Treatment for Eczema-Common Medications

Eczema is a persistent disease which is difficult to deal with. Its unbearable symptoms repeatedly come back although a lot of methods to get rid the disease have been applied by patients. Thus, seeking the effective treatment for eczema is the main objective of many eczema patients. Even though the true mechanism of eczema is not clearly understood, but it is believed that genetic and environment factors play main significant roles. Identifying the main factor is the key step to search for effective eczema treatments.

Eczema can be diagnosed through physical observation by a dermatologist or doctor. As it is almost similar to psoriasis, they are always misdiagnosed. For clear identification, a skin biopsy may be needed to rule out other possible conditions. After the disease is confirmed, the conventional treatments for eczema which include lifestyle modifications and medications are usually recommended. The treatment approaches are different based on the age of patient and severity of the condition.

Treatment for Eczema-Stop the Itch

Moisturizers
For eczema patients, it is adviseable to avoid dry skin as it is the most common cause of red rashes which often lead to itchiness. Applying moisturizers helps to keep your skin hydrated, thus prevent itchiness and frequent scratching. It is good to apply the moisturizers throughout the day, especially immediately after showering or bathing. You can use creams, ointments or lotions. If you want to use creams, make sure they are petrolatum-based as this helps to lock-in the moisture better.

Antihistamines
In order to alleviate allergy symptoms such as rashes, hives, and itching, antihistamines such as chlorpheniramine and loratadine are frequently prescribed. For eczema patients, this group of medications is effective if the skin has allergic response when it comes to contact with allergens, whether they are airborne allergens, chemicals or irritants.

Steroids
Treatment for severe eczema commonly involves use of steroids to suppress inflammation reactions and control eczema outbreaks. Steroids can be prescribed in form of creams such as hydrocortisone or betamethasone creams, or oral tablets like prednisolone.

Treatment for Eczema-Protect from Infection

Skin Protectors

Skin protectors are used in eczema patients to protect irritated, cracked and dry skin from infection. This is done to avoid development of more severe complications like blister-like sores. Skin protectors refer to a number of different products, a good product should contain petroleum jelly. To get benefits of skin protectors, eczema patients can try a few popular products such as Vaseline and Eucerin Aquaphor.

Treatment for Eczema-Fight Against Infections

Antibiotics
Persistent itching and scratching are commonly associated with eczema. These habits actually increase the risk of open wound. Even worse, if it is not taken care carefully, infections can occur. If you suspect that you have skin infections, which can be characterized by presence of clear or colored pus, with ugly appearance blister-like sores, it is advised to seek medical treatment from a doctor or dermatologist as soon as possible. Commonly, antibiotics will be prescribed. Early treatment with antibiotics will prevent the infections from getting worse and causing more severe complications. One thing to remember, never take antibiotics by your own. You must consult with a medical professional so that the best antibiotics for your infections are selected. Abuse use of antibiotics can lead to resistance, which will ruin the treatment.

Treatments for eczema are available in may forms, conventional and natural, but each treatment for eczema is proven effective to alleviate the symptoms of eczema. It is recommended to combine both conventional and natural options, so that you can have both benefits. If you want to get proper and systematic guidelines regarding natural remedies for eczema, kindly click here.

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Types Of Eczema

Eczema is a skin condition that can affect people of all ages, and it is usually persistent and difficult to be cured. Most people confuse atopic dermatitis as the only form of eczema, but actually there are other types of eczema that exist. Most of them can be differentiated in terms of areas affected, trigger factors, signs and symptoms. Even thought they are different, they still bring same effects-itchiness, irritations and rashes.

Most Common Types of Eczema

1. Atopic Eczema
Atopic eczema is the most common type of eczema. It is usually associated with people who have asthma and hay fever. Atopic dermatitis can be inherited and it affects both children and adults. Pruritis is the main symptom, which patients experience extreme itchiness that is commonly intolerable. Besides, dry, reddish and inflamed skin areas are also typically seen.

Due to pruritis, patients constantly scratch to seek relief. This then causes wounds which can easily be infected. If infection occurs, the affected skin may crack and release clear or slightly colored fluid. This is known as wet-eczema.

Treatments for atopic eczema include moisturizers to reduce itchiness, steroids to surpress inflammation and antibodies to cure infections.

2. Contact Eczema
Contact eczema is almost similar to atopic eczema except that it is more localized. This type of eczema develops due to prolonged contact with allergens that damage the skin. Based on the responsible allergens, contact eczema can be divided into allergic contact eczema and irritant contact eczema.

