Eczema: Treatment, Diagnosis and Prevention



Eczema


What is Eczema?
Eczema is a medical condition in which patches of skin become rough and inflamed, with blisters that cause itching and bleeding, sometimes resulting from a reaction to irritation (eczematous dermatitis) but more typically having no obvious external cause.
Eczema is a group of unrelated diseases that have a similar appearance. When it is new eczema, the affected skin appears red and elevated with small blisters (vesicles) containing a clear fluid.


Eczema

Types of Eczema



Causes of Eczema
Stress and other emotional factors do not cause atopic dermatitis, but they can make the condition worse. Certain foods such as nuts and dairy can trigger the symptoms. Eczema can also be triggered by environmental factors such as smoke and pollen.
Environmental factors that trigger or causing eczema include:



Symptoms/Signs of Eczema
Eczema symptoms include itchy, red, and dry skin caused by inflammation. It’s most commonly found in children, although adults can get it. It is also called atopic dermatitis
• In small children: a red patch or rash forms on the cheeks or sometimes on the arms and hands. The rash consists of small sores or blisters that ooze or weep (burst and leak fluid).
• In older children and adult: eczema is usually drier and is most common behind the knees and on the inside of the elbows.
• It does not start as an infection but is more like an allergic reaction.
How to diagnose Eczema
What will your doctor do is to make a diagnosis by examining your skin and reviewing your medical history. He or she may also use patch testing or other tests to rule out other skin diseases or identify conditions that accompany your eczema.
He can also ask you to do these tests




Eczema

How to Prevent Eczema

Infection causes severe anemia. These worms enter the body through the soles of the feet.



Treatment for Eczema
It is treated with oral medications, steroid creams and light therapy.
Put cold compresses on the rash.
Wash the affected part with soap and cooled, boiled water 3 to 4 times each day,gently soaking off the crusts.
After each washing, paint the sores with gentian or spread on an antibiotic cream containing bacitracin such as Polysporin.
If the infection is spread over a large area or causes fever, give cloxacillin or dicloxacillin. If the person is allergic to medicines of the penicillin family or if these medicines do not seem to be helping, try doxycycline or cotrimoxazole.
Let the sunlight fall on the patches.                               
In difficult cases, use cortisone or cortico-steroid cream or coal tar may help. Seek medical advice.

Eczema Home Remedies/Home Cure



You can also do these for permanent cure:

1. Coconut Oil
I use coconut oil for everything. It is one of the things that would absolutely be on my list in a you-are-going-to-an-island-and-can-only-bring-five-things type situation. We use it for skin, hair, teeth, health and even soap making at our house, but it is also great for eczema (as long as the person isn’t allergic/intolerant to coconut!). I’ve found that for us, a thin layer of coconut oil or a coconut oil lotion bar helps cool eczema itching and pain. For those sensitive to coconut oil, these hypoallergenic lotion bars work really well too.

2. Sea Spray
For eczema that is wet/oozing, I’ve found that drying it works better than trying to moisturize it and offers relief. For this, we use a homemade salt and magnesium spray. I’ve often heard people with skin problems say that they felt better at the beach, and it makes sense. Between the Vitamin D, the magnesium and the minerals in the water, the beach is great for skin health!
For those who don’t live near the ocean, this homemade spray can help achieve some of the same benefits at home.



3. Fermented Cod Liver Oil
Sounds nasty (doesn’t taste so great either) but fermented cod liver oil is one of the supplements we take daily.
Fermented Cod Liver Oil (FCLO) is recommended by the Weston A. Price Foundation and is a great source of healthy fats for the body. This supplement is also an integral part of the tooth remineralization process as detailed by Dr. Price and by Rami Nagel in Cure Tooth Decay. These two help reduce inflammation in the body and lead to healthy cell, hormone and brain development. They are especially important during pregnancy and for children while their brains are developing.

Cod Liver Oil/High Vitamin Butter Oil are a great source of the fat-soluble vitamins A,D, E and K and as such are supportive of hundreds or processes in the body. The supplements are rather pricey, but we’ve seen a big difference from adding this to our regimen (including skin health!)
We take Fermented Cod Liver Oil in Capsules or Fermented Cod Liver Oil/High Vitamin Butter Oil blend in Gel Form.
The taste is terrible, but you can add heathy sweetners like honey etc, or add to a smoothie.

4. Magnesium Baths
For some people with eczema, soaking in water makes it worse. For those who tolerate it, magnesium baths and other types of detox baths can be helpful in skin healing.
I regularly add a cup of epsom salts or magnesium flakes and a few tablespoons of Himalayan salt to my kids baths. When I have the time, I take relaxing baths in this mixture also.
When I can’t take the time for a bath, magnesium oil also helps. Amazingly, I notice the benefits of transdermal magnesium (baths or magnesium oil) much more quickly than when I take internal forms of magnesium.

Eczema

My favorite magnesium bath recipe is:
1-2 cups of epsom salts or magnesium flakes (magnesium flakes are absorbed much more easily)
1/2 cup Himalayan or Sea Salt
1/2 tsp of natural vanilla extract
10-15 drops of essential oil of choice (I love lavender and mint)
These three detox bath recipes are also all great if the person can handle warm water.

5. Probiotics
Just as with the Fermented Cod Liver Oil, probiotics are one supplement that seems to make a noticeable difference with skin health (if the problem is diet/gut related). For us, high quality probiotics were vital when we were intensively doing GAPS.
Probiotics and probiotic-rich foods are another element that is often missing from the modern diet. I’m constantly seeing more research on the many ways that gut bacteria influences our health. In the past, people often preserved food by fermenting it, which also was a good source of probiotics for them. Now, most foods are dead, and we rarely ferment them in the traditional ways, so we don’t consume probiotic rich foods without a specific effort to do so.

We also make an effort to wash our hands and our food (a good thing with the chemicals on them these days) which also wash off the beneficial soil-borne micro-organisms that provide friendly-bacteria to the gut.



Since gut bacteria is so important, probiotics are one supplement I always make sure to take. You can get some probiotics in fermented food and drinks such as:
Kombucha Soda
Water Kefir
Sauerkraut

Lacto-fermenting almost any vegetable using whey (how to make whey)
We take Bio-Kult Probiotics (developed by the founder of the GAPS diet… it doesn’t have to be refrigerated) and I’ve seen digestive improvements from this brand (I’ve often see no result from other probiotics). We all take these as a daily maintenance, but at the first sign of digestive troubles or illness, we double or triple the dose until we are better. I also took these to heal after I got food poisoning, and was back to normal in a couple of days.
I sneak them into the kids smoothies and drinks, and my older ones will even swallow or chew the capsule (they are small). By Wellness mama.com



Complications of Eczema

Skin infections: Repeated scratching that breaks the skin can cause open sores and cracks. These increase your risk of infection from bacteria and viruses, including the herpes simplex virus.