Ep 365 – The Rogue Pharmacist: Eczema - ASCP Esty Talk

ASCP Esty Talk Ep 365 – The Rogue Pharmacist: Eczema

Release Date: December 12, 2025
Host: Maggie Stasik (ASCP Program Director)
Guest: Ben Fuchs (Skincare Formulator & Pharmacist)

Episode Overview

This episode of ASCP Esty Talk dives deep into eczema—its root causes, how it differs from regular dry skin, and why both internal and external factors are crucial in its development and treatment. Ben Fuchs, “The Rogue Pharmacist,” provides an in-depth, biochemistry-grounded perspective for estheticians on the real origins of eczema, the inadequacies of typical dermatological approaches, and holistic strategies for truly addressing the condition.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining the Difference: Eczema vs. Dry Skin

Dry Skin: A common complaint, but not always pathological. However, it is a trigger for eczema.
Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis):
- The word eczema means “to boil over” (00:27).
- Represents a failure of the skin barrier to form completely.
- Key Insight: Eczema is not just surface-level; it’s deeply connected to how skin cells mature (“transit/differentiation”) and externalize to form a protective barrier.
Layered Structure of Skin:
- Healthy cell movement from lower layers to the top (“transit”) is vital for barrier and moisture retention (01:05–01:59).

2. The Role of Blood Toxicity and Leaky Gut in Eczema

All chronic degenerative diseases—including skin disorders—feature an element of toxicity in the blood.
Leaky Gut as the Culprit:
- Modern understanding places leaky gut at the center of chronic blood toxicity (02:00–03:40).
- “Once toxicity gets into the blood… you’re off to the disease races.” (Ben Fuchs, 01:44)
- The gut’s permeability allows bacteria, chemicals, and food particles into the blood, triggering immune responses and toxicity dumping into tissues, including the skin.
Connective and Soft Tissue as Dumping Grounds:
- The body attempts to protect itself by storing toxins here, leading to localized issues like eczema and systemic ones like autoimmune disorders.

3. Skin Barrier & Immune System Disturbances

Skin Cell Transit (“Differentiation”):
- Integrity of the skin barrier depends on “appropriate, healthy differentiation,” or smooth transit of cells to the surface (04:16–04:35).
Eczema as an Immune/Inflammatory Disorder:
- Eczema is technically “atopic dermatitis”—not a topical but an immunological, systemic condition.
- Dermatological treatments focus on suppressing inflammation with steroids and biologics without addressing the root (05:00–05:56).
- Quote: “Eczema is not a topical condition… all eczema, to truly solve the problem… is not dermatological, it’s immunological.” (Ben Fuchs, 05:27)

4. The Medical Model vs. Root-Cause Resolution

Conventional Treatments’ Limitations:
- Focus on shutting down immune response/inflammation.
- Steroids & biologics are expensive (“$20,000 a month,” 05:51), possibly ineffective long-term, and don’t address the underlying trigger.
True solution lies in addressing the source—gut health & immune regulation.
Asthma & Eczema Connection:
- People with eczema often have asthma or other immune problems, supporting the systemic immune angle (06:16).

5. What Estheticians & Clients Can Do: Practical Advice

Topical Soothing:
- If symptoms are severe, topical methods can help temporarily soothe:
  - Oat extracts and oatmeal (used “for eons”; 06:44)
  - Vitamin E (topical)
  - Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA; a derivative of omega-6, applied topically)
  - Fat-soluble vitamin C
  - Fulvic minerals
Quote: “Applying these substances topically can calm the skin down. If you’re in a pinch, eczema can be really distressing…” (Ben Fuchs, 07:31)
Long-Term: Target the Immune System via the Gut
- Keep a food diary and eliminate trigger foods
- Watch for food-induced eczematic flares
- Strengthen digestion with:
  - Probiotics and digestive enzymes (08:15)
  - Nutrients that heal the gut (Vitamin A, omega-3s, collagen, hyaluronic acid, copper chloride, gelatin)
  - Mucosal-supporting botanicals: algae (fucoidan, especially from brown algae), mushrooms, slippery elm, mullein
Leaky Gut & Nutrition:
- Leaky gut impairs nutrient absorption—causing malnourishment on top of blood toxicity (09:11–09:31).
- Solution: Prioritize gut healing to resolve eczema and prevent further systemic problems.

