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Dyshidrotic eczema
These lectures are not meant to replace your physician and are simply provided as
a free educational service to all our visitors. If you feel that you have a
skin problem, please see your doctor.
Dyshidrotic eczema is a common skin problem, which is neither infectious nor
contagious in nature. It affects the hands or the feet - and sometimes both. It
is often found in people who have a considerable amount of sweating from these
areas.
Dyshidrotic eczema consists in its mildest form of sweating, and slight scaling
and cracking of the affected skin. In more severe cases, tiny water blisters
form on the fingers, toes, palms and soles which come and go. There may be
pain, itching and frequent secondary infections. If there is any involvement of
the area around the nails, there is often disfiguring of the nails. When
dyshidrotic eczema involves the feet, it is a frequent occurrence that the
patient will have mistakenly felt or have been told is due to a fungal
infection. Treating it as a fungus usually just makes it worse!
Although the cause of the condition is still controversial, many dermatologists
explain the process on the basis of an inherited abnormality in the ability of
the skin to deliver sweat from the sweat gland, through the sweat duct and out
the opening of that duct to the surface of the skin. When these sweat droplets
are trapped within the skin, the "waste products", which are in the retained
sweat, act as an itch producing and irritating material that causes
inflammation and a kind of a skin reaction that we call ECZEMA.
Any outside irritation of the surface of the skin in these susceptible areas
can further interfere with the ability of the skin to get sweat delivered
properly through the opening of the sweat duct at the skin surface. The
exposure of the skin of the hands and feet to certain soaps, chemicals, greases
or irritations is often associated with triggering an attack of dyshidrotic
eczema.
While exposure of the palms and soles to warm temperatures does produce
sweating, a significant amount of the sweating done by the palms and soles is
related to emotional stress. For this reason, in some individuals, tension may
trigger or increase flares of dyshidrotic eczema.
Anytime severe itching persists, use a product that is formulated in a
soothing, emollient base. Sarna Lotion, for example, is an excellent anti-itch
lotion that will provide immediate relief of itchy skin. Sarna contains 0.5%
each of camphor and menthol to provide the immediate sensation of a cool
anti-itch lotion. In those conditions that are characterized by chronic and
recurrent itchy skin, Sarna Lotion provides the relief to calm the irritating
and antagonizing symptom of itch.
For more on Common Skin Disorders,
click here.
For more topics, click here.
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