The medical intuitive told me that it might take years, but that she used to have a giant scar on her face from having been charged by a bull. I looked closely and I could see only a dim line on her cheek leftover from the ordeal.
“How old are you?” I asked. She looked just a few years older than me…perhaps early forties.
“I’m 52.” She said. That sold me. I wanted to look like her when I was in my fifties.
The brewer’s yeast contains a lot of B-vitamins and the yogurt contains acidophilus bacteria that can kill yeast and keep it under control. Lemon juice helps to bleach the skin very gently. I challenge women with melasma to scrub their faces with corn meal, use lemon juice as an astringent, and then choose brewer’s yeast, or yogurt as a “mask” to wear for 20 minutes. The results are really pretty amazing. The dry flakiness associated with brown spots is gone and so are a lot of my wrinkles. The yogurt and brewer’s yeast soften my skin. I have mixed feelings about the lemon juice, but I’m going to give it some time and see what happens. Sometimes I smear strawberries on my face too because they have the exact pH of the skin on the face. As cheesy as these at-home remedies seem, they’re affordable and they do make a difference in how my melasma looks. It’s a lot easier to cover up the spots when they’re smooth rather than flaky.
I'm hopeful that after doing this parasite cleanse, my melasma will clear up, but I suspect that it will take some time. For more information on the parasite cleanse that I'm doing visit my article Treatment of Parasites for Humans.
In summary, though I haven’t figured out my personal cure yet, I believe there is one. Indeed, I believe there is a “personal” cure for all women who have melasma. I’m not sure if there’s a cure-all, but I recommend sticking to natural methods rather than using lasers or other treatments. These things can go really awry (are you willing to risk the possibility of ending up with even darker splotches) and frankly, melasma just isn’t that hard to cover-up if you have the right make-up products.
Click here to buy Lugol's iodine 2%.
It took about a year or maybe even a bit longer for the melasma to go away using Lugol's iodine and the supportive nutrients. Melasma, of course, is a health issue associated with the melanocytes and melanin so I always recommend also that women work with MSM (the powder, not the pills) as a sulfur-containing nutrient if they have melasma because healthy melanin requires a lot of sulfur. Choose an MSM product that is in a salt, versus the powder form that comes in pills. The doctors always told me that going out in the sun would make my melasma worse. This wasn't entirely true for me. I learned when my husband had melanoma that sunlight exposure is actually a positive thing as a natural cure for cancer. This may sound counterintuitive, but at the time, I was just putting together my field notes from years of having studied how practitioners in other models of medicine were curing cancer naturally. So sunlight exposure was a big part of his daily treatment and I believe that people with melasma can benefit from sunlight exposure too. Don't use suncreen though! Sunscreen is one of the leading causes of skin cancer as sunscreens contain toxic carcinogens. Along the same line of thought, note that vitamin D supplementation is usually completely unnecessary and, in fact harmful. Our skin naturally produces vitamin D and taking too much vitamin D can cause breast calcifications, pineal gland calcification, and calcification of other soft tissues in the body (such as the inside of blood vessels -- atherosclerosis). You need vitamin K2 to balance the effects of vitamin D, a nutrient that is practically non-existent in the food supply today. Click here to read about how deficiencies of iodine and vitamin K2 have been fostered by Big Pharma and Big Food. High vitamin D levels can make it hard for the body to absorb iodine because vitamin D keeps calcium levels high in the bloodstream. Vitamin K2 supplementation can solve this problem. Click here to learn about the harmful effects of supplementing with vitamin D without balancing it with vitamin K2.
Click here to buy The Iodine Bible.
Many of the nutrients that I discuss on the Lugol's Iodine Protocol page are also nutrients that can be used to cure most types of cancer. I have personal experience working with most of the cancer treatments that I discuss in the Cancer Cure Catalog series that I link to below. Once again note that there is a link between melasma and melanoma that deserves consideration. I'm not saying that you should be afraid of melasma because it can turn into melanoma -- that's a Big Pharma trick -- rather, I'm saying that these skin problems are both caused by malfunctioning melanin and melanocytes. Doctors talk about a relationship between stress and melasma flare-ups because melanocytes are directly connected to the autonomic nervous system, a part of the body that receives and stores stress and trauma. Also note that Lugol's iodine, when taken religiously regulates the reproductive organs and hormones levels which are also implicated in the development of melasma. Though I haven't yet found the scientific studies to prove it, I believe that iodine is an essential nutrient in the production of healthy melanin. Iodine can be black, purple, red, orange, or yellow -- almost any color in the rainbow and as such, my theory is that iodine plays a role in capturing the healthy radiation from the sun so that this energy can be used by our autonomic nervous system to regenerate and heal our bodies.
Click here to buy the Cancer Cure Catalog 4 volume series.
Health Coaching to Get Rid of Melasma
A lot of women, me included, had melasma along with other health problems that were gumming up the process of healing. If you want to get rid of melasma, schedule a health coaching session with my daughter Lydian and I. Lydian and I work together as a mother-daughter team to help people clean up their diets, work with herbs, nutrient supplements, and products that can literally change your life. We take into account all of the health issues, your diet, and stressors that might be contributing to the problem of melasma to help you come up with a protocol to overcome it.
Click here to schedule a health coaching session.
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