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Eczema and psoriasis are both itchy, irritating conditions of the skin that result in periodic skin rashes. While they can sometimes be mistaken for each other, psoriasis is very different from eczema and requires a different treatment course. That is why it is very important to know and understand which skin condition you have before adopting a treatment course.

In eczema, a deficiency in the skin allows it to react violently to its environment. This can seem very much like an allergic reaction, but rarely has anything to do with allergies at all. During an eczema flare up, the affected skin becomes itchy, irritated, scaly and thickened. These symptoms can resemble those of psoriasis but a medical diagnosis can differentiate between the two.

Psoriasis, on the other hand, is a disorder of the immune system. In this disorder, the immune system releases substances that cause the cells of the skin to multiply at an extremely high rate. In normal skin, cells renew themselves about once every month, but in skin that is affected by psoriasis, this renewal can occur every two to four days. These extra skin cells then form thick, scaly, red plaques that are extremely itchy.

Psoriasis can occur anywhere that there is skin but is most commonly seen in the elbows, knees, and lower back. Eczema, on the other hand, occurs more frequently in the moist folds of the skin such as the neck, the insides of the elbows, and the back of the knee. Keep in mind, though, that eczema can also occur anywhere that there is skin and these guidelines only refer to the most common areas that are affected.

While psoriasis is not contagious, there does seem to be a link between psoriasis and family history. Of the 2.5% of people that are affected by psoriasis, one-third has a family history of the skin disorder. Unlike eczema that normally appears during the early childhood years and continues through life, psoriasis can develop at any time from birth to the grave.

While psoriasis is a skin disease, it has far reaching consequences. It is very common for people with psoriasis to suffer from depression as well. Since psoriasis is a very visible disease, its emotional impact can be quite severe especially in children. Even adults may not be able to overcome the isolation felt by being different from everyone else or be able to successfully ignore rude and blatant stares.

But there is hope for those with psoriasis. New medications are being introduced and studies have narrowed down the exact cause of psoriasis. While they may not know yet what causes the immune system to prompt the skin to make more and more skin cells, they know that by preventing this from occurring, a cure for psoriasis can be found. In the meantime, advocacy groups and new medications are making the reality of psoriasis more bearable for patients with this disorder.

If you have already tried medications and creams and nothing has worked, maybe it’s time to try a natural eczema treatment. The natural methods will attack the underlying cause of the problem and not just the symptoms and will keep the eczema away for good!

Used in a variety of home remedies, oatmeal can help relieve intense itching that is caused by eczema. Works best when raw oatmeal flakes are mixed with bath water. Soak your body in the solution for 20 to 30 minutes for maximum results.

Vitamin E cream is an effective eczema remedy that has long been used by medical professionals for treating various problems, including scars of various types and other skin problems. Vitamin e cream is especially for eczema sufferers given the amazing ability it has to protect and enhance your skin. Vitamin E cream can help eliminate and reduce skin irritation and inflammation. Use of olive oil can also promote healing of eczema in children. Natural remedies involving usage of essential oils have always benefited to relieve such type of skin problems. Unrefined, cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil contains high amount of vitamin E, which is known to rejuvenate the skin. Topical products containing vitamin E are often used to maintain healthy skin. The moisturizing properties of olive oil alleviate itching, and provide softness to the skin.

Vitamin E can be taken orally or topically as treatment to eczema. The topical application of Vitamin E is simply through rubbing the substance to the affected area. This mode of treatment provides immediate relief to itchiness and the burning sensation brought about by your skin disease.

This home remedy is easy to make and is quite effective. Takes leaves from the spearmint and grind it into a mortar and pestle to create a paste. Apply it directly to the affected area and the spearmint paste may be diluted with water. Spearmint paste can reduce the sting and swelling that can be caused by eczema.

An eczema patient must take an enema if a diet of fruit and fresh vegetables does not help relieve his constipation. Walking or jogging should be resorted to in order to activate the bowels. He must walk at the rate of six kilometers per hour for at least two hours in the day.

Drink chamomile before you sleep. Chamomile is a good itch relieving option if you aren’t allergic to chamomile. I would suggest consuming a cup of chamomile tea before bedtime to help with the night time itching. For one longtime sufferer of eczema, this suggestion brought successful relief. For another, it brought about an allergic reaction. Thus, only use chamomile IF you are not allergic to it.

