Many people suffer from eczema throughout the world. The prevalence of this skin condition is very important in developed countries, as it affects approximately 20% of the children. This illness most of the time declares itself during childhood (before 5 years old) and can disappear into adulthood. This evolution of the illness explains why its prevalence is lower for adults.

Eczema is very often an allergic reaction faced with a stimulus. These stimuli can be very varied: food, pollen, various products in contact with the body, or a skin infection.

So how can eczema be managed?

The first step to take is to try to determine if possible the causes which will trigger an eczema outbreak. Finding the triggering element(s) can however be a real puzzle, especially as it is today recognized that a genetic predisposition can strongly aggravate the immune response of a person exposed to various aggressions. For many eczematous persons, it is important to learn how to manage your eczema everyday.

I will not talk here about eczema caused by food allergies or airborne factors, which will be the subject of another post, and I will concentrate on environmental factors in contact with the skin.

The first strategy is to try to minimize as much as possible the exposition to exogenous factors which could worsen the eczema. For example, you must try to avoid cleansing your skin with aggressive detergents, and choose softer detergents. You must try to protect your skin as much as possible from the cold, which has a tendency to attack the skin, especially for sensitive persons. The combination of these two recommendations translates into rather using tepid water with a soft soap or detergent to clean your hands.

Ideally, you should avoid scratching, to avoid worsening skin lesions. But it is easier said than done! Especially as the itching can induce night-scratching, without the person being aware of it. It is therefore recommended, for children especially, to cover the hands at night with soft gloves to avoid this night-scratching which can be very harmful for the skin.

I would also advise to avoid as much as possible the sources of dermal exposure to different daily products. For clothes for example. Cotton is often well tolerated by eczematous skins, so wearing 100% cotton clothes is recommended. However, you need to be careful with the colouring agents used to tint the cotton clothes, which can trigger an allergic contact dermatitis. This is the case in particular for blue, green and yellow tints, which often contain metallic ions which are responsible for the majority of allergic contact dermatitis (Cobalt, Chromium, Nickel).

You must choose with particular care surfactants and preservatives used in daily life products, some being more at risk than others. It is important to pay attention to the composition of detergents, and to abundantly rinse clothes when you wash them. I would like to underline the important risk of sensitization to a particular preservative, the MIT or methylisothiazolinone, which is more and more involved in cases of very premature allergies (with children of less than 1 year old).

Finally, for your personal hygiene and skincare, it is preferable to use products with the minimum number of ingredients, and with well known and safe ingredients. This is Skintifique’s strategy so as to offer skincare dermatological products which are as safe and efficient as possible.