Skin Care Decoded!

Atopic Dermatitis is a common and often long lasting skin disease that effects many people. It is also called as eczema, dermatitis or atopy. Atopic dermatitis can be a persistent and itchy skin condition that comes and goes and although there is no known cure at the moment for atopic dermatitis, it can be managed. With the right knowledge and understanding about atopic dermatitis, you can take care of the flare ups before it gets worsen; go longer with a normal non itchy skin and reduce itchiness, redness and scaling.

While it is long advised that reducing exposure to certain allergens such as dust mites or waiting to give solid foods to infant until they are older helps, it is however found in recent studies that it does not clearly shows if this helps or not. Of course, it is always best to know what triggers the flare ups in the past and then try to avoid these triggers in future.

Some of the common triggers that you can look out for includes food allergies especially to milk, eggs, shellfish and peanut. Exposures to furry animals such as cats or dogs are also another common trigger. There is also the exposure to perfumes or scented skin care products, stress and anxiety, rough clothing and viral skin infections such as herpes simplex are also some of the common triggers for atopic dermatitis.

While it also seems like an impossible task to stop scratching, you will need to break the itch scratch cycle by stopping it. One of the things that can help to stop the scratching is buy taking antihistamines such as Benadryl or Zyrtec which helps control the itchiness and prevents scratching during sleep. You can also help by cutting your nails short. Some suggests even wearing mittens to keep from scratching at night. You can also use loose gauze wraps to protect the skin from scratching and also slather on some moisturizer to help the itch.

It is also important to practice good skin care regime to keep the flare ups.

Another important fact that you need to know about atopic dermatitis is the natural sunlight as a helpful treatment for this skin disease. Some dermatologists actually recommend people with severe atopic dermatitis to go thorough a medical grade ultraviolet light. However, you’ll need to also note that people with atopic dermatitis are more prone to sunburn especially when they are using topical steroids or Elidel or Protopic.

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