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How to Treat Eczema? With Dr. Peter Lio

Another great post from itchylittleworld.com – Natural remedies for eczema to soothe your itchy little world..

What are some of the current dermatologist recommended methods of treatment for eczema? Find out from Dr. Peter Lio (see bio below). Scroll down to watch the video or read on for a full transcript.

(begin transcript)

How do we treat eczema? This is my favorite question and one I’m very interested in: how do we get people better?

Well we can think about a few different areas. We want to find and eliminate any possible triggers that we can. This can be more difficult than it sounds because some triggers are allergens that we can actually identify, but some are simply irritants and we don’t necessarily know which is going to be a higher yield. Sometimes people are not able to avoid those triggers because of a job or their family situation, so we have to work with them.

Once we’ve avoided the triggers, we like to think of a few different areas:

The Skin Barrier

The first and most important is the skin barrier. We want to support and strengthen that skin barrier because it keeps the water in our skin and keeps out all the allergens, irritants, bacteria, viruses and even fungus that can enter our skin and worsen the disease. Using natural oils and moisturizers can help protect the barrier.

Read More: 10 Natural Remedies You Can Try At Home Today

Anti-inflammatory

The second part is anti-inflammatory. The immune system is there to protect us, but with eczema it seems to be going haywire. It attacks the skin barrier, making itch, which causes us to scratch. We want to slow that inflammation down and there are a number of anti-inflammatory creams that can be used and in more severe cases more powerful systemic medications to help with the itch. There’s also phototherapy or light therapy to cool down the inflammation.

This is very closely related to the itch because we know that much of the itch is caused by inflammation. For the itch you can use things like camphor, menthol and sometimes even pramoxine or topical agents that cool the skin. Many of my patients like to use ice packs. Ice can have a soothing effect on the nerves, which cools the itch.

Read More: How To Prevent Scratching When Itchy Skin Is Relentless In Babies and Children

Bacteria

Finally, we have bacteria, which is a hot topic in dermatology. Bacterial overgrowth seems to be playing a role in atopic dermatitis. We’re trying to understand how to get rid of the staph bacteria (which is creating a toxin called “delta toxin”) that seems to fuel the disease. We do not know everything about this yet and we’re still trying to find out the safest and most gentle way to cure the disease.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a cure yet, but we can get most patients better so that they can resume a normal life, get back to feeling good, sleeping well and most importantly being able to concentrate on the things they want to be focused on, rather than always focusing on their skin.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see NEW videos from Dr. Lio as they are released!

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And for more from Dr. Lio on our blog, check out these great posts:

What Causes Eczema?

Will Your Child Outgrow Their Eczema?

4 Tips For Parents On Managing Eczema in Children

What Is The Atopic March?

Topical Steroid Withdrawal: Myth vs. Fact

 

Bio: Dr. Peter Lio is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Dermatology and Pediatrics at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Chicago Integrative Eczema Center and very passionate about finding safe treatments that work for eczema. Dr. Lio received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, completed his internship at Boston Children’s Hospital and his dermatology training at Harvard. He has had formal training in acupuncture under Kiiko Matsumoto and David Euler, and has held a long interest in alternative medicines. He currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the National Eczema Association. His clinical office is located at Medical Dermatology Associates of Chicago.

How to Treat Eczema? With Dr. Peter Lio appeared first on itchylittleworld.com. Come read more about natural remedies for eczema!

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What Triggers Eczema? With Dr. Peter Lio

What triggers eczema? Find out from Dr. Peter Lio (see bio below). Scroll down to watch the video or read on for a full transcript.

(transcript begins)

Today’s question is: What triggers eczema?

It’s important to know that for each person there may be different triggers. However, there are some universal triggers that affect many patients with eczema:

Temperature Changes

The first is cold/dry weather. The wintertime can often be a difficult time for our patients with eczema. That being said, many patients also flare up when it’s warm and humid. Sometimes if they’re exerting themselves, like exercising, that can too cause eczema to flare up.

