Eczema

What causes eczema?

Your skin retains moisture that helps protect you from irritants such as allergens and bacteria. Eczema is caused by an abnormal gene variation that minimizes your skin’s ability to protect itself through moisture retention.

As a result, even harmless environmental irritants can cause serious, painful flare-ups. You’re more likely to develop eczema issues if you have:

• Asthma or hay fever
• Food allergies
• Allergic contact dermatitis
• Sleep apnea or another sleep disorder

In most cases, eczema develops before age five. It may persist into adolescence and adulthood, or eventually resolve itself.

What are the symptoms of eczema?

When you have eczema, each flare-up can be different, so you won’t necessarily experience each side effect every time. The most common symptoms of eczema include:

• Overly dry, flaky skin
• Itchiness, especially at night
• Red, brown, or gray patches
• Raw, swollen, sensitive skin

It’s also typical to develop small raised bumps that look like pimples. These bumps sometimes leak fluid and crust over when you scratch them. While eczema can occur anywhere on your body, it’s most common on your chest, neck, hands, feet and skin folds.

How is eczema treated?

While no cure for eczema exists, the team of board-certified physicians at Gould-Jacobson Dermatology may recommend allergy testing to identify the specific substances that trigger your flare-ups. Your customized treatment plan could also include:

• Itch-controlling creams
• Medical-grade moisturizers
• Infection-fighting medications
• Topical or oral corticosteroids

You may even benefit from wet dressings, which involve covering the affected area with topical corticosteroid solutions then wrapping the area with wet bandages. Some eczema sufferers also find relief from light therapy, which exposes your skin to controlled amounts of UVB light in a medical setting to soothe severe eczema issues.

Because new eczema solutions are continuously being developed, Dr. Gould and Dr. Jacobson stay up to date on advanced treatments. For instance, if your eczema hasn’t responded to more conservative treatments, you might be a candidate for a new injectable biologic medications designed to lessen the severity of eczema flare-ups.

Before your next eczema flare-up occurs, see how the team at Gould-Jacobson Dermatology can help you. Call the clinic or book your evaluation online today.