What is Eczema?

Eczema is a common skin disease that affects many people around the world.  Eczema has affected me for most of my life.  From the time I was a baby, I have had problems with Eczema.  My parents had to put special cream on my hands and elbows for months on end at times.  If I failed to treat my skin at nights and in the morning, I experienced tremendous pain, itching, and bleeding.  Over a period of about one year I was even forced to wear gloves at night while medicating my hands.  Needless to say, it was a humiliating and painful experience.

After this, I became really curious about Eczema, and asked my parents to find out all of the information they possibly could about the disease.  As I got older the disease began to subside, as it often does with many people.  However, when I was 21, I experienced an unexpected flare-up of the disease, and this was worse than I had previously experienced in my life.  The only issue I had with this was that I was in a foreign country and needed to get treatment.  I was living in New Zealand at the time, saw a kind doctor.  I learned an unfortunate thing during that visit.  The doctor told me that I would suffer from the disease throughout the rest of my life.  As a recurring disease, I would have to take care of it for the rest of my life.

Eczema is a skin disease, that affects millions of people worldwide every year.  It is an itchy inflammation of the skin.  Though the reasons for eczema aren’t known, there are certain conditions that can exacerbate the inflammation.  It is widely suspected that one of the causes of eczema is a problem with the person’s immune system.  Though it is a recurring disease, there are a few things that can lessen the seriousness of an outbreak.  According to the Mayo Clinic’s website people with Eczema usually have the Staph bacteria also on their skin.  This can actually cause the disease to break out worse and spread it quickly.

What are the Symptoms of Eczema?

There are various symptoms of Eczema.  Among those that the Mayo Clinic lists are:

• Red to brownish-gray colored patches
• Itching, which may become especially severe at night
• Small, raised bumps, which may leak fluid and crust over when scratched
• Thickened, cracked, or scaly skin
• Raw, sensitive skin from scratching

Eczema is typically located in a few areas, and not typically widespread.  Most eczema sufferers have outbreaks on their hands and feet, elbows, behind the knees, ankles, wrists, face, neck and upper chest.  Other places that can be affected are around the eyes.  Eczema around the eyes can lead to excessive rubbing, leading to loss of eyebrow hair and eyelashes.

It is important to recognize that most eczema occurs during the early stages of life.  In rare cases eczema will begin later in life.  However, a majority of cases begin early on in life, and recurs in cyclical patterns.  I know for me, I experience outbreaks typically during the winter months, and they disappear during the warmer months.  Unfortunately right now, there is no way to totally eradicate the disease, only to prevent it.

I have Eczema….Now What?

Like I mentioned earlier, Eczema is cyclical, meaning that you will constantly have to take measures to prevent outbreaks throughout your life.  The only exception to that is if you grow out of it.  In my case, I didn’t have outbreaks for years, but I had a massive outbreak about 5 years after my previous outbreak. It was a horrible experience, and I had blown off the idea that I had eczema still.  However, I learned quickly that I still had problems that I needed to take care of.  I was informed that there were certain ways that I could lessen the severity of outbreaks by:

• Long, hot baths or showers
• Dry skin
• Stress
• Sweating
• Rapid changes in temperature
• Low humidity
• Solvents, cleaners, soaps or detergents
• Wool or man-made fabrics or clothing
• Dust or sand
• Cigarette smoke
• Certain foods, such as eggs, milk, fish, soy or wheat

At first I thought there was nothing that I could do to control the outbreaks, but I soon learned that it was possible to reduce the severity of outbreaks.  By making sure you stick with those things that work with you, you can avoid the outbreaks that may pester you.  Trust me, as one that has suffered from eczema for most of my life, I have changed my patterns to help me feel greater skin satisfaction.