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Hi All,

 

Been a while since I've participated on these forums :D

 

I'm back with a little bit of a predicament. Everything's been going swell, apart from the sudden relapse I'm having with what I believe and my dermatologist believes as atopic dermatitis; similar to eczema. My first encounter in 15 years occurred about 2 months ago, and the cause was apparently stress, immense consumption of protein/creatine based supplements and the use of certain bathing products, causing my skin (mainly hands) to become incredibly dry and eventually become inflamed.

 

So after a bunch of research and dermo visits, I was given Flucloxacillin and fusidic acid (betamethasone) which over a course of a week cleared up the inflammation relatively quickly. However, after finishing the prescription course, I began using different bathing products which I believed were okay, evidently not as the moment I dry myself I can immediately see a type of inflammation occur on my hands. I'll be attending another dermo appointment tomorrow to inform them about it and hopefully obtain another prescription.

 

I'm just wondering if anyone else has encountered this in their lifetime? and if so, how did they prevent it from happening or stop it from happening as frequently. I only really suffered from it as an adolescent, so I'm completely unsure as to why it's occurred twice in the past two months now.

 

I'm aware it's an incredibly common skin condition to have, but any tips and relevant advice regarding it would be very much appreciated

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Hi All,

 

Been a while since I've participated on these forums :D

 

I'm back with a little bit of a predicament. Everything's been going swell, apart from the sudden relapse I'm having with what I believe and my dermatologist believes as atopic dermatitis; similar to eczema. My first encounter in 15 years occurred about 2 months ago, and the cause was apparently stress, immense consumption of protein/creatine based supplements and the use of certain bathing products, causing my skin (mainly hands) to become incredibly dry and eventually become inflamed.

 

So after a bunch of research and dermo visits, I was given Flucloxacillin and fusidic acid (betamethasone) which over a course of a week cleared up the inflammation relatively quickly. However, after finishing the prescription course, I began using different bathing products which I believed were okay, evidently not as the moment I dry myself I can immediately see a type of inflammation occur on my hands. I'll be attending another dermo appointment tomorrow to inform them about it and hopefully obtain another prescription.

 

I'm just wondering if anyone else has encountered this in their lifetime? and if so, how did they prevent it from happening or stop it from happening as frequently. I only really suffered from it as an adolescent, so I'm completely unsure as to why it's occurred twice in the past two months now.

 

I'm aware it's an incredibly common skin condition to have, but any tips and relevant advice regarding it would be very much appreciated

 

Why not try a hypoellergenic soap?

I would also buy new supplies (wash rags loofash, and other washing materiels to use with the hypoallergenic soap.)

 

You can buy "All free and clear" laundry detergent.

 

If your episodes are brought on by stress, start taking a multivitamin and leave your stressors behind. I used to date a man who would get hives when he cheated due to all of the stress. . . .that was how I could tell what was going on. Anyway, dump the stress for whatever reason it is causing it.

 

Keep seeing your dermatologist. You can also get a second opinion, maybe it is psoriasis, or a different skin condition.

 

There are a number of itch creams and lotions on the market you can use to sooth your skin. I would recommend Calamine Lotion and Aloe Gel. :)

 

Good luck.

 

(I am going to school to be a nurse and have been in home care for almost 10 years now as an aide)

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I've had a couple of friends who've had tremendous success with diet changes. The whole clean eating, no sugar, gluten free stuff. It's not for the faint hearted, but they feel so much better.

 

If you want to do this route, let me know and I'll ask more about it.

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I was diagnosed with the same about 13 years ago, though my flare ups were never very bad.

 

 

Here's a list of brands that are supposed to make eczema friendly soaps.

https://nationaleczema.org/eczema-products/cleansers/

 

 

I currently use Nivea total care body washes with no trouble. If your flare up doesn't start until after you dry there may be bacteria or residue on your dryinh towel exacerbating the issue.

 

 

Something that triggered flare ups for me recently was our washing machine. Something filthy had been thrown in there and the drum hadn't been properly cleaned/disinfected, it took months of my clothes breaking me out in hives for me to figure this out.

 

Diet changes and stress don't seem to impact my flare ups at all, so I couldn't lend any opinion there. But assessing your clothes and towels may be helpful.

 

 

Oh! Another incident that caused a flare up. There's an air vent in my office at work. Something had gotten in the vents and was disseminating dust or something through all vent openings. I couldn't see or smell anything by my skin felt on fire. So you may want to check that your propert manager hasn't done anything recently with building ventilation also.

 

Good luck.

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Why not try a hypoellergenic soap?

I would also buy new supplies (wash rags loofash, and other washing materiels to use with the hypoallergenic soap.)

 

You can buy "All free and clear" laundry detergent.

 

If your episodes are brought on by stress, start taking a multivitamin and leave your stressors behind. I used to date a man who would get hives when he cheated due to all of the stress. . . .that was how I could tell what was going on. Anyway, dump the stress for whatever reason it is causing it.

 

Keep seeing your dermatologist. You can also get a second opinion, maybe it is psoriasis, or a different skin condition.

 

There are a number of itch creams and lotions on the market you can use to sooth your skin. I would recommend Calamine Lotion and Aloe Gel. :)

 

Good luck.

 

(I am going to school to be a nurse and have been in home care for almost 10 years now as an aide)

 

Thanks for your insight and advice, Shelly. Yes, my dermo and parents recommended that I buy some hypoallergenic soaps, and I've done that so hopefully there more effective.

 

I'm not sure whether it's psoriasis, because in my medical history I only ever really suffered quite severe atopic dermatitis as a newborn and ezcema on the hands as an adolescent.

