Itching All Over

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by slightlypale

In the first part of this article we found out about what is Allergic Contact Dermatitis and how it is caused. Let us find out more.

The Clinical Look:

The allergy may not be only confined to the place of contact. If you handle a material with your hands and then touch your eyelids, your eyelids will also develop allergic reaction. Unless the dermatitis is severe, it is confined to the area of contact. The skin may become red, itchy and blistered. With repeated allergic reactions, skin deteriorates further and becomes thick and cracked.

Common Allergens:

Common allergens include nickel, poison ivy, some makeup preparations, latex, hair dye, antibiotics such as neomycin, etc. You may find out if you are allergic to any substance with a patch test. By applying the suspected allergen to a small spot for few days and watching the reaction of the skin will indicate the allergy causing potential of that material. Your doctor will guide you more about how to conduct this test. Some examples are – a jewelery piece containing nickel, nickel straps, latex gloves, reaction to permanent hair dye, reaction to topical antibiotic such as neomycin, etc. If the allergy arises, after the skin that had come in contact with the allergen is exposed to sunlight, it is called photo allergy. In this case, the other contact sites will not develop allergy, but only those parts that get exposed to sunlight.

Treatment:

The first need is to avoid contact with allergens. In case of dermatitis developing, it may be treated with topical antibiotics, steroids, or immuno-modulators. Systematic medicines such as antihistamines, steroids, antibiotics, may be used depending upon the severity of the reaction. Your doctor is the best person to prescribe treatment.

This article is only for informative purposes. This article is not intended to be a medical advise and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult your doctor for your medical concerns. Please follow any tip given in this article only after consulting your doctor. The author is not liable for any outcome or damage resulting from information obtained from this article.

By: Leslie Nguyen This is my public service announcement for my Health Science Technology class. I have eczema myself, but it’s not as severe as the pictures seen in the video. I do use the corticosteroids every now and then, and it does reduce the scaley, dry, reddened skin very well. I have had eczema ever since I was a child and still have it til’ this day [ I will probably have it for the rest of my life] and that means that I have Chronic dermatitis or eczema. Doing this project has really taught me quite a bit about this “skin rash” I have had for years.

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Contact dermatitis can be divided into two groups: Irritative dermatitis and allergic dermatitis.

Irritative dermatitis

Irritative dermatitis is caused by irritants in the patients environment. Repetitive exposure will eventually exceed the regeneration ability. These irritants can be water, soap, oils, alcohol etc. This causes certain professions to be of a high risk: hair dressers, care workers, cleaners etc., and people with a history of atopic dermatitis are especially at risk.

Allergic dermatitis

Allergic dermatitis can basically be caused by anything that the patient develops an allergy towards; most frequently the cause is nickel, perfume or additives. However, finding the culprit can be like finding a needle in a haystack. The methods available are epikutan testing or bullet testing.

Epikutan test works by placing samples of different suspects on the patients back. The dermatologist will have a standard sample assembly, but anything the patient works with, his/her perfume, soap, crmes anything basically can be tested at the same time. All the samples are covered with patches and after two days the results are studied. If the patient develops eczema under a specific patch, that test is considered positive.

In a bullet test samples of a couple of suspected causes are tested by placing a drop of a solution and allowing it to enter the skin by pricking a hole in the skin with a needle. This can be used for allergens such as latex, protein, fresh foods or pollen. The allergen will cause a histamine triggered response causing eczema. In order to decipher the result correctly and avoid false positive/negative results, two control drops is used: one with normal saline to rule out contact urticaria and one with histamine to rule out an inability to respond to histamine.

Treatment

Treatment of either irritative or allergic dermatitis involves avoiding the triggering factor. This can be extremely difficult and require months of experimenting with different causes not to mention eventually requiring a change of jobs.

Medical treatment includes focally applied steroids (in severe cases systemic steroids can be tried), disinfecting red baths, anti-inflammatory medicine, ultraviolet light and antibiotics in case of secondary infection.

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Atopic dermatitis is a long lasting disease, which affects the skin. This illness belongs to the group of hereditary diseases, which tend to run in families, and many times they appear together. In this family of diseases we can find hay fever, asthma, and atopic dermatitis.When a person has atopic dermatitis, the skin will become very inflamed and itchy, and there will appear redness, swelling, weeping, crusting, cracking and scaling.

It was seen that the most affected by this disease are young children and infants, but atopic dermatitis can appear in the adult period as well, and it can even show up then for the first time. This disease has periods of flares and periods of remissions. When the disease gets worse, we say it is the period of flares, and when remissions come, skin improves or clears up entirely.It is known that in those who have inherited the atopic disease trait, the environmental conditions can activate at any time the symptoms of atopic dermatitis.

It is important to make the difference between atopic dermatitis and eczema. Eczema is the general term for many types of dermatitis, and atopic dermatitis is the most common of the types of eczema.We will describe some types of eczema.

