Cause of Dyshidrotic Eczema

If your job is causing your hand eczema, your doctor will help you determine what irritating chemicals or work practices are contributing to your condition. In addition to modifying those risks, many of the same hand-protective strategies you use at home also can help you at work. Here are some ideas:

• Have heavy-duty vinyl or neoprene gloves and cotton gloves available to use when doing wet work. Wash the cotton gloves regularly, as well as the vinyl gloves if they aren't disposable.
• Wear leather or clean, heavy-duty fabric gloves for dry work.
• Avoid using industrial hand cleansers or waterless or antibacterial cleansers that contain irritating ingredients.
• Keep your work clothes, protective clothing, tools and work surfaces clean. Irritant residues on them can aggravate your problem.
• Treat all minor wounds on your hands and bandage them, to avoid giving irritants and allergens an easy route into your skin.
• Carry your hand moisturizer and/or prescription medication with you to work, and use them to prevent problems.

Ironically, the more water there is in a lotion or other moisturizer, the more likely it is to worsen your hand eczema. So-called "cream" moisturizers contain more water than oil. When the water evaporates they have a net drying effect on the skin. (They are called cream moisturizers because they are white in color.) So the very best moisturizer for hand eczema is a greasy one. It has very few ingredients, holds the skin's natural moisture in and provides a protective barrier to keep irritants out.

Ingredients to Avoid:

• methyldibromoglutaronitrile/phenoxyethanol methylchloroisothiazolinone/methylisothiazolinone
• botanicals (can cause allergic reactions, even if they are natural)
• lanolin
• propylene glycol
• fragrances
• Formaldehyde (Formalin, Formol, Methanal, Veracur, etc.)
• formaldehyde releasers, inc
• 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol (Bronopol)
• diazolidinyl urea (Germaben II or Germal II)
• imidazolidinyl urea
• retinol or vitamin A
• citric or fruit acids

Eventually you'll learn to be a skilled reader of labels for lotions, shampoos and other cosmetics. If your doctor has told you you're sensitive or allergic to a specific substance, of course avoid products that contain it. But there are a wide variety of other ingredients, usually preservatives, which can cause skin irritation or allergy. It's best to avoid them if you already have hand eczema.

Once you have an episode of hand eczema, your risk of having another one increases greatly. For some people, hand eczema becomes chronic. This lack of an easy fix from conventional medicine has made some hand eczema patients desperate to look for alternative treatments. How well these "natural" therapies work, though, remains unclear.

Treatment varies with the stage of the disease.

• Cool or compresses using weak solutions of Condy's crystals (potassium permanganate), aluminum acetate, or vinegar in water, are applied for 15 minutes four times a day. This will dry up blisters. Compresses are not suitable for dry eczema.
• Emollient hand creams, eg. Dimethicone barrier cream, should be applied liberally and frequently to keep the skin soft.
• Topical steroid. The condition clears dramatically but may recur just as severely after the medication is stopped. Long term treatment with steroids is not advisable because of undesirable side effects.
• Antibiotics for secondary infection.
• Sometimes cortisone preparations are prescribed by tablet or injection for severe cases. The condition clears dramatically but may recur just as severely after the medication is stopped. Long term treatment with these systemic steroidsare rarely advisable because of undesirable side effects.
• PUVA therapy can be useful in selected cases. This is a special kind of ultraviolet (UV) treatment. Several times weekly the affected areas are soaked in a special solution (psoralen), before exposure to long wave UV light. Treatment is usually continued for several months. Usually the measures described result in satisfactory control. Sooner or later the eruption subsides and disappears.
• Other medications used occasionally for pompholyx include; methotrexate, dapsone, azathioprine, botulinum toxin (to prevent sweating)
• Eczema-Ltd III is an excellent choice with a 120 day - 100% refund. Also Eczema-Ltd III has no side effects and is not messy.

A tiny percentage of individuals with the condition note flares in their condition after ingesting metal salts, specifically chromium, cobalt, and nickel. Diets that eliminate these metal salts may help in some cases.

It is vital for people with eczema to maintain a good skincare program. Research has shown that fewer steroids are needed by those people who moisturize their eczema most frequently. The general principle involves bathing instead of showering as much as possible. When the eczema is flaring up, two baths a day might be advisable. People with eczema should avoid regular soap and instead use a substitute, usually a cream that moisturizes as well as cleans.

Frequent baths reduce the numbers of bacteria on the skin, and remove the dead skin and crust. Baths are also useful for reducing the level of itching and improving the natural moisture in the skin.