 

I'll have a go at relieving any causes of stress and such, and see if that was the main cause of it.

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I've had a couple of friends who've had tremendous success with diet changes. The whole clean eating, no sugar, gluten free stuff. It's not for the faint hearted, but they feel so much better.

 

If you want to do this route, let me know and I'll ask more about it.

 

Hey Basil, yes I've been wanting to try a more cleaner diet. I heard that a relatively poor immune system can aggravate your skin especially. I suppose the 150g of protein and high carb intake per day isn't helping.

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I was diagnosed with the same about 13 years ago, though my flare ups were never very bad.

 

 

Here's a list of brands that are supposed to make eczema friendly soaps.

https://nationaleczema.org/eczema-products/cleansers/

 

 

I currently use Nivea total care body washes with no trouble. If your flare up doesn't start until after you dry there may be bacteria or residue on your dryinh towel exacerbating the issue.

 

 

Something that triggered flare ups for me recently was our washing machine. Something filthy had been thrown in there and the drum hadn't been properly cleaned/disinfected, it took months of my clothes breaking me out in hives for me to figure this out.

 

Diet changes and stress don't seem to impact my flare ups at all, so I couldn't lend any opinion there. But assessing your clothes and towels may be helpful.

 

 

Oh! Another incident that caused a flare up. There's an air vent in my office at work. Something had gotten in the vents and was disseminating dust or something through all vent openings. I couldn't see or smell anything by my skin felt on fire. So you may want to check that your propert manager hasn't done anything recently with building ventilation also.

 

Good luck.

 

I thought it was something to do with some sort of bacterial effect initially, but I cleanse myself more often than I should, same thing with clothing and bedsheets - I change them every 3-4 days.

 

My seconds thoughts was perhaps an allergic reaction to something? or dust allergies? have you had an issue with that especially before?

 

Also yes, in our work office there is quite the accumulation of dust coming from the air vents too, along with the stairs and hallways sometimes and of course you do come into contact with them regularly.

 

I'll assess a majority of what you said again and see if I can properly acknowledge the cause, thanks for your input!

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Using hypoallergenic products might help. Best not to overlook the less obvious ones though. I found I was suffering from an irritation of my eyes. I could not figure out what the problem was. I hadn't changed washing powder or anything I used on my skin. Eventually I remembered I had changed fabric conditioner, simply because a well-known brand was on offer. I'd bought two bottles and was using one. As soon as I stopped using the fabric conditioner, the eye irritation went. I would never have thought it could be fabric conditioner. I am sure there are lots of other products we don't tend to think of as allergenic that we use without thinking.

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Using hypoallergenic products might help. Best not to overlook the less obvious ones though. I found I was suffering from an irritation of my eyes. I could not figure out what the problem was. I hadn't changed washing powder or anything I used on my skin. Eventually I remembered I had changed fabric conditioner, simply because a well-known brand was on offer. I'd bought two bottles and was using one. As soon as I stopped using the fabric conditioner, the eye irritation went. I would never have thought it could be fabric conditioner. I am sure there are lots of other products we don't tend to think of as allergenic that we use without thinking.

 

Nice to hear from you again, Spider. Hope you're doing well.

 

Yes, I've also been taking into consideration if it's certain allergic reactions or irritant effects caused by foods, drinks, cleansing materials/liquids.

 

Might just be an abundance of things, and especially due to how it's been summer with all of the pollen intake and the humidity of the weather has probably been a part of why this has occurred.

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  • 1 month later...

I have had some issues with another form of dermatitis on my face. I did the cortisone creams and antibiotics for mine which got the initial flare up down.

 

I found I need to stay with natural laundry detergents, hair products, body products, etc. For me the initial culprit was some makeup (Bare Minerals) I had been using but if I consistently use many conventional drugstore products (like when I tried to use a drugstore conditioner), I see a recurrence crop up.

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i went to the derm with what i thought was eczema and we did allergy tests and etc. i changed my entire life for almost 2 years - diet, detergents, you name it.. i changed it, and nothing worked, no creams no over-the-counter stuff, nothing. i went back about 2 years later and they gave me a high dosage of betamethasone, which took away the skin condition in about 3 weeks. i'm basically on betamethasone forever - it turns out i have "agent orange" - one of those skin conditions that has no root cause they can pinpoint and it flares up whenever it wants. the derm did mention that an all-plant diet is supposed to really help the skin, so i'm on that. you can change everything to be natural and etc. but until you actually uncover the root cause of what you have it's wasted efforts. i spent a fortune in 'natural' products for close to 2 years and none of the un-natural stuff was actually the cause, so basically lots of wasted effort and $. i didn't need to change anything. and i went to 3 derms before i got one that was good - they aren't all familiar with the same stuff, some have a greater knowledge base, so also look at getting a different dr. if it isn't get solved.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I thought it was something to do with some sort of bacterial effect initially, but I cleanse myself more often than I should, same thing with clothing and bedsheets - I change them every 3-4 days.

 

My seconds thoughts was perhaps an allergic reaction to something? or dust allergies? have you had an issue with that especially before?

 

Also yes, in our work office there is quite the accumulation of dust coming from the air vents too, along with the stairs and hallways sometimes and of course you do come into contact with them regularly.

 

I'll assess a majority of what you said again and see if I can properly acknowledge the cause, thanks for your input!

 

As I get older I am developing allergic symptoms in some environments, but I think it's something specific. There's dust all over my house but my skin never gets irritated by it. I'm outside and standing in an area with lots of blooming flowers, I'll start itching.

 

I think doctors have some sort of allergen test they can run to tell you what you may be allergic to, that would help to rule this out as a possibility fairly quickly.

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