Do I Have Eczema (and How to Treat It)

Your skin is your largest organ – it protects you from bacteria, chemicals, and temperature.

There is also a wide range of skin conditions that can impact the health of your skin, eczema being one of the most common.

While eczema is not life-threatening, it can have an impact on your overall well-being if left untreated.

In this blog, we look at how to recognize eczema and what you can do to treat it and better manage it.

What is Eczema?

Eczema is a type of atopic dermatitis that irritates and inflames the skin.

Atopic refers to conditions that involve the immune system, including asthma and even hay fever.

It affects adults as well as infants. However, it tends to be more common in infants, but the good news is that there’s a high chance a child will eventually outgrow it.

Eczema is not contagious though, so there is no risk of it spreading from person to person.

How to Recognize Eczema

Eczema can look slightly different for everyone and will affect different parts of the body.

The most common symptoms of eczema include:

• Itchy skin
• Redness of the skin
• Dry and cracked skin
• Leathery skin

And in some rare instances, the condition can also cause blisters.

Eczema Risk Factors and Triggers

If you believe you might be suffering from eczema, you may also have a family history of allergies or asthma, struggle with dry skin that lets bacteria in, or you may have a weak immune system.

Some of the most common triggers of eczema include reactions to:

• Stress
• Sweat
• Extreme temperatures
• Household products and detergents
• Colds and respiratory infections

Could It Be Something Else?

While eczema is common, it can sometimes be mistaken for other skin conditions too, including:

• This condition is the result of mites burrowing into the top layer of the skin, causing a rash and itching. One of the main differences between eczema and scabies is that scabies is much worse at night.
• If you have sensitive skin or you’re simply prone to allergies, it might be affecting your skin in a way that looks similar to eczema but isn’t. Allergies can also cause dry, cracked, and red skin, but can also cause itchy eyes, coughing, and sneezing.
• Like eczema, hives cause terrible itching. However, you will also notice red or pink welts, which only last for around 24 hours. Hives can also cause the lips and eyelids to swell, which isn’t the case with eczema.
• This skin condition can present in a few different ways, some of which can be mistaken for eczema. Acne tends to create pus though, which eczema doesn’t.

Eczema Treatment Options to Consider

How you treat eczema mostly depends on the triggers as well as the severity of the condition.

For more severe cases, medication that’s applied directly to the affected areas is required. Cortisone creams are a popular choice among healthcare practitioners. You may also receive an antibiotic if infection is present.

Here are some of the other treatment options to consider:

• Daily moisturization. Very often, all that’s required to manage mild cases of eczema is the right moisturizer such as Exuda Cream from Vita Sciences.
• Wet dressings. A doctor or nurse may need to administer these wet dressings as they contain corticosteroid ointment, but you can learn to do it at home too. Once the dressing is applied, it seals in the medication.
• Stress therapy. If stress is the cause of your eczema, practicing stress management techniques could keep outbreaks to a minimum. Speaking to a therapist or counselor can also help.
• Light therapy. By exposing the affected area to controlled amounts of natural sunlight, it can gradually clear up any inflammation and redness. Artificial ultraviolet and narrow-band ultraviolet can also help in combination with medication.

And because eczema is directly linked to your immune system, making general healthy lifestyle changes can make a significant difference to how often you experience eczema outbreaks as well as the severity of them.