Eczema is also known as atopic dermatitis in medical terms. To determine what actually cause an eczema can not yet be done, because there are many potential causes of an eczema.

However, most doctors and scientists belive that an eczema is the result of genetics combined with certain environmental factors. Another certain fact is that children are more predisposed to developing an eczema is one of his/ her parents or both of them suffer or have suffered from allergies such as hay fever or asthma. Some people can outgrow the eczema skin symptoms, but unfortunately seventy five percent of all children that have eczema actually develop asthma or even hay fever. Furthermore, environmental factors most often bring eczema symptoms, especially in people that have inherited the disease characteristic. Another cause that can lead to an eczema is malfunction of the person’ s immune system. Studies have been made and the results showed that people who suffer from eczema actually have low levels of the proteins that are essential to your immune system for it to function healthy and also have risen levels of other proteins that can cause allergic reactions. Your immune system can actually become misguided can create an eczema. Inflammations of the skin can appear even when there is no infection in your body. This case that can lead to an eczema can be looked at as an auto immunity case, where your body actually acts against its tissues causing harm instead of fighting against it.

Some time ago, before other eczema causes have been found, doctors actually believed that the cause of eczema was an emotional disorder. Nowadays, it has been proven that emotional factors can indeed make an eczema worse, but under any circumstances, like stress or other emotional disorders, they can not cause an eczema.

As science evolves and more and more studies are made, new causes of eczema arise. Although genetics is always going to be considered the main cause of an eczema, new and amazing discoveries are made each day. Who knows, maybe sometime in the future the actual cause of an eczema will be found. All we know today is that genetics together with some environmental factors are the main reason why a person can develop an eczema. Furthermore, some of the things that were thought to cause an eczema before are now proved just to be the cause of flare- ups..

For more resources about dyshidrotic eczema or even about eczema please review http://www.eczema-info-guide.com

What is Eczema?

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, eczema is defined as “an inflammatory condition of the skin characterized by redness, itching and oozing vesicular lesions which become scaly, crusted or hardened”.

This basic dictionary definition immediately gives you some idea that eczema is not a pleasant condition to suffer from. Eczema has been around for thousands of years, but sadly, modern medical science is no nearer to curing eczema than were our forefathers.

Like many skin complaints, eczema is one of those things that most people end up treating on a superficial or skin level, primarily because medical science tends to adopt the same attitude.
However, because we are looking for a way of dealing with eczema totally naturally, many of the solutions you will read of in this book adopt a far more holistic approach to getting rid of or at least minimizing the worst effects of eczema.

While there are lots of things that you can do on a topical level (on the surface) that will reduce the severity of eczema using only natural substances, I”m also going to dig down into some other ways that you can deal with your eczema from the inside, rather than doing so only on an external level.

Before moving on to start looking at various treatments that you can use to deal with your eczema problem, let us look in a little more detail at what the condition is, and who gets it.

Eczema is an equal opportunities condition

Like many other skin conditions such as psoriasis and dandruff, there is a great deal about eczema that is still a mystery to us.

For example, because eczema refers to a set of clinical characteristics rather than one particular condition, the definition of the underlying causes of eczema has often been unsystematic and haphazard (at best). Indeed, over the years, there have been many different terms and names that have been used for the condition, as dozens of so-called experts have come up with their own definitions of what eczema is and what it is not.

Partially as a result of this confusion, eczema is a condition that is often mixed up with psoriasis. However, the two conditions are not identical, the main difference between the two being that adult eczema is often found on the flexor aspect of body joints (those body parts on the inside of a joint that can decrease in size or surface area because of flexing) while psoriasis is generally not found in these particular areas.

What is generally agreed is that eczema is a form of dermatitis. Dermatitis in turn is used as a “catch-all” term for any inflammation of the epidermis, which is the outermost layer of the human skin.

Consequently, for many non-medical professionals, the two words eczema and dermatitis are almost interchangeable, and (just to confuse things a little further) you will also hear eczema referred to as eczematous dermatitis or dermatitis eczema.

If you are anything like me, all of this extra “helpful” information will probably do far more to confuse you than provide any clearer picture of what eczema is and what it isn”t. This is primarily because all we really know about eczema is that it is an inflammation of the skin, which doesn”t really tell you great deal more than you already knew when you started.