The third corticosteroid-based option is for your medical practitioner to recommend oral corticosteroid drugs such as prednisone or prednisolone. While the potential adverse side effects of taking these drugs will depend upon the strength of the drug you are taking and the period of time you have to take it for, there are widely recognized [...]

Clinical diagnosis of eczema is most commonly based on the appearance of a patient’s skin and on their family and personal history. However, because there are many similar conditions to eczema (e.g. psoriasis), your medical practitioner will have to examine your skin lesions in order to rule out alternatives problems. They may even need to [...]

Consequently, if you are going to use allergy testing to establish what causes your eczema problem, you need to have a test that can be analyzed and interpreted by a qualified board certified allergist. When you first start working with an allergist, it is likely that they will ask you many questions about your lifestyle [...]

As suggested previously, it is generally agreed that one of the most common causes of eczema is an allergic reaction or the fact that a particular person is especially susceptible to particular allergens such as tree pollen, pet hair etc. Furthermore, we established in the previous chapter that many eczema sufferers are prone to allergic [...]

Acidic fruits: Research has indicated that including acidic fruits such as cranberries, blueberries and currants will cause an increased level of eczema affected skin production in many sufferers. Canned or glazed fruits will often cause problems as well, primarily because in the canning or glazing process, artificial preservatives are very commonly used. Nuts: All ‘true’ [...]

These are the food groups to work on: Wheat based products: Foods like bread, biscuits and pretzels contain wheat flour which is usually rich in gluten. As with all of the other foodstuffs in this list, gluten is believed to cause eczema flare-ups, so experiment by removing gluten–based products from your diet for a period [...]

Your diet As suggested in the introduction to this book, while many medical professionals will deal with a patient’s eczema problem on a topical basis, from a ‘natural treatment’ point of view, it is often better to treat the condition on a ‘holistic’ whole body basis. Put another way, it is always more effective to [...]

It’s often hereditary… A suggested earlier, it is generally believed that one of the major causes of eczema is a hereditary predisposition to suffering from the condition. However, there has to be some kind of trigger that causes a flare-up of the itchy red skin lesions that are characteristic of eczema. For example, a flare [...]

Contact dermatitis: This is a form of eczema that is caused by contact with irritants that can trigger an eczema flare-up. The reactions that you might suffer as a contact dermatitis sufferer can be categorized in one of two ways. In the first example, irritant contact dermatitis is a condition that comes on extremely quickly [...]