Ending the Rash

Well, last week we talked a little about what causes eczema, or at least what little we know of what causes eczema. But what about getting rid of it once we have it? The first thing many people do is use lotions and creams. Cold compresses can be used to decrease the itching caused by the histamine released by the white blood cells. Then people usually use over the counter steroid creams which have some benefit. If that doesn’t work they go to the doctor and they get the prescription strength steroid creams to decrease the body’s immune response to that area. Sometimes those areas can be so nasty that they become infected. Then standard medicine would treat that with an antibiotic. Certainly antihistamines are frequently given since histamine is involved in that whole inflammatory process.

In the “good old days” we used to use tar preparations with coal tar in it. I’m not sure what we were doing but doctors thought that was mildly suppressing the immune response. It was just really messy and ugly and hard to get people to put that on themselves. It’s still a valid therapy in terms of suppressing the immune response, but definitely not something doctors do now.

Interestingly enough, ultraviolet or sun exposure can dramatically improve eczema lesions. That’s always interesting. We’ve had this huge reaction for several decades against sunlight. Of course, as the saying goes: “nothing in excess, everything in moderation”. I’ve always said we probably need 30 minutes of direct sunlight a day. Of course, Vitamin D has gone down in a lot of people. Bone fractures have gone up because we’re not getting the Vitamin D the body produces when in sunlight. Sunlight is good in a lot of ways, from preventing depression during the middle of winter to keeping your bones solid with Vitamin D production. I won’t go too far down that rabbit hole right now, but I could talk a lot about the health benefits of sunlight.

Naturopathically you would want to probably use some extracts of echinacea. If you’re going to use something topically that would be something like comfrey extract, plantain, burdock, dandelion, black walnut or even pansy extracts have been used for that in the past. All those are good. Evening primrose oil, again, has some healing qualities and can be of value there. B12 is thought by some to have some benefit in eczema. Zinc can always be of some benefit for anything involving the skin.

There are some new suggestions about very acid water being an effective treatment. I’ve seen several patients in recent months who have been cleared of their eczema and even psoriasis using acidic water. That is very interesting. We don’t have a clue why that is working, like a lot of other medicines. Just an observation as I’ve seen several people use that for eczema and psoriasis. I’m always surprised at some therapies and amazed, but I’ve always got my ears open and am always interesting in hearing what works. If you all have any wonderful, strange remedies out there for things that nobody else knows about or is not widely disseminated you are welcome to share with me at any time.

The Rash to End All Rashes

Today’s topic is eczema. A lot of us have had eczema at one time or another or had a child who had it. The NIH says there are about 15 million people in the United States on a yearly basis affected by eczema. That’s not insignificant. Eczema tends to be more prevalent as a child. The good news is that it usually diminishes as we get older. But, as you know there are some people who have just a terrible time with eczema. My daughter didn’t get it classically as a infant. She was probably 7 or 8 before she got it. Then she had it horribly for a number of years. Some people get it when they get older. In some it doesn’t show up until they are adults.

What is eczema? It’s always interesting to look at some of the really big diseases that affect a whole lot of people. With all the billions of dollars that we do in medical research every year and all we think we know, a lot of times we still don’t know a lot about some diseases. Eczema is one of those that we don’t know why people get it.

Some people think skin allergens. Other people think dust mites. Others think chemicals. Part of it is probably a disordered immune response. It is just not well defined. It usually appears as a rash on kids on forehead, cheeks, forearms and scalp. On adults it’s a more classical case of appearing on the neck, elbows, knees and ankles. It looks a little different in adults and children.

The good news is that it’s not contagious. You don’t have to worry about catching it. The bad news is, if your mom or dad had it and your grandma and grandpa you’ll have some pretty good odds that you’ll have some trouble with it, too. There is certainly a genetic component to it.

Prevention ideas include trying to prevent coming into contact with whatever it is that is stirring you up first. If it’s wool, change to polyester. If there are a lot of dust mites in the home you try to change the environment. If there are chemicals, remove those. In the prevention/treatment arena you can moisturize those areas with lotions and creams to try to keep those physical things from encountering the areas of concern. At the same time moisturizing is believed to help eczema, not just prevent it. I can’t honestly say I’ve seen a lot of results from that when I’ve treated eczema, but that’s the first thing you want to do medically.

It’s interesting that sudden temperature changes seem to stir eczema up. It’s one of those observed phenomena that medicine doesn’t have a clue as to why that would be so. Sweating and overheating is thought to, but I see a lot of it in winter. One thing for sure is that we absolutely know that stress encourages and makes people with eczema get worse or pop out when they haven’t been having any trouble with it lately. Some people believe there are food allergies involved. Again, there is a lot we don’t know.

Next post I’ll talk about what we can do, medically, to treat eczema.