Atopic dermatitis provokes an itchy, inflamed skin, and it is known as being a chronic disease. Seborrheic eczema has unknown causes, and it is characterized by yellowish, oily, scaly patches of skin on the scalp, face, and sometimes on other parts of the body as well.

The contact eczema is characterized by redness, itching, and burning. It is a local reaction due to the contact of the skin with an allergen or an irritant (such as an acid or a cleaning agent for example). Neurodermatitis is caused by a localized itch, develops scaly patches of skin on the head, lower legs, wrists, or forearms, and it becomes very irritated when it is scratched.

Dyshidrotic eczema is known to provoke clear, deep blisters that itch and burn, and this eczema is an irritation of the skin on the palms of hands and soles of the feet.We can also mention stasis dermatitis which is a skin irritation on the lower legs, that usually is related to circulatory problems, and nummular eczema which presents like coin-shaped patches of irritated skin, usually appears on the arms, back, buttocks, and lower legs, and can be crusted, scaling, and very itchy.

For more resources about eczema skin symptoms or even about eczema treatment please review http://www.eczema-info-guide.com

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Although 80 percent of eczema is a reaction to chemicals that would irritate anyone, the remaining 20 percent is caused by a specific sensitivity to something which may not be a problem for others – an allergic reaction. The reaction could be to something either in the diet or the individual’s environment. Thousands of doctors now recommend shielding lotion as topical eczema treatment, but for those who do suffer from allergies, new desensitization techniques may also be beneficial.

The most common allergy diagnosis and treatment for eczema involves testing for sensitivities by subcutaneous injection of a small amount of potential offending substances, watching for a reaction, then avoidance of or desensitization to the substances found to cause a reaction.

Desensitization, also known as hyposensitization, has traditionally been accomplished by injecting increasingly larger amounts of the allergen in the hopes that the person will build up a tolerance. It takes up to six months to have any positive response at all and treatment can continue for three to five years. It is expensive and unreliable, and is done only as a last resort in severe situations. Those undergoing desensitization for eczema treatment can spend a lot of time and money for little or no results.

However, there are new desensitization methods now available that make this a viable option. Nambudripads Allergy Elimination Technique (NAET) is one of the most common, although not necessary the fastest. Most involve a form of muscle testing – the practitioner exposes you to the substance without injections and, gauging by changes in muscle strength during exposure, determines whether there is a reaction. Several substances can be tested this way in just a few minutes.

Desensitization techniques vary, but don’t involve needles and sometimes don’t take any longer than the diagnosis. These methods are light years ahead of traditional desensitization and, for those who suffer from allergies, can’t be beat. It completely eliminates years of expensive trial and error.

The jury is still out on the effectiveness of these methods as eczema treatment. They seem to work much better for some than others, but anecdotal evidence indicates that they are at least as effective as traditional desensitization, and possibly more.

As topical eczema treatment, regardless of the cause of the problem, a shielding lotion is the most advanced technology available. A good shielding lotion bonds with the outer layer of the skin to form a protective layer that keeps out the chemicals. Again, this is light years ahead of steroid drugs and irritating chemical treatments and, for those without allergies, it may be all the eczema treatment needed. However, if you suffer from allergies, you may want to find a natural health care practitioner to also discuss desensitization.

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Irritant contact dermatitis is a condition that occurs when the skin is damaged faster than it is capable to repair. This damage is perpetrated by chemicals or physical agents it shows with redness, itching, swelling, scaling and blistering on certain areas.

Irritant contact dermatitis can look very similar to other types of dermatitis, a doctor may need the help of biopsy to determine what kind of dermatitis you present. This condition will also vary in strength in different cases, depending on the strength and amount of the irritant, the exposure to substances, the sensitivity of the skin and other environmental factors.

About Irritants

The triggers for this dermatitis type vary; they can be common thing such as water, adhesives, acids, solvents and even friction. Don’t think they only work alone, at times a combination of these are needed to trigger the contact dermatitis. These substances remove the oil and moisture on the skin, and this situation help the irritants cause even more damage.

Everyone can be affected by irritant contact dermatitis, specially if you are over-exposed to irritants, however the people who are at more risk of developing this condition, are the sufferers of atopic dermatitis.

Another type of dermatitis that can be easily mistaken for irritant contact dermatitis is allergic contact dermatitis. The difference is that the later is triggered by an allergen that even in small quantities can cause damage.

How to Treat Irritant Contact Dermatitis

To treat this type of dermatitis, you have to recognise the irritants in your life, and if possible try to stay away from them, or reduce exposure. A doctor may indicate the use of creams including topical steroids, emollient creams and antibiotics in case the skin gets infected.

In case of a chemical burn, you may need water to flush away the chemicals and use a remedy for that type of chemical.

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