Apparently the thyroid can cause severe skin conditions. My Grandma developed really dry skin once, (having never had any skins problems before), it just started falling of in lumps. The doctor gave her all the usual creams etc. And then she heard that the thyroid can be the cause, so she went back to her doctor, and suggested this, and he "tweaked" her thyroid, (not sure how, but some fairly simple, standard medicine I assume, I think the thyroid deals with a lot of hormones), and that was it. Gone. Back to normal. That's very easy for me to sit here and say I know, but worth a shot if you haven't already.