Allergic contact eczema usually occurs when a person touches an allergy-triggering substances such as nickel, cosmetics and poison ivy. Nickel is the most common, as it is the main component of belt buckles, earrings, or buttons. In contrast, irritant contact eczema happens when the skin is in frequent contact with harmful chemicals found in many regular household cleaners like detergents. Both hands are the common skin areas affected by this type of eczema.

Treatments for contact eczema are almost similar to atopic eczema. However, the absolute treatment is to get away from the suspected responsible allergens. Besides, Wearing gloves can help to protect both hands.

3. Seborrhoeic Eczema
Seborrhoeic eczema is a type of eczema that appears on the scalp as dandruff. If it occurs in infants, it is known as infantile seborrhoeic eczema. In adults, it is refered as adult seborrhoeic eczema which generally affects adults between 20 to 40 years old. Seborrhoeic eczema is usually associated with rapid growth of a type of yeast that lives on the scalp, which then leads to rapid shedding of cells on the scalp in form of flakes.

Seborrhoeic eczema is not accomponied by soreness or itchiness, thus it does not cause significant discomfort. In infants, it appears as cradle-cap which is very unpleasant to look at. In adults, this type of eczema is not limited on the scalp only, but also can spread to the face and ears before moving on to the chest area.

Treatments for seborrhoeic eczema vary between infants and adults. However, both include use of shampoo containing salicylic acid, selenium sulfide, zinc pyrithione, or coal tar, antifungal and steroid lotions.

4. Dyshidrotic Eczema
This eczema appears on the hands and palms, characterized by clear, deep blisters that itch and burn. The symptoms may worsen at night. Dyshidrotic eczmea can affect both males and females of any age and occurs in up to 20% of patients with hand eczema. It appears more frequent during the spring and summer and in warmer climates. Treatments invlolve use of cool, wet compresses and steroid drugs.

5. Nummular Eczema
This is type of chronic eczema which is more common among elderly males. Its distinguishable characetristic is formation of coin-shaped red patches of irritated skin. It usually appears on legs, backs of the hands, forearms, lower back and hips.

Less Common Types Of Eczema

1. Discoid eczema - Identified as round spots or dry rash commonly on lower legs, it becomes worsen in winter.

2. Venous eczema - Appears on people with problems of blood flow circulation. Symptoms are redness, itching and darkening of the skin that can develop into leg ulcer.

3. Dermatitis herpetiformis – It is associated with celiac disease. Intense itch and rash on arms, thighs, knees and back are common symptoms.

4. Neurodermatitis – An itchy area of pigmented eczema that results from scratching and rubbing.

These are various types of eczema that many people suffer from. Although they maybe different, but treatment approaches are almost the same. Avoiding allergens, applying emollients and using natural products are common recommended. If you want to know a systematic system regarding natural treatment for eczema, kindly click here.

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What Does Eczema Look Like?

One might wonder, what does eczema look like? What are the signs and symptoms of eczema? Eventhough eczema exists in different forms, they still share same common signs and symptoms. In this article, we are going to identify and explore those signs and symptoms.

1. Extreme Itchiness
Eczema is an inflammation of the skin. When the process occurs due to various triggers, the skin irritates and causes extreme itchiness to the sufferers. Thus, it is common if one can see eczema patients have constant urge to itch to seek relief. All of us actually feels itchy and needs to scratch, but the itchiness felt by eczema patients is different. With normal itch, we only need to scratch one and then done. But, for eczema patients, due to extreme itchiness, they have recurring urge to scratch that is difficult to stop. No matter how much they scratch, itch or rub the affected areas, the urge is always there.

Eczema can present on any parts of the skin, however it commonly can be seen on the hands, feet, elbows and legs.

2. Red Rashes
Since eczema patients constantly scratch to relieve their skin irritation, this action actually triggers more skin irritation. As a result, red rashes develop. Depends on the size of the skin that is itching, the red rashes can be large or small. After red rashes grow, eczema patients usually want to stop scratching hoping that the rashes will fade away. However, what usually happens is that patients cannot stop scratching as the itchiness is very extreme. They have to scratch as it is the only way to seek relief. Unfortunately, this frequently leads to the more severe symptoms.

3. Blisters
Regular scratching on red-patches or rashes will end to two complications, one of them is growth of blister-like sores. The sores may release clear or slightly discolored liquid. After few days, the sores begin to heal leaving crust-like surface form.

