Eczema, also known as contact dermatitis or allergic dermatitis can be chronic or temporary and is characterized by abraded, cracked, blistered, weepy, crusted, patchy dry skin along with intense incessant itching, inflammation, and a tendency for anything you touch to make it worse.
It is most prevalent in the autumn and often worse at night. Scratching itchy skin can cause more irritation and make one more prone to infection.
Consider keeping the fingernails very short and even wearing gloves to sleep to prevent making things worse.
Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin condition characterized by small scaly silvery pink and red patches, commonly occurring on the knees, elbows, chest, scalp, lower back, and buttocks.
Psoriasis scales stick to crystalline swellings, and if scraped off may bleed. It involves chronic rapidly growing cells (often forming at five to ten times the normal rate) that come to the skin’s surface before they are fully mature, at a faster rate than old skin can be shed.
The thickened scaly areas of psoriasis do not contain pus or sebum and are unlikely to itch.
Psoriasis is believed to be related to a weakened immune system. Factors that make one more susceptible include diet, alcohol consumption, environmental factors, genetics, infections, problems in lipid metabolism, obesity, smoking, surgery, and trauma.
Psoraisis can be mild to disabling and considered more stubborn than eczema. As both eczema and psoriasis tend to move around, change and spread, they are often considered wind invasion in Oriental Medicine.
In both cases it is helpful to cool the blood and skin.
Causes And Known Triggers
Is stress making you want to claw out of your skin? Then look at what can be done to mellow out your lifestyle. Worrying and eczema often worsen psoriasis by stress.
Anger, anxiety, fatigue, frustration, grief, and worry can also be contributing factors. People that suffer from psoriasis tend to be always on the run, moving rapidly, like their skin growth. Slow down!
Practice stress reduction. Massage is also a good way to soothe the tension from the body. Children with skin disorders may benefit from extra cuddling at night before bed.
Chemical and physical irritation (such as rough clothing!), metabolic imbalances, stress, and even weather can cause the body to respond by forming a protective barrier.
Many culprits can contribute to eczema and psoriasis from the outside.
Overly vigorous washing, reactions to soaps, bubble baths, shampoos, hair dyes, lotions, cosmetics, nail polish, laundry soap, pet allergies, and chlorinated and overly hot water are common examples.
Natural Ways To Manage Eczema And Psoriasis
Lifestyle Tips
- Use fragrance free products and avoid contact with chemicals on the skin. Remember, what gets on your body can be absorbed by as much as 60%. You should not be polluting your body or the planet.
- Allergies, emotions, fatigue and even weather can be contributing factors. Be aware of what you wear. Be careful of wearing elastic, nylon, spandex, suede, wool, and synthetic fiber fabrics.
- Dry cleaning fluid residue, synthetic laundry soaps can irritate. It may be helpful to put 1-cup apple cider vinegar to the final rinse of a laundry load to neutralize possible irritants.
- Avoid scrubs, harsh cleaners of any sort, overly hot water, bubble baths, loofas, or anything else that might aggravate these conditions.
- Climatherapy indicates that brief exposure to natural sunlight can improve or even clear the condition. Eczema tends to react poorly to sunshine, and salt water. However, psoriasis seems to recede with daily short, non-burning sunlight exposure.
- Swimming in the ocean may be helpful to both eczema and psoriasis. Swimming in the “Dead Sea” is a famous psoriasis relieving remedy. For therapeutic baths to relieve these skin conditions – Add 1 pound of baking soda, a cup of apple cider vinegar or 2 handfuls of oatmeal tied into a cloth into the bathtub.
- Apply black tea with a clean cloth. The tannic acid helps dry up the eczema blisters.
- Get plenty of fresh air and exercise to ensure good circulation. Exercise enough to work up a good sweat. Saunas can be a way to clear internal toxins.
- Practice deep breathing as much as possible. Remember that the lungs and large intestines govern the skin in Asian medicine.
Diet And Nutrition Tips
If more infants were breast fed, it would help cut down on the amount of eczema and psoriasis.
However, it is possible that a nursing babe that has eczema or psoriasis (or many other conditions) could have allergies to a food the mom is consuming, so the mom may need to alter her diet somewhat to eliminate the possible harmful agents.
Food allergies are so often the main cause of either eczema or psoriasis. Both are considered inflammatory conditions.
What reduces inflammation? Enzymes! Where are they found? In fresh raw foods!
So often one craves the food or foods they are allergic to. That may be the main causative factor in their skin disorder. Find out what it is and get off of it.
Foods to avoid include chocolate, dairy products, citrus, tomatoes, meat, eggs, peanut butter, potatoes, wheat products, soy foods, fried foods, food additives, and hydrogenated and even heated oils (which can include bottled salad dressings). Any food allergen can be a contributing factor to a skin condition!
- Eat plenty of green leafy vegetables.
- Drink a diluted vegetable juice daily made of celery, cucumber, beet, and parsley.
- Use extra virgin olive oil as your main fat.
- Include three tablespoons of freshly ground flaxseeds or learn to make flax seed crackers. Taking raw organic hemp seed oil might be helpful.
- Add essential oils to the bath. Essential oils that best help clear up eczema and psoriasis topically (well diluted) include bergamot, Roman chamomile, geranium, jasmine, lavender, lemon, lemon balm (melissa) neroli, rose, sandalwood, or tea tree in a jojoba base.
- A tea or extract taken 3 times daily of burdock root, calendula, chickweed, cleavers, raw dandelion root, nettle leaf, Oregon grape root, plantain leaf, prickly ash bark, red clover blossoms, Saint John’s wort and yellow dock root would be excellent to improve skin health of any kind.
- Turmeric capsules can help clear up psoriasis.
- A folk remedy worthy of trying on either condition is to apply raw potato juice (made from a juicer) to the affected area.
- Look for salves to apply topically that include aloe vera, burdock, calendula, chickweed, comfrey, echinacea, golden seal, plantain, Saint John’s wort, green tea, and/or tea tree oil.
- Use only the best and more natural quality moisturizers for elsewhere on the skin.
- Vitamins A, C, E, and zinc may be helpful.
Homeopathic Remedies For Skin Disorders
Here are some homeopathic suggestions for eczema and psoriasis:
Alumina
It is for dry skin with dry eczema. The patient might scratch till bleeding occurs. Being in a warm bed worsens the condition.
Arsenicum
It helps dry skin that often scales off into a fine powder. Scratching does not give relief, but makes it worse. Use for eczema that is worsened by cold and more intense in winter.
Graphites
It aids eczema that oozes a yellow liquid, that is worse in a warm bed. This can be used for eczema that occurs around ears, eyelids, lips, anal and genital regions, skin folds at arms and legs (And not necessarily all of these places, thank God!).
Petroleum
It is a remedy for eczema that occurs on the soles of the feet, palms, and fingertips of the hands.
Psorinum
It is used more for one with a cold constitution.
Sulfur
It is used more for one with a hot constitution.
Always do your best to determine and correct the cause of an ailment. Illness can be a great opportunity to want to learn more about health.
