The Ultimate Guide To Managing Chronic Eczema

How do you manage skin eczema? What are the causes behind a flareup? Here are the details you need to know.

The Ultimate Guide To Managing Chronic Eczema

How Do You Manage Skin Eczema?

Being a very capable barrier function, the good blood supply to call in nutrients, as well as the ability to repair itself, the skin is an amazing organ. With its own local immune surveillance system, a support system with collagen, elastic fibres, etc, and with its own system of nerves comes the skin. 

Problems like chronic eczema emerge while sometimes the brilliant design is disrupted. Some people have genes that cause alterations in the skin’s barrier properties as well as immune functions making them more likely to get eczema, grow certain bacteria, and have ongoing problems, as one of the most common causes of chronic eczema is genetics. Friction, chemicals in soaps and skincare products, cold or dry weather, etc., are the environmental causes for chronic eczema. 

Especially creams and antibiotics, believe it or not, eczema is often made chronic by these medications where doctors give patients to try to treat the problem.  

Treatments Sometimes Backfire

If used more than 2-3 weeks they start to inhibit collagen production impairing the skin’s natural immune functions and decrease cell turnover while the oft-recommended steroid creams do have an anti-inflammatory function. Sometimes necessary when eczema leads to infection, altering and impairing the natural biome on the skin robbing it of all the good microorganisms are the antibiotics. 

Making your skin thinner and more susceptible to friction, more susceptible to bacteria, and less able to mount its own immune response and natural anti-inflammatory activity are these treatments meant to help eczema. 

Focus on Restoring Skin Health Instead

What you really need to do is restore the health of the skin rather than get stuck in the endless cycle of eczema and infections where relapse occurs as soon as treatment is stopped. Building up the skin’s natural defenses will take a while when eczema has been present for a long time. Usually taking 2-4 months, is this slow process whereas it is worth it. To start here are the ways that you can follow: 

The first rule of protecting “broken” skin:

The trick is to moisturise. At first literally 20-30 times a day. What you moisturise with is of course important. It is better to find a body or hand cream coming to be quite thick, convenient, not too expensive, as well as chemical-free as possible really feeling good on the skin. Vanicream (not the lotion) or CeraVe cream, some Shea butter, or things like the L’Occitane hand cream with Shea butter (but has fragrance), or olive oil creams do fine with most of the patients. 

With irritating things in them remember that even natural skin creams are observed to have results. As people with eczema often have allergies to plants and pollens, some of the natural creams with plant extracts can cause problems. To find one you love and tolerate well, try some different ones. Every time your hands touch water, you must remoisturise if you have hand eczema. No commercial soaps ever. Even not once a month. Using the soaps in hotels, airplanes, airports, movie theatres, offices, etc, are banned. Just use water or carry a small bottle of your own cleanser with you. 

Learning to read the basics of the label helps. Having awful chemicals in them are many prescription creams for eczema. For starters, avoid using propylene glycol, synthetic fragrances, preservatives (as much as possible), and lanolin/wool wax alcohol. Better than creams with long lists are the creams with very shortlists. It helps to avoid those natural creams having a lot of plant extracts in them. 

You can just “cold turkey” off it if you have been using a steroid cream longer than about 3 weeks. So that the skin’s natural processes can gradually take over, you have to gradually wean your skin off its addiction. Start by diluting it to half strength with cream and still use it daily if you have been using the steroid cream daily. Go down to every other day for 2 weeks, then 2 times a week for two weeks, then once a week for two weeks, and then off in case your skin is doing well in 1-2 weeks. Here you get the idea that is to wean slowly. 

Consider using treatments with antibacterial properties instead to get away from antibiotics. Stop using it when you use a silver gel daily and if it burns or stings or is too dry. Trying Hibiclens which comes as a gentle antiseptic liquid available at the pharmacy may also help. As your skin gets healthier, you will gradually need less oral antibiotics. When taking a probiotic daily, choose the one usually refrigerated.

Try to identify what caused it if you suddenly have a flare-up. Have you inadvertently used a commercial soap? Did you have a triggering food? Are you feeling emotional or stressed? With the help of a dermatologist, consider allergy testing with an allergist and allergy patch testing.  

Try to use the steroid cream for only 5-7 days and then start the taper again if you have a bad flare-up. Here, to be off them in 3-4 weeks is the goal. 

Finally, What If Food Is The Culprit? 

Foods may be behind the cause of your eczema. Try to avoid acidic food like all citrus, including lemons, tomatoes, etc., until your eczema is healed. You can start with a list of acidic food online. Go off everything first for 2 weeks and then slowly add foods back one at a time about 2 weeks apart when you need to experiment to determine the specific culprit. 

With lots of veggies, whole grains, and clean proteins, eat a healthy diet. It is necessary to avoid sugar, anything processed, white flour, too much bread, pastry, pasta as well as alcohol along with too much salt. It can’t be healthy if we aren’t as skin is an organ. 

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