What is eczema?
Eczema is skin-barrier disease, which means that the skin barrier is weakened or compromised. It is a chronic condition where the skin becomes dry, itchy, discolored, and irritated. When a portion of the skin becomes symptomatic, it is referred to as an “eczema flare”. Most patients have more than one flare at a time, but usually the flare is 4 square inches big or less.
The most common form of eczema is atopic dermatitis. It is not contagious. Most dermatologists believe that is genetically transmitted, so if one of the parents had it, a child is likely to get it.
The skin barrier is the very outside of your skin and is responsible for helping your skin retain moisture in your body and prevent irritating compounds from entering through your skin into the body. What is the relationship between the skin barrier and AD symptoms? A weakened skin barrier allows harmful substances to enter the skin and cause symptoms like skin irritation and itching.
Atopic dermatitis can occur at any age. For some people it starts within months of birth. For others eczema does not arise until adulthood. While eczema interferes with a sufferer’s lifestyle,
Eczema is hard to characterize because people can be affected in many different ways. AD can occur anywhere on the body. Sometimes the skin can become leathery, or crack and ooze. For some skin dryness is the worst symptom, for most others, itching is the worst symptom. For some people, AD symptoms can stop and never return; for others, symptoms can occur for a lifetime.
Those who don’t suffer from atopic dermatitis believe it cannot be all that debilitating for sufferers. They wrong feel, “it’s just a rash”. But as one patient put it, it’s like you are wearing a dive suit that just always itches, but you can never take it off to get relief. Ad is mre than “just a rash”.
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