What is Contact Dermatitis?
First of all, we have to understand that there are different types of eczema, to understand more, please refer to The multiple types of eczema. Contact Dermatitis occurs when the skin reacts to contact with a substance. These can ether be irritants or allergens. Irritants are the most common cause of contact dermatitis.
主婦手/手部濕疹
Contact Dermatitis/Hand Eczema
Contact Dermatitis/Hand Eczema usually has sensitive symptoms due to exposure to chemical substances, such as frequent hand washing, exposure to chemical soaps, detergents, disinfectant sprays and chemicals, etc. These substances damage the skin’s natural protective layer and cause the skin’s natural protective layer malfunctioned. Skin of hands become dry, reducing the skin’s resistance to external stimuli.
How to prevent Contact Dermatitis/Hand Eczema?
- Prevent Frequent Contact with Water
Constant exposure to water can break the skin’s protective barrier and reduce the skin’s natural oils, resulting in dryness. You can choose to wear gloves to protect your hands! Avoid contact with irritants as much as possible by wearing gloves. Before wearing gloves, apply Grahams Natural C+ Eczema & Dermatitis Cream, your skin will be able to lock in the moisture and heal faster.
2. Use Warm Water to wash hands/Shower
Try and use warm water instead of hot water to reduce the amount of damage on your skin’s protective layer.
3. Prevent Exposure to Allergens or Irritants
Hand eczema/Contact Dermatitis can often become worsened by exposure to irritating substances, such as bleach, shampoos, soups, cleansers or alcohol.
Tip: To understand flare ups, one of the first things you should do is visit an allergist to figure out what is causing or exasperating your flare ups. Then, you need to cut this out as much as possible. If you find yourself flaring up from everyday skin, body and hair products like creams, shampoos and shower gel, your best bet is to look at natural alternatives. After all, if your products have a massive ingredient list with words you can’t pronounce… you shouldn’t be using it on yourself. This includes avoiding perfumes and dyes, often found in skin products, soaps, and detergents.
Grahams Natural is a great example of a natural formula product, specially formulated to assist in the management of eczema.
For hand eczema, we recommend:
C+ Eczema & Dermatitis Cream – This is the best selling natural eczema repair cream for those who suffer from redness, inflammation and even dermatitis or eczema.
Intensive Repair Hand Cream – Your dry, flaky, and itchy hands will LOVE this hand cream, designed to quickly soothe the skin and remove redness.
4. Food
If changing your everyday protects doesn’t reduce your flare ups, it’s time to look at what you’re putting inside your body, by conducting an elimination test to get to the source of your flare up. This is done by removing certain foods from your diet to determine what is causing the harm.
5. Stress
There’s a common myth that eczema is caused by stress. This is false. However! The hormones produced with stress can trigger an eczema flare up.
Tip: Exercise stress management. Try to get a better night’s sleep and include stress-relieving activities into your day such as going for a walk (with sunscreen!), taking yoga lessons, catching up with a friend or reading everyday. We know this can be difficult if you have a busy lifestyle, but something as little as reading a book for 20 minutes a day will help improve your mental state.
6. Sweating
Sweating can irritate the skin and make your itching worse! As the sweat on your body evaporates, the skin dries out and is left with a salty residue that irritates and brings on the dreaded itch.
Tip: Let your skin cool down! Take regular breaks throughout exercise to rest and rehydrate if you feel your skin is beginning to flare up. And keep a towel with you when you’re exercising. Try and drink plenty of water before, during, and after your workout to replace the water lost when sweating and keep your skin hydrated.
We get it… there’s nothing quite as satisfying as having a steamy hot shower to relax your muscles after exercising. However, it’s important to resist the temptation, and have a cold or lukewarm shower instead. Your gym may provide you with shower gels and other products but use your own products instead, and make sure it’s gentle, natural and made for eczema skin.
Natural Body Wash by Grahams Natural is a great addition to your gym bag as its a two-in-one shampoo and body wash, that is made from a soap and SLS free formula, gentle on the skin, made from 7 natural plant extracts and suitable for sensitive and eczema prone skin. Also! It’s super important to moisturise before and after your shower too.