Itch

What causes a person to get eczema on his or her body?

Q:   What causes a person to get eczema on his or her body? How can the terrible itch be helped? Are they working on a cure for this awful stuff?

A:   Atopic dermatitis is the most common type of eczema and has a genetic basis. Recently discovered genetic defects in the skin barrier seem to account for many, if not most, cases. The defective barrier allows chemical and physical irritants and bacterial toxins to trigger inflammation that causes redness and itching.

Itching to Know

To my great delight, a new t-shirt came in the mail the other day. Not only is it the bright sunshine yellow I feel drawn to on these gray winter days, but it also represents a new dawning for NEA. The logo on my yellow t will be on our first official t-shirt for our inaugural fund-raising walk, Itching for a Cure, in April 2012.

Itch: Getting National Attention

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a division of the National Institutes of Health recently held a roundtable meeting on the topic of Itch Research. The National Eczema Association’s (NEA) advocacy helped make this first roundtable dedicated to itch possible. Why is this important? Itch is being given attention and looked at more closely on a national level.

NEA-Funded Research on Itch Shows Atopic Dermatitis Patients React Differently to Heat and Scratching

In the January issue of the British Journal of Dermatology, Dr. Gil Yosipovitch and colleagues from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, reported on their study to examine the effects of repetitive heat and scratching on itch intensity in 16 patients with atopic dermatitis and 10 healthy subjects.

Updates on Eczema and Eczema-Related Research

Researchers at Yale and Johns Hopkins have discovered that BAM8-22, a signaling molecule found in the skin, triggers itch in humans via a pathway that does not involve histamine.

Neuron Path for Itch Revealed

Chronic itch is an often difficult and sometimes debilitating symptom of many skin diseases and other disorders. Researchers have been trying to determine for decades if there are separate neuronal pathways for pain and itch.

Itch more at night?

Q: Do people really itch more at night or are they just letting down after a stressful day?

Salt Baths, Petroleum Jelly and Probiotics for Daughter

My daughter was diagnosed with eczema when she was six months old and the battle began. My daughter has what is considered a “mild” case, which has always been disturbingly humorous to me because although her skin usually looks pretty good, her demon is the excessive, no mercy, never-ending “itch.”

Elimination Diet

I have been an eczema sufferer since age 17, and I am now 44. The eczema started on the inner elbows of my arms. Then my hands were affected; I would get these very small blisters that intensely itched, and then my fingers would swell and weep. In a Scratch Pad letter, a gentleman suggested going on an elimination diet. This meant eating nothing but chicken, broccoli, and cauliflower for about a week, then adding certain foods back in to the diet to see what was causing the itch. This was a very difficult thing to do! But after three days I noticed the itching on my hands was gone.

Probiotics

I went to the health food store to see if I could find something natural that could help her skin. An employee there said that children’s probiotics worked really well on his child.

Best Habits for Six-Year-Old Son

My six-year-old has experienced moderate to severe eczema since he was four weeks old. The worst of times seemed to be when he was 18 months to three and a half years old.

"Sleep Sack" for Daughter when on Vacation

Hotel sheets would make my daughter’s eczema flare when we were on vacation. Now I have a “sleep sack” that I made for her out of a queen-size flat sheet folded over and sewn up the sides to be shaped like a sleeping bag.