Allergens

True allergens in the environment like pollen, weed, mold, ragweed, pet dander, pet saliva can trigger eczema. We also know that certain foods can trigger it. Most of the foods we think cause eczema flare ups are true food allergens, but some foods (like gluten or dairy) just seem to be inflammatory for some people even with negative allergy tests. Many people who test negative find they feel better when they eliminate certain foods like those and others from their diets.

ILW Recommends: Our Eczema Elimination Diet Success (How You Can Do It Too!)

Stress

It turns out that stress is a big trigger as well. Of course when our eczema is flared up that often contributes to stress too, which causes a vicious cycle. Poor sleep is another trigger for many people and can be linked with stress in most cases.

ILW Recommends: 8 Ways to Relieve Stress in Children With Eczema and Other Health Conditions

All of these triggers can play off one another. What’s very frustrating is that patients will ask me: I’m doing everything that I can to avoid my triggers, why am I still having flare-ups? It’s really important to know that these triggers are not the underlying cause necessarily. If you’re lucky enough to avoid a few triggers and your skin clears, then that’s great and you don’t necessarily need to seek further help. For the most part, our patients who try to avoid their triggers still continue to have eczema. Our goal is to have them avoid all triggers they can feasibly, but still treat the underlying disease that is being fueled by triggers.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see NEW videos from Dr. Lio as they are released!

Subscribe Button

 

And for more from Dr. Lio on our blog, check out these great posts:

What Causes Eczema?

Will Your Child Outgrow Their Eczema?

4 Tips For Parents On Managing Eczema in Children

What Is The Atopic March?

Topical Steroid Withdrawal: Myth vs. Fact

 

Bio: Dr. Peter Lio is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Dermatology and Pediatrics at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Chicago Integrative Eczema Center and very passionate about finding safe treatments that work for eczema. Dr. Lio received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, completed his internship at Boston Children’s Hospital and his dermatology training at Harvard. He has had formal training in acupuncture under Kiiko Matsumoto and David Euler, and has held a long interest in alternative medicines. He currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the National Eczema Association. His clinical office is located at Medical Dermatology Associates of Chicago

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What Causes Eczema? With Dr. Peter Lio

We have a really great video for you today from Dr. Peter Lio (see bio below). Scroll down to watch the video or read on for a full transcript.

Here’s what Dr. Lio had to say………

(transcript begins)

Today’s question is what causes eczema?

This is a great question and unfortunately we do not have a great answer to “what causes eczema?” or “what is eczema?” But some of the pieces that are important to think about include the fact that the skin barrier is leaky.

We know that the goal of the skin is to keep water in and keep things like bacteria and viruses, allergies and irritants out. When the skin is strong, it is doing its job, but if the skin becomes more leaky and that barrier is damaged then we lose water and those unwanted things enter in. This in turn triggers an inflammation response. The immune system is normally there to protect us, but in this context it starts to go crazy; attacking the skin, causing more breakdown, which fuels the process and also causes itch, which is another important component of eczema. That itch creates a cycle of scratching, which then further damages the barrier and allows more stuff to get in. Patients usually become stuck in this vicious itch-scratch cycle.

All of these things work together to cause trouble. We also know there is a role with bacteria as well. When that skin barrier is damaged, abnormal colonization by bacteria, particularly Staphylococcus, further worsens this.

For some patients we know there are multiple factors playing a role in what causes eczema. We do not fully understand which is the most important for each patient and that is part of what we are trying to understand. We do know that no matter where you begin, all these things come together to cause the disease.

(transcript ends)

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see NEW videos from Dr. Lio as they are released!

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And for more from Dr. Lio on our blog, check out these great posts:

Will Your Child Outgrow Their Eczema?

4 Tips For Parents On Managing Eczema in Children

What Is The Atopic March?

Topical Steroid Withdrawal: Myth vs. Fact

Bio: Dr. Peter Lio is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Dermatology and Pediatrics at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Chicago Integrative Eczema Center and very passionate about finding safe treatments that work for eczema. Dr. Lio received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, completed his internship at Boston Children’s Hospital and his dermatology training at Harvard. He has had formal training in acupuncture under Kiiko Matsumoto and David Euler, and has held a long interest in alternative medicines. He currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the National Eczema Association. His clinical office is located at Medical Dermatology Associates of Chicago

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What causes Eczema

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