6. Lifestyle Factors/Triggers

Estrogen Imbalance:
- Improper detoxification of estrogen can contribute to leaky gut.
Fried Foods:
- Fried fats are a major stimulus for leaky gut and thus eczema (09:51).
- “French fries, pizza, hush puppies, fried butter and Snickers bars and all the fried foods we like. Those are major, major triggers of leaky gut.” (Ben Fuchs, 10:03)

Notable Quotes & Moments

On the Main Trigger for Chronic Disease:
- “Every single chronic degenerative disease has an element of toxicity in the blood. Every single one.” (Ben Fuchs, 01:29)
On the Limitations of Topical and Pharmaceutical Solutions:
- “The medical model is yet to recognize this… all autoimmune disease is the end result of toxins being dumped out into the tissue.” (Ben Fuchs, 02:55–03:19)
On the Need for Gut-Focused Resolution:
- “If you really want to solve the problem (of eczema), you gotta get into the immune system, which is through the digestive system.” (Ben Fuchs, 07:49)
On Eczema as a Systemic Risk Marker:
- “You’re gonna reduce the risks of all other health challenges once you really solve the problem—something that’s not gonna occur when you use the dermatological strategies…” (Ben Fuchs, 09:38)

Important Timestamps

00:27 – Difference between eczema and dry skin
01:29 – Toxicity in the blood and the root of chronic disease
03:19 – How the body dumps toxins into tissues and the autoimmune connection
06:16 – Eczema, asthma, and systemic immune dysfunction
06:44 – Soothing topical options for eczema
07:49 – The gut-immune connection and long-term solutions
09:51 – Estrogen and fried food as primary triggers for leaky gut

Summary Takeaways

Eczema is far more than just surface dryness or irritation; it’s a systemic, immuno-inflammatory condition rooted in gut health and toxin management.
Estheticians should recognize both the necessity of temporary topical relief and the greater need for systemic healing through nutrition, lifestyle, and gut-centric strategies.
Conventional medicine’s reliance on anti-inflammatories and steroids is limited—lasting resolution depends on targeting the gut, managing diet, and reducing exposure to specific triggers like fried fats and improper estrogen metabolism.

Transcript

A (0:00)

Foreign.

B (0:05)

Welcome to ASCP and the Rogue Pharmacist with Benjamin Knight Fuchs. In each episode, we will explore how internal and external factors can impact the skin. I'm Maggie Stasik, ASCP's program director. And joining me is Ben Fuchs, skincare formulator and pharmacist. Hey, Ben.

A (0:20)

Hello, Maggie.

B (0:21)

Ben, can you help us understand the real difference between true eczema and plain old dry skin?

A (0:27)

