While this is a little off my regular topic, I thought I’d share a fascinating session that I had today at the Sydney Allergy Clinic.

The doctor referred to some seminal literature of relevance:

• New World Health Organisation report: deaths from noncommunicable diseases on the rise, with developing world hit hardest (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2011/ncds_20110427/en/index.html)
• Seborrhoeic dermatitis and dandruff: a fungal disease. Sam Shuster, Royal Society of Medicine Services, 1988
• Health Effects of Omega-3, Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids, By Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D. June, 2005 (http://pdfrequest.com/seabiotics/HealthEffectsofOmega3.pdf)

Shuster’s article outlines how seborrhoeic dermatitis is actually caused by the fungus (yeast) Malassezia Furfur, also known as Pityrosporum Furfur.

In terms of treating skin generally, the Sydney Allergy Clinic recommended the following five natural elements:

1. Omega 3
2. Vitamin D
3. Zinc
4. Probiotics
5. Prebiotics

Quizzically, the only allergen that returned a positive test result for me was cockroaches!