4. Dry Flaky Skin Patches
Some eczema patients may find blister-sores on their outbreak rashes, while others may have dry, flaky and scaly skin. In this event, constant scratching damages the outer skin layer, which then will stimulate growth of new cells to replace the damaged cells. During this process, patients may observe patches of skin that look like they may fall off at any moment.

Now you have learned what does eczema look like; what are their signs and symptoms. But, you may wonder, how to get rid of it? First thing you should do is to keep your body moisturized as this can reduce itchiness and overcome dry-flaky skin. Then, identify and concentrate to get rid your causes of eczema. Many natural ways can be done to achieve this. If you are looking for a systematic program that utilizes natural treatment for eczema, kindly click here.

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What Is Eczema? What Causes Eczema?

What is Eczema?

Eczema is an inflammation of epidermis and it is characterized by red, dry, scaly and itchy skin. The word eczema refers as "to boil over" and in some countries it is similar to the term "dermatitis". However, some may refer dermatitis as acute condition while eczema as a more chronic situation. Eczema is not an autoimmune disease like psoriasis, nor an infection, but it is believed as allergic reactions triggered by presence of allergens.

Eczema can affect many people at any range of age, but it is more common among infants which it commonly develops before adulthood. Eczema patients usually have hypersensitive skin contributed by certain genes that can be inherited in families. Due to hypersensitive skin, presence of allergens will cause overactive immune response and excessive allergic or inflammation reactions. These then contribute to symptoms of eczema. Apart from the allergic reactions, it is also believed that defects in the skin barrier contribute to eczema. These defects can allow moisture out through the skin and let germs in.

What Causes Eczema?

The main problem with eczema is it causes extreme itchiness which leads to uncontrollable desire to scratch. Frequent scratching may cause a painful open sore. In order to prevent this, you have to stop eczema outbreaks. The first important thing to stop your eczema is to identify the causes or triggers of your eczema flare-ups. Here are some common causes of eczema:

1. Weather

Weather is one of the common causes of eczema outbreaks. For many people, the weather only plays main role in determining their daily activities. For eczema patients, the weather's role is more than that; it also influences how their skin will do. Both cold and hot weathers are not good for them. Some patients may develop extreme urge to itch in cold weather as their body may not have sufficient time to be compatible to the cold weather especially before doing strenuous activities. Likewise, hot weather causes excessive sweating which then lead to eczema outbreaks.

2. Airborne Allergens

Stuffy nose and sneezing are common events associated with allergic reactions. For eczema patients, they will also develop skin reactions which cause itchiness and skin rashes. These usually occur when there are airborne allergens, such as dust, mites, pollen and smoke that make contact with the skin. Thus, eczema patients should be careful when vacuuming or doing home chores as tiny particles may find their way into the air and make contact with the skin, leading to allergic reactions and eczema outbreaks.

3. Stress

Many healthcare professionals claim that stress is not one of the causes of eczema, but some medical studies show a very clear correlation between stress and eczema. Stress is said to lead an increase in eczema outbreaks. When a person is stress and anxious, the body counters it and triggers inflammation chain. This then leads to worsen symptoms of eczema. It is now make sense why patients with a history of skin inflammation are encouraged to practice relaxation techniques.

4. Chemicals

Look at your surrounding, you will find a ton of products containing chemicals. You may think that only harmful chemicals that trigger skin inflammation, but it is not always true. Chemicals found in our daily regular products such as laundry detergent, makeup, and perfume also can cause eczema outbreaks when they get direct contact with the skin. Common chemicals, or called as irritants associated with eczema include zinc, nickel and iron.

5. Food

It would be surprised to know that some foods can have significant impacts on our skin, especially on eczema patients. Studies have shown that taking certain foods can trigger eczema in both adults and children, and avoiding those foods reduce the intensity of eczema symptoms. Eggs, cow milk/dairy products, peanuts, tomatoes, tropical fruits, yeast, seafoods and certain additives are some foods that should be avoided by eczema patients.

Listed here are a few of the most common causes of eczema. Now, you should be able to identify which one is the main trigger of your eczema. Then, you can put efforts to eliminate the trigger factor so that you can permanently eliminate your eczema. Curing eczema can be challenging, but if you know the proper ways, total cure can be achieved. If you want to know effective natural approaches to deal with your eczema, kindly click here.

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