Eczema Treatment - A Guide to Treating the Skin Disorder

The common skin problem known as eczema is caused by a lack of ability to retain water in the skin, which leads to dryness.

This causes an adverse reaction in the epidermis and red, irritating patches of skin develop.

In fact, most of the disease’s problems are caused by the almost inevitable scratching that results from this itching.

Because eczema is often related to allergens, one method of treatment can be to either avoid those allergy-causing elements, or use medicines that attack the allergies, themselves.

We’ll explore a wide-range of effective treatments for eczema below; many of which are geared towards eliminating or reducing the symptoms of inflammation, prevention of the itching that causes the person to scratch, and medicines that suppress the immune response.

1. The simplest solution, which anyone can do at home, is to make sure to keep the eczema-affected parts of the skin hydrated enough to avoid the cracking that leads to the immune-system response.
2. Applying oily creams, especially right after bathing or showering, helps tremendously in keeping the water in the fat layer and avoiding the breakout of rashes.
3. Furthermore, if there is already an onset, a moisturizer can soothe the skin so that the subject doesn't start scratching it and worsening the effects of eczema.
4. In the same vein, applying creams containing the element zinc has been shown to work wonders; zinc can even be ingested and still have an effect on eczema.
5. If cream isn't on hand, then keeping wet towels or bandages around the body can work almost as well, because once again, it keeps the skin hydrated, and this is a state that is an enemy to eczema.

There are some substances that can be bought at the drugstore, such as hydro-cortisone cream, salicylic acid, and creams with steroids in them, that can be effective treatments for psoriasis.

They go more to the root of the matter, by seeking to counteract the inflammation of the skin, and they come in different dosage strengths.

If the itching is very bad, then an antihistamine – which will usually cause drowsiness – can be very effective, although don’t take it if you have any plans of operating a motor vehicle within the next ten minutes or so.

• when you take a shower, make sure it's warm and relatively short. If the water is too hot, it can dry your skin out - a no-no for people trying to manage eczema
• buy special soaps - they're not expensive - that won't dry your skin out
• stress is a big progenitor of eczema flare-ups; try and live a stress-free life - as hard as that may sound

Other people who suffer from skin disorders have been fortunate enough to take trips to the Dead Sea in Israel/Jordan, where a descent into the hyper-saline waters is known to soothe and clear a host of skin problems.

Of course, not everyone can just up and fly to the Dead Sea, so there are companies that sell Dead Sea mud for direct skin-application.

Also known as the Salt Sea, the combination of magnesium (and other) salts there don’t exist anywhere else in the world naturally.

There are even spas set up along the bank, to take advantage of the droves of visitors that come throughout the year to experience the healing waters.

Even more powerful medications are available for the treatment of eczema, and they are applied topically.

While they can probably cure you entirely of eczema and have been approved by the FDA, the potential side-effects truly suck: they don’t actually know what might happen to you in the future if you use these!

Known as Protopic and Elidel, some studies suggest that malignant cancer rates could be higher with their long-term use; I think it’s scarier though that don’t know for sure. As can be expected, even the FDA says not to use them unless all else fails and the cases of eczema are severe and persistent.

If you are the type that avoids sunlight; stop it.

Sunlight has been proven to be quite effective, as well as photo-therapy using artificial light in the doctor’s office, at managing outbreaks of eczema, and treating full-blown cases.

The light helps your body create natural remedies in the form of vitamin D, which beats back the effects of eczema.

Not surprisingly, special diets that avoid foods that are known to trigger eczema in people who have a genetic disposition towards the skin disorder have been shown to have a very good effect on management of the disease.

Finding out what these are from a list at your doctor’s office can go a long way in keeping outbreaks away. Even better, make your own list of foods as time passes, by observing what foods cause breakouts and which ones actually help soothe flare-ups.

Lastly, you would do well to stay away from anything that might hold bugs that bite, as these have been known to trigger eczema in some people. If an outbreak does occur, then consider antibiotics to treat your allergies, which also have been shown to work well against eczema.