Oh, there's a huge difference. Plain old dry skin. Actually, they're related. Dryness is one of the triggers for. For eczema. Technically. Well, the word eczema means to boil over. And if you look at the eczematic skin, it looks like there's sort of stuff on the surface and you can't really. Basically, eczema is when the barrier doesn't form completely. And this is kind of interesting because to an esthetician or skincare professional, when we say that things don't form completely, kind of makes a little bit more sense into an average person. Because we in the skincare business don't look at the skin as just this kind of covering. We see it as being layered. And we realize that cells are rising from the bottom to the top to form the barrier and to form healthy skin, not to mention moisture factors as well as all the other things that are dumped out into the tissue as the cell is rising. So this movement from the cell from the bottom to the top is incredibly important. It is the main determining factor for the health of the skin, is how well and how efficiently cells rise from the bottom to the top. However, the skin, as it turns out among other parts of the body, are one of the places where toxicity is dumped out from the blood. So when we eat and it usually comes in from food, that's the most important place where toxicity gets into the blood. And before we get into talking about eczema, let me just say this. Every single chronic degenerative disease has an element of toxicity in the blood. Every single one, whatever the chronic disease is, from cancer to heart disease to diabetes, whatever skin diseases, they all have an element of toxicity in the blood. Where does that toxicity come from? Today, we know 20 or 30 years ago we wouldn't have said this, but today we all know about something called leaky gut, right? It's common knowledge that there's leaky gut. Once toxicity gets into the blood, you're off to the disease races. I shouldn't say once it chronically gets into the blood. If it gets in the blood once in a while, that's one thing. But once it chronically gets into the blood, you're off to the disease races. Why is that? Well, first of all, does it make sense how toxicity gets into the blood through a leaky gut? Bacterial toxicity or chemicals from the intestine or even food particles that throws off the blood? The blood is really interesting because when we think of the blood, we think of this red liquid, right? But the blood is so much more complicated than just some red liquid. It's packed with things, with gases and with proteins and with minerals and nutrients and hormones, waste products. Just a very, very complex system. And in order for that complex system to be healthy and to move correctly, it has to have the right pH, it has to have the right viscosity, it has to have right fluidity, has the right oxygen level, has to have the right nutrients. There's so many parameters that have to be regulated and kept just so for the blood to be able to do its work efficiently. Well, now, if you have this condition called leaky gut, now all this stuff is getting into the blood, obviously that is a major, major problem. So the body has a mechanism for protecting itself. And one of those mechanisms involves dumping out toxins into tissue, particularly into connective tissue. And in fact, these soft tissues and the connective tissues are the great dumping grounds of this toxicity. And this is where disease comes from. And the medical model is yet to recognize this. In fact, one of the classic manifestations of this dumping out process is autoimmune disease. And if you go to the doctor today, they'll say, well, your mother had it, we don't know what causes it, it's genetic, blah, blah, blah. Nothing we could do about it. No. If you understand biochemistry, you see this mechanism, all autoimmune disease is the end result of toxins being dumped out into the tissue. When it gets dumped out into the skin, however, now you can have a problem. First of all, the cells that are rising from the bottom to the top are rising from. That's called transit. You know, all estheticians know about that. That is a very tightly regulated process. Everything has to be just so. The whole body is tightly regulated. And once you start throwing toxins into the system and immune cells into the system, you can run into a problem, particularly with House, this transit. Technically, this transit is called differentiation because the cells are taking on different shapes as they're rising to the top, and the integrity of the barrier is going to be dependent on appropriate healthy differentiation, or transit, if you will, with eczema, which by the way, is technically called atopic dermatitis what does that mean? Dermatitis means inflammation of the skin. Right. Dermatitis. What does atopic mean? Not topical. Atopic, not topical. Eczema is not a topical condition. But yet what do we do when we have eczema? We go to the dermatologist. And what can they give you? I'm on all these dermatological websites and get these dermatological journals, and literally every day I get an article about a new steroid or a new biologic or some kind of new drug that they give you for eczema. Well, guess what? These two things do. They shut down the immune system. This transit, this disturbance in transit, or this disturbance in movement secondary to the dumping out of toxins creates an inflammatory milieu in the skin. So the doctor strategy, the dermatological, medical, pharmaco medical strategy is let's just shut down the inflammation. That doesn't solve the problem. That just shuts down the inflammation. Not to mention the fact that the cost of these substances is, you