Homeopathy Treatment for Atopic Dermatitis
What is Atopic Dermatitis & How is it caused?
The word “dermatitis” means inflammation of the skin. “Atopic” refers to diseases that are hereditary, tend to run in families, and often occur together.
A skin disease characterized by areas of severe itching, redness, scaling, and loss of the surface of the skin (excoriation). The skin of a patient with atopic dermatitis reacts abnormally and easily to irritants, food, and environmental allergens and becomes red, flaky and very itchy. The skin also becomes vulnerable to surface infections caused by bacteria.
Atopic dermatitis is the most common of the many types of eczema.
This disorder usually affects young children on the face and extensor surfaces of the arms and legs (elbow and knee sides). Older children and adults are usually affected on the sides of the neck and on the inside of the elbow and knee.
It is usually associated with other allergic disorders like asthma.
Atopic dermatitis is very common worldwide and increasing in prevalence. It affects males and females equally and accounts for 10%-20 % of all referrals to dermatologists. Atopic dermatitis is not contagious.
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Characteristic sites of Atopic Dermatitis.
Itch scratch cycle in Atopic Dermatitis
Mild itching makes the patient scratch the skin. But scratching damages the skin, worsens inflammation, irritates surface nerves, and leads to even more intense itching than you had before. This cycle aggravates and prolongs all these rashes.
Causes of Atopic Dermatitis
The exact cause of atopic dermatitis is not known. It is believed to be caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors, but the exact cause is not known. Stress can make the symptoms worse, but it does not cause the disease.
Symptoms of Atopic Dermatitis
Symptoms according to the age group involved are: –
- Infants present with red, scaly, oozy, crusty cheeks, and the neck, arms, and legs are involved. Symptoms clear in about half of these children by the time they are 2 or 3 years old.
- In older children, the folds on the arms and behind the knees can become dry, thick, scaly, and very itchy. Atopic dermatitis typically becomes less severe as the child matures.
- In young adults, symptoms typically appear on the face, neck, hands, feet, fingers, and toes. Most of the lesions are thickened, leathery, and dull looking.
Symptoms can also be divided into:-
- Acute lesions: These include extremely itchy reddened papules (small solid eruptions resembling pimples) and vesicles (small blister-like elevations in the skin surface that contain tissue fluid) over erythematous (reddened) skin. Acute lesions produce a watery exudate and are often accompanied by exfoliation (scaling or peeling of layers of skin) and erosion (destruction of the skin surface).
- Subacute lesions: These are characterized by reddening, peeling, and scaling but are less severe than acute lesions and do not produce an exudate.
- Chronic lesions: These are characterized by thickened plaques of skin, lichenification, and fibrous papules.
These symptoms may change as the child grows older. Some of the signs and symptoms that can be noticed in adult ADHD are- poor planning, mismanagement, restlessness, low tolerance level, stressed too often, impulsiveness, problem at work or forgetfulness.
Factors that worsen Atopic Dermatitis
- Solvents, cleaners, soaps or detergents
- Wool or man-made fabrics or clothing
- Dust or sand
- Long, hot baths or showers
- Dry skin
- Stress
- Sweating
- Rapid changes in temperature
- Low humidity
Diagnosis
Diagnosis of atopic dermatitis is based on the following criteria: –
To have atopic dermatitis, a patient must have three or more features from each of the two categories:
Major Features
- Intense itching
- Characteristic rash in typical locations
- Chronic or repeated symptoms
Minor Features
- Early age at onset.
- Xerosis – Dry, rough skin.
- Pityriasis Alba – Patches of hypopigmented, or lighter, skin. This occurs more often in infants than in older children.
- Nipple eczema – Cracking and peeling of the skin of the areolae, most often in young girls at the beginning of puberty.
- Susceptibility to skin infections – Bacterial infections and viral infections like herpes simplex.
- Positive allergy skin tests – A positive test may be an error because the skin is overly sensitive. Skin tests alone are not used to diagnose atopic dermatitis.
- Dennie-Morgan lines – Creases below the lower eyelids.
- Dark circles around the eyes (allergic shiners) – A blue gray discoloration of the skin around the eyes, especially under the eyes, associated with nasal congestion
- Ichthyosis – Severe dryness and scaling of the skin causing it to look like fish scales.
- Hyperlinear palms and soles – Dry, prominent, permanent creases in the palms and soles.
- Keratosis pilaris – Fine, flesh-coloured or slightly red plugs on the backs of the arms, the outside of the thighs, buttocks, and face.
- Hand or foot dermatitis – Glistening red, scaling, and cracking skin on the hands or feet.
- Cheilitis – Scaliness of the lips and the skin in the corner of the mouth.
Homeopathic Treatment
Homeopathy does not believe in suppressing the symptoms of internal derangement. The Homeopathic treatment prescribed considers the overall susceptibility of the individual to factors such as family history (genetic predisposition), sensitivity to certain food, allergens, metals, and chemicals and prescribe internal remedies capable of correcting those factors.
Homeopathy helps in correcting the altered immune system of the patient responsible for atopic dermatitis. In homeopathy individualized treatment is given. To find the proper remedy a homeopath collects all the past medical history of the person, his/her family history, his/her physical and psychological characteristics etc. All this information helps the homeopath to find a remedy which not only will remove the eczema but will also remove the disposition to acquire such diseases.
Body stands as one unit and all organs whether it may be skin, kidney, lungs, brain etc. are linked some way or the other and disorder in one part can easily affect the other. E.g. stress can worsen many diseases including atopic dermatitis. It is homeopathy which will direct its treatment towards relieving stress not any other pathy. It is a well-known fact in the modern medicine that eczema like Atopic dermatitis is due to the inheritance of the allergy factor from either of the parents. So, when a homeopath treats atopic dermatitis, he treats this inherited tendency to the disease so as to completely remove the disease.
Homeopathic approach not only successfully removes the eczema but also removes the possibility of development of other hypersensitivity disorders like asthma after the eczema is cured.
How Homeopathy helps in Atopic Dermatitis
- Homeopathic medicines clear up the skin by improving the blood supply of the area affected with atopic dermatitis.
- Homeopathic medicines remove the tendency of secondary infections at the site of atopic dermatitis by various microorganisms.
- Homeopathic medicines remove the tendency to further develop the problem.
In a study conducted at Nehru Homeopathic Medical College, a total number of 265 cases 154(Males) and 111(Female) of different types of Allergic Dermatitis 94 cases of Infective Eczematoid Dermatitis, 65 cases of Pompholyx, 48 cases of Nummular Dermatitis, 30 cases of Contact Dermatitis, 7 cases of Atopic Dermatitis, 5 cases of Drug induced dermatitis, 3 cases of Photo-Dermatitis and 13 cases of non-specific dermatitis were included in the study for a period of 5 years (1993-1998).
Out of these 31 (11.7%) cases were dropped out of study for various reasons of not complying with the study design. Out of 234 reporting cases, 67(25.2%) were completely cured, 34 cases (12.8%) had marked improvement and 104 (39.2%) cases had improvement ranging from mild to moderate degree. Only 28 (10.5%) cases got no relief and only one case became worse after treatment. The results clearly show that Homoeopathy is effective in the management of allergic dermatitis.
With homeopathic treatment complete recovery without relapses is possible.