Eczema Treatment, Causes, Types, Symptoms, Medication And Facts

Like many other diseases and conditions, one would think that eczema is a condition you can go to the doctor for and get yourself healed after taking the prescribed medicine but research shows that it is not so. Prescription only digs the hole deeper. The regular prescription creams don’t really take the problem away. Soon enough the itching comes back and the medicines suddenly start to stop working. The more the itching, the more the more the medicines, the more they fail and we are stuck still scratching away.

The reason these treatments don’t work is because they don’t address the real problem of the issue which is the fact that the immunity of the body is so low. In such a case, the things that cause eczema will continue to come back and itch and make you scratch. Also, it is mostly genetic. More importantly, the causers are a whole lot of things like weather, detergents, food and such.

The issues with the present mainstream medicine methods used is manifold. The antibiotics kill the flora, which are in the intestines. Corticosteroids drastically pull down the body’s ability to fight off infection and to make it worse they even make it very hard for the body to heal if it has an infection. Antihistamines work for the first time and then onwards they direct the body to stop responding to it. Then on, administering them is a waste. The UV Light Therapy used in extreme cases of eczema only causes skin cancer and sun damage. Tar treatments almost have the same effects directly increasing skin irritation.

The only true long term solution is that which complements these treatments with natural solutions. The natural methods while they increase the immunity of your body, they naturally also decrease the amount of irritation your body feels when in contact with environmental factors. This also done as a regular treatment can reduce symptoms.

To naturally increase your immunity, there are absolutely simple things that you can do:

1) You must drink lots of water

2) Do not stress yourself (physically, mentally and emotionally)

3) Make changes such that you keep your skin more moist. Use a moisturizer or even shower more than once a day so that your skin stays moist for longer.

4) Remove all chemical influences that make your skin react unfavourably.

5) Use only hypoallergenic substances on your skin that are non toxic

6) Make sure you eat only food that has been cut up and cooked at home. Processed food poses a danger to your immunity.

7) There are a whole load of home remedies that can easily help you do a lot better with your eczema.

Any day, herbal treatments are preferred because they have no side effects and they do a better over all good to your body and its system.
So, it works two ways. When Eczema takes its toll, you need treatment to kill it but you also need to strengthen your immunity so that it does not happen again

There are some very simple ways to keep your skin safe from Enzema. These don’t take much of an effort and they are very effective. They must be kept in mind at all times though.

Do not touch things that trigger Enzema.
Enzema is caused largely by external factors – common ones among which are soap, sweat, rough clothes, food, detergent and city air among others. The best solution to eczema is to make sure that you keep away from all these so that there is no outburst. There are certain things among these that you can’t help like city air and sweat. You must keep in mind your body’s reaction to these things and try and stay away from them. Always wear clothes that have smooth fabric. Thoroughly wash your clothes so that no detergent is left on it when you wear the washed clothes. Watch the food that you eat. If you find a certain kind of food causes a reaction do not eat it again. Wearing gloves can help as your hand is what you use to touch most things.

Bathe right
It is very important how you bathe to protect yourself against eczema. The soap you use must be a mild soap. Mild or not, use as less as you can. The water must not be hot. It must be either cool or it should be warm. The main advantage of bathing is that your skin gets moist. So, it makes sense for you to shower in warm water 2 – 3 times a day. When you dry yourself after, you must not be rough on your skin rather you must pat it slowly and not be rough on it. To keep your skin moist, you can also use a moisturizer – not one that has a fragrance and too many ingredients. A plain regular moisturizer will do. The greasier the better.

Take your prescription in and on time
If you have been prescribed a medicinal course then you must stick to it and finish the course if you want it to work. If within three weeks there is no change in the eczema, you must report it to your doctor so that the future course of action can be determined and you can be healed of your outburst fast.

Don’t aggravate the rash
Do not scratch the patch where the eczema itches. If you do, it will turn into a rash. Even if it does, don’t scratch the rash either because then it might start to open up and stand a chance of getting infected. When you have it, don’t exert yourself so much so that you sweat away. Try and reduce your sweat to as less as you can so that it does not serve as a aggravation for your eczema.

Do not stop moisturizing lotion, bathing in warm water and the other steps described here even after the rash is gone. Continue it even after the rash is gone because it can very easily come again.

In most cases, using natural means to cure a heath disease is always the most popular as it is without side effects. In the case of Enzema also, this is true. Non natural medicines only cure the instance of eczema and don’t serve towards increasing or preserving the immunity of the body. Natural medicines on the other hand contribute to the long term increasing and preserving of immunity and thereby not needing to get treated to eczema anymore.
There are many natural ways to achieve this. Their intention is to not give eczema a reason to come back anymore.
Using Vitamins:

Vitamins have many properties that help to restore immunity to the body. Vitamin E is an anti oxidant. It heals the skin and hydrates it. Vitamin A provides the much needed boost to the immunity system that keeps eczema away. Vitamin B2 provides more oxygen supply to the skin and repairs the tissues of the skin making it a lot more like healthy skin should be. Vitamin B3 sees to it that your body takes in its carbohydrates. Vitamin C boosts immunity and it is by itself natural anti-histamine. It does the job with absolutely no side effects. The thing with Vitamin C is that it can’t be stored in your body. It has to be taken in via the food that you eat. But one thing is to be remembered. We cannot simply take this like medication. We need to take this in our food.