know, you can spend $20,000 a month or your insurance company can spend $20,000aMonth on some of these substances, and they don't help the problem. So eczema is the end result of disturbances in transit or disturbances in differentiation secondary to immune and inflammatory issues in the skin. Common sense will tell you, if you have immune inflammatory issues into the skin and you want to stop the problem, let's stop the immune inflammatory issues from getting into the skin, because they're coming into the blood. We got to stop them from getting into the blood. Where do they come into the blood from? Leaky gut. All eczema. To truly solve the problem, and you can truly solve the problem is not dermatological, it's immunological. In other words, you want to work on the immune system, and the headquarters of the immune system is the intestine. And it's no accident that that many people have eczema also have asthma, because it's the same condition, except what's happening in the lungs, one's happening in the skin. And people who have eczema tend to have other immune problems. So when you work on the causal level, which is at the level of the intestine, you'll solve all of the problems and you'll truly solve the issue of eczema. So specifically, what can you do? Well, first of all, if you want to calm the skin down topically, and sometimes that's appropriate, if it's really itchy and uncomfortable, you can use oat, oat extracts and oatmeal has been used for eons to calm the skin down. That's one of the best things you could do topically. Oat contains vitamin E and it contains quality fats. And you can use vitamin E topically and you can use. It's a little bit tricky to use essential fatty acids because they're unstable. But you could use an essential fatty acid or a fatty acid called gla. I don't know if you ever heard of this. Gamma linolenic acid. It's a derivative of omega 6 fatty acids. And you could apply that topically and that can calm the skin down. And then there is topical fat soluble vitamin C that can have a calming effect on the skin. We talked earlier about fulvic minerals that can have a calming effect on the skin. Applying these substances topically can calm the skin down. If you're in a pinch, eczema can be really distressing, itchy and uncomfortable. These will have a calming effect on the skin. But if you really want to solve the problem, you gotta get into the immune system, which is through the digestive system. Food diary Eliminating problem foods Noticing when specific foods trigger an eczematic attack. Using nutrients that support digestive health. Probiotics, digestive enzymes. There are nutrispecific nutrients that can heal a leaky gut. Essential fatty acids have anti particularly omega 3 have anti inflammatory properties. One of the most effective anti leaky gut nutrients is vitamin A. Vitamin A is very protective of the intestine. And then also collagen building substances or collagen itself or collagen building strategies. Hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, copper chloride, collagen peptides, gelatin, all of these can have a supportive effect for protecting against leaky gut. And then there's also slimy substances like algae for example, or mushrooms or herbs like slippery elm and mullen. All of these can have can support the mucosa on the intestine personally. Like something called fucoidin which is found in brown algae. I think it's a. Yeah, brown algae. It's an extract from brown algae. And that can help calm down and help support the mucosa, calm down inflammation, support the mucosa on the intestine. And by the way, one of the things that happens when you have leaky gut that we don't really account for sometimes, yeah, toxicity is going to get into the bloodstream and that's obviously something you want to be aware of. But when you have a leaky gut, that means your intestine's inflamed. When the intestine is inflamed now, you're not going to be able to absorb your nutrients. You're not going to absorb your vitamin A, you're not going to absorb your minerals, you're not going to absorb your vitamin C and your B vitamins and your electrolytes. So now, in addition to having to deal with toxicity, you're gonna have to deal with malnourishment and malnutrition. So by really working on the gut, by solving the leaky gut problem, by food elimination, using these supplements that we talked about, not only are you gonna be able to keep the blood clean to protect against eczema and autoimmunity and other health challenges, and by the way, you can see by virtue of the mechanism of eczema that you're gonna be more prone towards other health challenges if you have eczema, because now you got this dirty blood condition, this, this blood toxicity issue. So you're gonna reduce the risks of all other health challenges once you really solve the problem, something that's not gonna occur when you, when you use the dermatological strategies of biologics or, or topical steroids or steroids in general. So working on the leaky gut, eliminating problem foods using the nutrients that we talked about is critical not just for improving the eczematic condition, but also for reducing the risk or the likelihood of other health challenges and for supporting nutrient absorption through the intestine. Two of the most important stimulus stimuli for leaky gut or causes of leaky gut, are, number one, estrogen, particularly estrogen that's not toxified appropriately or detoxified properly, I should say. And number two, and this is really problematic, is fried fats. So French fries, pizza, hush puppies, fried butter and Snickers bars and all the fried foods we like. Those are major, major triggers of leaky gut.