Itchy arm syndrome – what we know

After my initial post on my experience with itchy arms for over 10 years, I’ve noticed that I get a lot of people coming across my site looking for information because they too are suffering with this problem. It’s obviously pretty common! So here I am writing about it again in an effort to give as much information as possible about it to those who are looking.

So what do we know about this itchy arm problem?

  • It seems to pretty much always start on the upper arms and shoulders.
  • It starts as a problem usually at night time in the warmer months of the year.
  • It gradually becomes more of a problem over the years.
  • The only thing that really seems to give some relief is putting ice on the area.
  • Doctors – GP’s and Specialists – seem to have absolutely no idea what causes it and had out various drugs in an effort to give their patients some relief.
  • Some people get a little relief from various drugs, but not a lot from what I’ve read in forums and chat sites (and drugs are never the answer to any chronic health problem
  • There are various theories about nerve impingement or damage in the neck being a possible cause
  • There are many people all over the world suffering in silence with this problem

I personally spent a lot of time researching and reading trying to find an answer to this problem over the years and just realised that I never once found anyone telling a story of how they had the problem and got rid of it!

It would appear to be a problem that once you have it, you’re stuck with for life in most cases – however I had it for over 10 years and despaired that I would have it for the rest of my life as it was getting worse, but I no longer have itchy arms!

My experience in the sudden ceasing of my itchy arm problem has given me an insight into this problem that no one else seems to have thought of as to the possible (or I think probable) cause of this problem – bowel flora!-  or to be more specific digestive tract flora.

My itchy arms disappeared never to return after my first dose of a new super probiotic product as described in my original post here.

In our small intestine we have things called Peyers Patches (I already knew about these from past training. But you may not have heard of them, hence the explanation). These Peyers Patches are part of our immune system. What I had learned prior to buying this product when it was released for sale from it’s creator, is that if we have an overgrowth of ‘bad’ bacteria in our digestive tract, these bacteria can attach themselves to the Peyers Patches and alter the way our immune system works causing allergies for example, hay fever, or even auto immune diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis.

I also learned that some of the bacteria used in many probiotic products have actually been shown in studies done by the CSIRO here in Australia, to cause an increase in the ‘bad’ bacteria in the bowel (note: these bad bacteria can also cause chronic constipation by paralysing the bowel – just thought I’d throw that in there for those who suffer with ongoing constipation!).

My theory based on my experience is that the itchy arm syndrome, is an allergy type response (like hayfever) that is caused by an overgrowth of certain bacteria in the digestive tract affecting the performance of the immune system via the Peyers Patches!

Simple.

As I said in my original article, I have taken many different types of probiotic products over the years not even considering that they may have any influence on my itchy arms, let alone the possibility of them making my itchy arms worse!

The answer – maybe diet? Fasting or detox? You could try it. For me it was the new super probiotic product.

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Filed under: Health - general

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