The Experience Miracles Podcast

Q&A Can Chiropractic Care Calm the Root Cause of Eczema?

Jun 6, 2025

Children’s Eczema and the Nervous System: Why Gut Health Alone Isn’t Enough

Episode 110 — Experience Miracles Podcast | Host: Dr. Tony Ebel, DC, CACCP — Pediatric Chiropractor & Founder of PX Docs | Published: June 6, 2025 | Duration: ~31 min

Key Takeaways

  • Eczema is not primarily a skin condition — it is a surface signal that the nervous system, gut, and immune system are all dysregulated. Treating only the skin, or even only the gut, leaves the deepest root cause untouched.
  • The Vagus Nerve controls four gut functions in sequence — motility, absorption, assimilation, and elimination. When Sympathetic Dominance shuts down vagal tone, gut motility stalls first, and toxins get pushed out through the skin as a last resort.
  • Most children with persistent eczema are chronically constipated, even if supplements are masking it. Needing 3–5 daily supplements just to have regular bowel movements is a sign of underlying nervous system dysregulation, not a supplement deficiency.
  • Dysautonomia — nervous system imbalance in which the parasympathetic system and vagus nerve are suppressed — is the deeper driver behind the leaky gut, disrupted microbiome, and immune inflammation that show up as eczema.
  • Dr. Tony Ebel recommends a neuro thermal scan as the most important diagnostic test for eczema — more revealing than gut mapping or allergy panels — because it directly measures the level of Subluxation and sympathetic dysfunction driving the whole cascade.

Why Does My Child’s Eczema Keep Coming Back?

Childhood eczema persists because most treatment approaches stop one layer short of the real root cause. The skin is the body’s final defense — when toxins can’t be fully eliminated through the gut, the body pushes them out through the skin. That means eczema is not a skin problem; it’s a signal that the gut and immune system aren’t clearing things properly. And the gut and immune system aren’t clearing things properly because the Nervous System — the system that controls both — is stuck in a stress state.

Dr. Tony Ebel frames this through what he calls the neuro-gut-immune triad: the nervous system sits at the top as the master controller, the gut and immune system are the middle layer, and the skin is the outer expression of dysfunction in both. When families clean up household chemicals, switch to organic diets, add probiotics, and even run comprehensive allergy panels, they’re working the middle and outer layers. Those steps matter. But if the nervous system remains locked in Sympathetic Dominance — the fight-or-flight protective state — the gut will continue to underperform no matter how clean the inputs are.

The Vagus Nerve, the primary nerve of the parasympathetic system, controls gut motility (the muscular movement that moves food through the digestive tract), absorption of nutrients, assimilation of those nutrients into tissues, and elimination of waste. When vagal tone is suppressed by nervous system stress, all four of these functions are compromised in sequence. This is why a child with eczema will often also be chronically constipated, dependent on multiple supplements to have a bowel movement, and reactive to a seemingly endless list of foods.

Eczema Is More Than a Skin Problem [00:00 – 03:00]

Dr. Tony Ebel, DC, CACCP: When the skin shows up having problems, that is a sure sign that there are a lot more problems beneath the surface — not just with the gut, not just with the immune system, and not just with inflammation.

If you’re dealing with skin and eczema issues, you’ve probably already landed on the gut conversation. And you’re right. We do have to get into the gut, the immune system, and the microbiome. But I want to start by putting eczema in a bigger context, because this is also a condition that flares predictably in spring and fall.

In those transitional seasons, anxiety gets worse, seizures get worse, behavior gets worse, and sleep gets worse. The reason is that when the nervous system is under more stress, every other system in the body becomes less functional — and that includes the gut, the immune system, and the skin. This is not an allergy story in the conventional sense. The immune system simply has more work to do in spring and fall, and if it already struggles when things are calm, it’s going to struggle much worse during these transitions.

That’s when eczema flares. That’s when PANDAS flares. That’s when neurological challenges intensify. Whatever condition we’re talking about on this platform, it always comes back to the triad: neuro-gut-immune function.

The Neuro-Gut-Immune Triad: How These Systems Connect [03:00 – 06:30]

The nervous system is the boss of the gut. It’s a two-way street, but it’s not an equal relationship. The nervous system controls gut function far more than the gut influences the nervous system. The gut and the immune system are tightly linked — but they’re linked via the nervous system. That’s the piece most treatment approaches miss.

So when we see eczema and skin issues, we’re seeing a sign that all three systems are off track. The gut isn’t processing and eliminating efficiently. The immune system is inflamed and reactive. And the skin is doing what the body does when the elimination system fails — it pushes things out through the surface.

The skin is literally the body’s last defense. When the nervous system recognizes that toxins and waste products are building up, it looks for an exit. If the gut can’t move them out effectively, the skin becomes the fallback elimination route.

