My thesis – Keratosis, part 3

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keratosis

As I mentioned in my last post, after a couple of weeks of using the oil mix, we both noticed that the skin patches were softer.

At this point, I added a sugar scrub to the treatment plan. In addition to sugar, it contains apricot kernel oil, argan oil, and orange essential oil. It helps exfoliate the skin in general and specifically helps with the keratosis patches.

About 4 months after we started the entire process, I added in a clay mask for her back and the back of her legs. Keep in mind that the client was continuing to use the oil mix and the sugar scrub at home on a daily or weekly basis. In general patches were continuing to soften and come off. However, there are areas that are hard for someone to reach – like your back. We were doing a treatment once a week on her back but that was all. So to help soften and heal the patches on her back a little more intensely, we added in the weekly clay treatment after the sugar scrub and before applying the oil. I use a mix of glacial clay, kaolin clay, and rhassoul clay. This was mixed with a rose water toner (rose water and witch hazel) and frankincense essential oil. Frankincense was chosen for its wound healing and cell regenerative properties. After a few weeks, honey is added to the clay mix.

The overall results have been wonderful to see! Fewer patches, overall they are softer, and they continue to come off. It is not a speedy process but a much less harsh process especially for someone with a severe case of keratosis. Any of the traditional treatments would have had to be done over several sessions for a severe case of keratosis as you couldn’t do too many at one time.

There is no guarantee that new patches won’t form. That is the same if they are removed with traditional methods as well. It is the nature of keratosis – new patches continue to form. With an aromatherapy approach, we developed a maintenance program that helps eliminate patches and helps maintain softer and healthier skin.

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My thesis – Keratosis, part 2

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keratosis

Continuing on with my thesis, today I’m looking at some of the treatment I used.

My basic premise for my thesis was to soften and eliminate existing seborrheic keratosis patches.

From my thesis:

The first step was to mix an oil blend to help moisturize the skin. The oil blend is as follows:

45 ml Sesamum indicum oil (Sesame) 45 ml Helianthus annuus oil (Sunflower) 10 ml Triticum vulgare oil (Wheatgerm)
10 drops Daucus carota oil (Carrot Root)
30 drops Achillea millefolium essential oil (Yarrow)
20 drops Anthemis nobilis essential oil (Roman Chamomile)
10 drops Helichrysm italicum essential oil in a 10% dilution with Jojoba Oil (Helichrysm)

Sesame oil was chosen as it is good for inflammed skin conditions and with the light sunscreen factor it helps protect the skin at least a little bit from exposure to the sun.

Sunflower oil is also good for dry and mature skin. Rich in vitamin E and fatty acids, this makes it useful for skin conditions and moisturizing.

Wheatgerm is another oil that is rich in vitamin E and fatty acids, useful for dry skin, and helpful in repairing skin damage from sun exposure.

Carrot Root Oil helps the skin with the rejuvenation process as some of the seborrheic keratosis patches come off.

Yarrow was chosen as it is good for inflamed skin conditions, helps tone the skin, and helpful in healing wounds.

Roman Chamomile is good for treating skin conditions, has cell regenerative properties and is good for sensitive skin.

Helichrysm is great for skin conditions, helping with cellular regeneration and wound healing.

 

My client was to use the mix twice daily on her skin. Within about 2 weeks, there was a noticeable softening of the patches and some smaller patches were starting to come off.

This was definitely an encouraging sign! More to come next week!

My thesis – Keratosis, part 1

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keratosis

Part of my aromatherapy training involved doing a thesis. I chose to work on keratosis.

Keratosis is a skin condition that often develops in females (though not limited to females) as we age. While I have started to develop a few patches and I have a few friends who have as well, I do have one friend who has quite an extreme case of keratosis and she agreed to be my case study! What follows is an except from my thesis about what seborrheic keratosis is and how it is traditionally treated.

The Condition

Seborrheic keratosis is a skin growth. While it can often be confused with skin cancer by looking at it, it is a benign growth. The growths are generally round or oval and are slightly elevated on the skin. They can sometimes appear as if they have been stuck on top of the skin. This is partly because only the top layers of the epidermis are connected to this condition as the growth starts in the keratinocyte cells.

It generally appears in older people, sometimes starting in middle age. While it does effect both genders, it is more prevalent in female. Young people can be effected but it is much less common. Often they are found near areas that sweat – behind the knees for example.

There are several theories as to what causes seborrheic keratosis. It does seem to have a genetic component as it will often occur in family members. Exposure to the sun also seems to be a potential factor that increases your risk of developing seborrheic keratosis. Though it can appear to be a wart, it is not and it is not contagious. When a growth is removed, often it does not return. However new growths can still form on another place on your body.

Traditional treatments

Once a doctor has determined that it is seborrheic keratosis and not skin cancer, generally no further treatment is required. If desired for cosmetic reasons or because the growth is irritated by clothing, they can be removed by several methods:

– electrocautery – burning the growth with an electrical current
– cryotherapy – freezing the growth with liquid nitrogen and then removing it
– curettage – scraping away most of the growth. It is sometimes also followed by electrocautery to remove the final bit of the growth.
– ablation – using lasers to remove the growth

All of the above treatment options will remove the keratosis growth and generally they do not return in the same place. It does not mean that another one won’t appear else where requiring another round of treatment.

Next week I’ll go into more details on how we chose to treat keratosis for my thesis!