My Friend The Dermatologist

Although the causes of atopic dermatitis or eczema are beyond the scope of this short article, we will keep in mind that there is a defect in the barrier of the skin. It is helpful to look at it as a defect in the natural oil that we all have on our skin as protection.

The more of this natural oil that you have on your skin the better your skin will be. So, activities that wash this oil away will leave you skin more susceptible to irritation. When in the shower, the hotter the shower, and the longer the shower, the more you will wash off the natural protective oil. Likewise, using a wash rag or a harsh soap will also make things worse.

Harsh soaps are essential classic soaps with strip the skin of its natural oil. That squeaky clean feeling you get after using Ivory, Lux, Pure and Natural, and Irish Spring is the feeling of your skin without its natural oil. Better to preserve your skin oil by using soaps such as Dove, Oil of Olay, Tone, Basis, or Purpose.

You also do not need to wash every inch of your body, only the dirty areas such as groin, face, feet, breast, underarms etc. The second you get out of the shower pat your skin dry, do not rub it dry as this will also needlessly remove some of the natural oil on your skin and then, liberally apply a lotion to your body. If you eczema is not active, a lactic acid like lotion works great such as Lac Hydrin 12% or its equivalents Ammonium Lactate 12% or Am-Lactin 12%.

Moisturizing twice per day helps even if you do not necessarily wash twice per day. Consistent twice a day moisturizing is more than 2x effective in comparison to 1x per day. Thick agents like petroleum jelly work great but I would rather my patients put on a lotion like Curel or Lubriderm if they are able to do that 2x per day as opposed to petroleum jelly once per day. Petroleum jelly twice per day would be even better:)

Trackback URI | Comments RSS