Layer 1: Cleaning Up the External Environment [06:30 – 09:00]

The simplest layer — and probably the one you’ve already addressed — is what’s coming into contact with the skin from the outside. Laundry detergents, synthetic fabrics, household cleaners, soaps, and shampoos can all irritate skin that’s already inflamed from the inside.

This is absolutely essential to address, and I know most of the families we work with have already done this work — special diapers, special clothes, chemical-free detergents, the whole thing. They come in and say, “We’ve cleaned up the outside, and our kid’s skin is still struggling.”

That’s the right response: if cleaning up the external environment didn’t resolve it, go one layer deeper.

Layer 2: Gut Health, Nutrition, and Allergy Testing [09:00 – 14:00]

The second layer is nutrition and digestive health. This is where most families spend most of their effort, and rightly so. Getting dairy out, removing grains and preservatives, cleaning up mom’s diet if breastfeeding, adding probiotics, digestive enzymes, and omega-3s — all of this supports the gut’s ability to break food down, absorb nutrients, and move waste out.

If the gut can’t fully break food down and can’t get the waste products out through normal elimination, they come out through the skin. That’s how simple eczema really is — at this layer.

“If the gut can’t completely break food down and get the waste products out through elimination, then they come out through the skin.”

But many families have done all of this. They’re on paleo, organic, spotless diets. They have a full supplement cabinet. They’ve run comprehensive functional allergy panels and discovered their child reacts to seemingly everything. And the eczema is still there.

When a family is at that point — they’ve done the external clean-up and they’ve done extensive gut and nutrition work — and their child still has eczema, it’s a sure sign that there is something deeper driving the dysfunction. Conventional allergy testing through a pediatrician isn’t going to find it. Even deep functional medicine allergy testing doesn’t address the root cause at this level. It’s time to go to the third layer.

Layer 3: The Nervous System Is the Real Boss of Gut Function [14:00 – 19:00]

Here’s the framework that changes everything for eczema families: the gut immune inflammatory cascade — leaky gut, dysbiotic microbiome, inflammatory immune response — is often just the middle layer. The deepest layer is the Autonomic Nervous System and the Vagus Nerve.

The vagus nerve is the gut-brain connection. It’s the primary nerve of the parasympathetic system — the “rest and digest” side of the nervous system. It controls gut motility, absorption, assimilation, and elimination. When the vagus nerve is functioning well, the gut works. When it’s suppressed, the gut doesn’t work — regardless of what you’re feeding it.

“Before we GI map the gut, we need to neuro map the gut.”

The question to ask any family with a constipated eczema child who’s on 3, 4, or 5 supplements just to go to the bathroom regularly is this: did God design your child to be short on probiotics? Did He design them unable to have a bowel movement without prunes and digestive enzymes every day? The answer is no. That supplement dependence is not a nutrient deficiency. It’s a nervous system function problem.

I have an entire cabinet of supplements in my own home and I’m a huge advocate for them. But if a child needs daily supplements just to maintain basic gut function, we need to address why the nervous system isn’t running that function on autopilot the way it’s designed to.

The Four-Stage Neuro-Digestive Sequence [19:00 – 23:00]

The nervous system controls gut function through a four-stage sequence. When Sympathetic Dominance kicks in — what I call The Perfect Storm: too much stress, too early, too often — the nervous system shifts into protective mode. The first system it shuts down to conserve resources is the gut.

The gut is a muscle. The esophagus is a muscle, the stomach is a muscle, the small intestine is a muscle, the large intestine is a muscle, the colon is a muscle. None of it moves on its own. It runs entirely on autopilot via the Autonomic Nervous System. That movement is called peristalsis.

Stage one: Motility — peristalsis slows and stalls when the nervous system is stressed. The gut is a massive energy drain (think about how often infants, toddlers, and teenagers eat). When the nervous system needs to conserve resources, gut motility is the first thing it sacrifices.

Stage two: Absorption — with motility compromised, the gut becomes less efficient at absorbing nutrients and more permeable to things it shouldn’t let through. This is where leaky gut originates.

Stage three: Assimilation — the process of routing absorbed nutrients to the tissues and cells that need them. Directed entirely by the nervous system.

Stage four: Elimination — the detoxification and removal of waste. When this final stage is compromised, toxins that should exit through normal elimination routes don’t. They look for another way out.

“A child with eczema clearly has significantly dysfunctional neuro-digestive elimination.”

That’s why the skin gets involved. It’s the body’s backup elimination system — the final defense when the nervous system is too stressed to run the gut through its full four-stage process.

The Most Important Test: Neuro Thermal Scan and Dysautonomia [24:00 – 27:00]

The most important diagnostic test for eczema is not a gut mapping panel or a comprehensive allergy test. It’s a neuro thermal scan.

This test measures regional Dysautonomia — the neurological term for what we’ve been describing throughout this episode. Dysautonomia means the nervous system is shifted into Sympathetic Dominance: too much fight-or-flight, and the parasympathetic system and vagus nerve are suppressed and shut down.