Using Probiotics:

Probiotics are a certain kind of bacteria that work against the harmful to the body kind of bacteria. They work very well when used to rid the body of eczema that comes from reaction with allergens. One such type is Lactobacillus GG. It is the most commonly used type of bacteria when using probiotic strain to rid the body of eczema. Cases when used have shown that this method to be effectively useful with children. The treatment worked very well with eczema cased due to food allergies.

Herbal Creams/Gels
Filled with substances like licorice, witch hazel extracts and chamomile, topical herbal creams and gels have been proved to be very successfully active in bringing down the eczema symptoms. Before you do actually use the cream, you must first consult a doctor to check if it alright to use it because the substances in these creams have been known to cause allergies in some conditions.

Gamma Linolenic Acids

A kind of fatty acids, Gamma Linolenic acids are the best solution for the bubbles or lumps that results at times as a result of the occurrence of eczema. It provides the deficiencies that cause for the outbreak of eczema.
It has been seen time and time again that the methods that have worked the best are the methods that are naturally based. Working at eliminating the cause is better than trying to kill an outbreak. Other methods are not as effective as the natural methods.

There are various kinds of eczema (another name for which is dermatitis) that occur and sometimes they occur – many kinds in the same person. Here we shall see a few of the commonly seen eczema types.

The most common of all – atopic dermatitis. Named by the non medical community as “the itch that rashes”, it itches like crazy to the extent that absolutely no activity can happen when it occurs. One of the harshest effects of it is that if it occurs while the person is sleeping, it does not allow the person to sleep till it subsides. You know that you have atopic dermatitis when you have areas of your skin that is itch, when you skin starts to become red and sometimes swells, the leaking of transparent liquid and sometimes even scaled skin. Other common symptoms are patches or bubbles of red skin. If these are not treated right and scratched then the skin naturally gets thicker to protect itself – something called lichenification.

These symptoms are seen most commonly in infants on their scalps and faces. Cheeks are a favorite spot. In adults, hands, feet, elbow bends, chest, wrists and neck are places where it occurs most times. They even sometimes appear on eyelids. Statistics show that up to one fifth of the people in the world suffer from atopic dermatitis in some form or the other.

The reason why atopic dermatitis occurs has been a hot topic of research for a long time but of not much avail. So far the host of reasons why it occurs including genetic reasons, a bad immune system living environment and when the outermost layer of skin breaks down.

There are certain things that can tell you whether you stand to get atopic dermatitis. Check the medical history of your family to see if there were cases of inflammation or linings in the nose and lungs. Even a history of hay fever, asthma or atopic dermatitis can indicate that you stand to get it sometime. Your environment and more specifically your geographic location (external factors) affect whether you will be affected by it or not.

If you were born to your mother quite a number of years after she had her first child, if you are female (males are less prone to it), if you are between one and five years old (because by the time a baby crosses five years, it has already developed) or even if you had a large family (the larger the family, the larger the chances study show).

Not in all cases must atopic dermatitis be treated to be taken care of. In many cases, it starts and completely diminishes by the time a child is 2 years old. It either generally diminishes by the time the child becomes an adult. If it doesn’t, it stays on for the life time of the person but does slowly diminishes with the advent of age. If it is very severe, it is suggested that you go to the doctor and have it looked up.

Taking care of yourself when you get burdened by Eczema at home is very easy. Home remedies for it are the same as that for allergies. If you have had allergies or someone has had allergies at home, you will know. These are simple down to earth rules that if you follow you should get by.

1) Keep your skin moist by taking warm showers throughout the day. Remember not a bath but just let the water moisten your skin. The effect will not be as much if you have a hot water bath. After that you must, wipe yourself dry with a towel gently and then apply moisturizing lotion all over. Do not use lotions that have fragrances and check if their contents do irritate your skin or not.

2) Don’t wear tight clothes. It makes the skin congested and makes it more likely to get eczema. Also, you must not wear clothes made out material that is rough or poky like wool (unless you wear it over a full sleeved shirt if you have to). It irritates the skin and increases the chances of getting a skin rash.

3) If you do get a rash, do not scratch the rash at any cost. If you really are unable to help yourself, cover the patch by dressing it up. Wearing gloves helps because even if you scratch especially at night. It won’t affect the wound so bad.

4) Remove the allergen (the reason why you are getting eczema) and keep it away from you. It could absolutely anything that irritates your skin. The bed sheet on your bed, the soap you use, the clothes you wear, the food you eat, sweat, washing powder or even something in the water that you use.

5) When you get a outburst, don’t exercise your body too much. Exercising at such time too can very easily irritate it.

6) Medicate the rash by applying on it a steroid cream with an anti itching lotion. Do this regularly and daily till the rash disappears. If you miss a day it is like starting all over again the next time you put it.

7) Take Diphenhydramine which should take care of the itching. It does make you very sleepy so you shouldn’t do any activity that would need you to have your full attention on like driving.

Keep the patch clean. Keep regularly cleaning the rash with hypoallergenic soap so that it remains completely clean after which you must add lubrication and the anti itching location. You could do this as many times a day as you can.

Apart from all this, you must lead a healthy lifestyle, sleep enough hours, avoid having to undergo stress and don’t exert your body too much – this is including the exercise that you do. It is not the case that the eczema will go away immediately after you do all of this. You have to keep at it will go away slowly.