Initially, I do have an intention to make this post since a month ago. However, this post would has some interrelation to a friend's illness at that time. I am worrying to attach some 'exaggerating' pictures related to such disease, since it can be really gross for someone who has such illness to look at those images. In addition, this post may cause her not able to perform well in her exams. Anyway, she has recovered.


Caption: my hand with minor rashes

I encountered the same illness approximately two months ago, when I start to struggle with student's coursework. The significance of stress causes all these, not only to my hand, but all over my body (except my face). Rashes commonly from the head and slowly spreading downwards. It is itchy! horrible! distracting! I know it could be worse if i scratch my body at that time, so i apply different medicine to stop the itch. *touch wood* you will not believe how terric it is to have rashes ALL OVER your body unless you experience it *touch wood*


Caption: the most ghastly rash due to plantation oil

I have been reading medical articles online, and perhaps, looking for Dr. Rui for discussion again (we always discuss something related to health when we are free). He believe this is some kind of skin disease called the Eczema. I tried to understand this illness in more detail, so I went for some articles. I found that eczema is a kind of skin disease. Well, in fact, there are lots of different skin disease. But eczema is definitely one of the most common type. Seriously, we can not undersand eczema (can only predict) entirely since skin disease is originally complicated. Plus, I am not a medical doctor, so I will try to understand based on what I read, listened and discussion with a doctor. Eczema will not spread from one person to another, so if you see a person with rashes all over his body, do not worry, it should not trasmit to you.


Caption: eczema

Eczema may caused from different symptoms. I heard eczema will most commonly inherit from your parents / grandparents genetically. We called that as atopy. Atopy represents family tendency to a variety of allergic conditions (i.e. asthma, fever, eczema etc). If that is the reason for you to have eczema, then there will be no cure. Well, most medical doctors may also tell their patient the same thing, that is, the form of eczema may appear on a person's body without a proper reason. Yes, no reason to cause rashes to appear on your body!

Eczema is a form of redness, swelling, itching and dryness, crusting, flaking, blistering, cracking, oozing, or bleeding. This may be due to some popular reasons, such as dryness and recurring skin rashes. Of course, there are different reasons which causes eczema. According to Dr. Rui, (1) the detergent/soup that we have used, (2) infection from different bacteria (we called that as germs or epiphyte) from the allergic of food, (3) the changes in hormone levels (affecting women's monthly period) may trigger eczema. From my understanding (from reading and personal opinion), the (4) environmental effect (i.e. the changes of weather, such as from cold to very warm) is one of the factor. I have observed plenty of cases related to rashes, and the environmental effect should definitely be included. Secondly, the (5) rose of stress level in a person is an additional factor. Other relevant factors may include irritations such a pollen and dust (this a very minimal cause to me).


Caption: atopic eczema in the hand


Caption: xerotic eczema in the leg


Caption: seborrhoeic dermatitis in the head

Dr. Rui explained to me in a more detail manner, telling me that there are several types of eczema; atopic (family disease based on hay fever and asthma), contract (wet allergic), xerotic (dry skin), seborrhoeic dermatitis (related to dandruff). I did not asked him in detail to explain when he told me eczema normally ONLY take place on the arm and leg. It will rarely occur on a person's body entirely. This makes me a little confuse. The rashes appearing on mine and my friends body entirely, and not only the 2 segments of our body.

If so, eczema is not the case.


Caption: dermatitis

Therefore, Dr. Rui suggest a different possibility of skin infection, that is the dermatitis. Dermatitis is originally a general term for skin disease. In other words, Skin disease > Dermatitis > eczema. It looks like eczema is one of the cause of dermatitis. Confuse isn't it? Dermatitis is a wider range of skin disease than the eczema. Therefore, both eczema and dermatitis share different concept, whcih means they are similar but NOT the same. According to Dr. Rui, eczema will usually only affect our knee and the front of our elbow. It may 'sometimes' affect our chest, face and neck (but I think only at one section), but that possibility is just too minimal if that relates to our situation. This means, if a person's body is affected entirely, that must be an extremely serious problem. It could not be eczema in that case.

Both dermatitis and eczema (or other related skin disease) could not be cure since there is no cure originally for skin diseases. So doctor may only prescribe medicines to control the symptom from spreading to a wider range in your body or treating the patient to feel better, and thats about it. Dr. Rui suggest that the current medicines that we have in this world may only cure clarified diseases. This means that other minor diseases such as flu, coughing etc., or perhaps more harmful diseases such as AIDS, cancer (tumor) etc. may only be treated and / or control since up-to-date, these diseases could not be cured entirely. This is also a reason for many ongoing researches trying to explore cure for many diseases in the medical field.

We may reduce the irritation of eczema with different medication approach.

Mild steroid cream and emollients suppose to be effective IF YOU get advice from the doctor and / or pharmacist before using them. I heard those two may produce some serious side effect (i.e. your skin may become thin and fragile, or worstly, when your body significantly absorb the steroid, it may lead to a different type of skin infection - that would be worst), so be extremely precautios and seek for a doctor before using them. If those two will not help at all to reduce the rashes on your body, then try going for a strong steroid creams that your doctor can prescribe (again, make sure you get advice from doctor before using it).


Caption: some antibiotics to reduce the impact of rashes

Using antibiotics is an alternative to steroids, and may seem to be safer to use (I have been using them to reduce the itch and irritation of skin when i have rashes all over my body). First aid antibiotic ointment such as flucloxacillin or erythromycin, or the one that I have been using (combination of Neosporin - antibiotic, and Mobiko - to reduce the itch) seem to be extremely effective for me. However, you may only get "Neosporin" in the US and not other countries whilst the Mobiko only from "Malaysia"? I am not 100% sure though. Some anti-itch drug cream may also help to reduce itch (i.e antihistamine).


Caption: chinese medicines

Chinese medicines may also help. But sometimes, the measurement of chinese herbs exceeds the amount that your body may accumulate will produce side effects to a person's liver or possibly damaging it. This has been reported in some medical articles. If the rashes are due to environmental effects, then you should try avoiding dry skin. To do so, try using some moisturizing cream since it is one of the most effective self-healing treatment to prevent dried skin.

If you are too stressful, make sure you relax, drink plenty of plain and warm water, and try consuming more vitamin B suppliments (B complex consist a spectrum of vitamin B that a person's body may require, such as B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12, and additional such as B13 - B22 , Bh, Bm, Bp - each produces different function) if you dont usually consume foods that contain all the vitamin B. I heard vitamin B complex will improve a person's nervous system. If so, vitamin B complex should be quite effective in the reduction of stress. Sometimes, the sleep deprivation effect may also cause the increase of a person stress level (I will write a post related to stress and ways to optimise stress in the next few posts). I will also suggest to consume some 'warm' milk before sleeping. I have tried it myself and it sometime helps!


Caption: the outcome from scratching eczema / dermatitis

One major reason of consuming those suppliments, and perhaps going through mediciation processes (i.e. as mentioned in the above, or going to meet the doctor in a hospital, in the dermatology department) may ONLY help to reduce the itchness of the skin disease. Remember to not scatch itch red patches (rashes) if it is visible at anywhere on your body, else it may worsen the condition since rashes will normally expand its range when a person start scratching it.