Chiropractically, we have a catchall term for this state: Subluxation. Subluxation means all of that is happening — dysautonomia, sympathetic dominance, vagus nerve dysfunction — and it shows up as measurable thermal asymmetry in a neuro thermal scan.

When subluxation is present, the nervous system innately shuts down the gut and digestive system first. It slows motility and elimination. That sparks inflammation in the immune system. The immune system can’t clear what it should. And the final exit for those toxins is the skin.

When we see eczema, we see nervous system dysfunction. When we see skin issues, we see dysautonomia, sympathetic dominance, vagus nerve dysfunction, and subluxation. Even our most advanced functional medicine colleagues — when they can’t get a child’s gut and skin issues resolved through their own work — know they need to refer for neurological chiropractic care.

The Three-Step Action Plan for Eczema [27:00 – 31:00]

All three layers matter. None of them should be skipped. But they need to be understood in the right order.

Step 1: Address nervous system care. Get a neuro thermal scan. Identify the level of dysautonomia, sympathetic dominance, and subluxation. Then pursue Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care to restore vagal tone and parasympathetic function. This is the layer most families haven’t reached yet — and it’s the layer that unlocks the other two.

Step 2: Ultra-clean diet. Remove the chemical, inflammatory, and allergenic inputs that are burdening the gut and immune system. This means organic whole foods, eliminating dairy and sugar, reducing grains and preservatives, and being especially careful during high-stress immune seasons like spring and fall.

Step 3: Targeted supplementation. Probiotics, digestive enzymes, omega-3s, and other gut-supportive supplements still matter. They support the system while the nervous system heals. Just don’t mistake supplement dependence for health.

For wellness families already doing all of the above who see eczema flare up — that’s a sign to increase the frequency of chiropractic adjustments. A growth spurt, an immune challenge, or extra seasonal stress can tip the nervous system back into sympathetic dominance faster than the usual maintenance schedule can handle. The answer isn’t to overhaul the whole protocol. It’s to dig deeper into the nervous system layer and give it more support.

“Increase nervous system care, ultra clean up the diet, and add supplements. Even if it’s more complicated inside the body, those are still the three key functions to dig in.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my child’s eczema keep coming back even with a perfect diet?

Because diet addresses the gut layer, but the gut is controlled by the Autonomic Nervous System. If the nervous system is stuck in Sympathetic Dominance — the fight-or-flight state — it will continue to suppress gut motility, absorption, and elimination regardless of what goes into it. The digestive system runs on autopilot via the Vagus Nerve, and when vagal tone is suppressed, no amount of dietary clean-up fully resolves the underlying dysfunction.

What is the connection between the nervous system and eczema?

The nervous system controls four gut functions in sequence: motility (movement), absorption (pulling nutrients in), assimilation (routing nutrients to tissues), and elimination (removing waste). When the nervous system shifts into Sympathetic Dominance through stress, gut motility is the first function to stall. Toxins that can’t exit through normal elimination routes get pushed out through the skin — which is why Dr. Tony Ebel calls eczema “the body’s last defense” in the elimination system.

What is dysautonomia and how is it connected to childhood eczema?

Dysautonomia is the medical term for nervous system imbalance — specifically, a state in which the parasympathetic system and the Vagus Nerve are suppressed and the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) system dominates. In Dr. Tony Ebel’s clinical work, dysautonomia is consistently measurable in children with chronic eczema. It’s what drives the gut motility problems, the leaky gut, the immune inflammation, and ultimately the skin manifestation. A neuro thermal scan is the test used to identify and measure it.

What is a neuro thermal scan and why is it important for eczema?

A neuro thermal scan measures regional dysautonomia — thermal asymmetry along the spine that reflects nervous system imbalance and Subluxation. Dr. Tony Ebel calls it the most important diagnostic test for eczema by a wide margin, because it shows the deepest layer of dysfunction driving the gut, immune, and skin cascade. Gut mapping and allergy testing are valuable, but they address the middle layer. The neuro thermal scan assesses the root layer — the nervous system itself.

How do vaccinations and antibiotics factor into childhood eczema?

Both can significantly disrupt gut function by burdening the body’s detox and elimination systems. Antibiotics damage the gut microbiome directly. Vaccinations, particularly multiple doses given in quick succession early in life, require the body to process and detox through a gut and immune system that may already be under-resourced due to nervous system stress. Dr. Tony Ebel addresses these as additional stressors on an already compromised neuro-gut-immune system — not the sole cause, but factors that compound the underlying dysfunction.

How do I find a practitioner who can assess my child’s nervous system for eczema?

Search the PX Docs directory for a Neurologically-Focused Chiropractor trained in the clinical approach Dr. Tony Ebel teaches. These practitioners use neuro thermal scanning to assess the nervous system and apply specific chiropractic care designed to restore parasympathetic function, reduce sympathetic dominance, and support the body’s natural healing capacity.

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