Hand Eczema

We'd better start by saying that good bacteria fights bad bacteria.  So many people believe they need to wash their hands every time they touch something.  Remember that preserving the good bacteria that you have on your hands will fight the bad bacteria.  Also, very important is to restore the pH to the skin, and that in itself will help fight infections.  pH balanced products are important.  Now, we know that taking antibiotics all the time is not good; and, in the same way, I don't like using antibacterial soap unless there's an infection.  Having said that, let me add that water is also a cleanser and it does dry the skin.   Try washing with yogurt.

Preservation of the natural oils is best.  When my hands are dry, I use the very thin plastic gloves with breathing holes in them (so the skin doesn't sweat so much) to protect my hands.   Rubber and vinyl gloves irritated my skin, and cotton gloves absorbed the moisture out of my hands.  Instead of using a lot of oil to moisturize, I used the plastic gloves for short periods of time, because it helps moisturize by cutting down on moisture loss.  I use them to preserve my natural oils when folding laundry.

Try not to leave gloves on all day long.  The skin needs to breathe.

See, also, the corticosteroid web page and read about mineral oil when all else fails.

[Hand eczema. The clinical classification of the roles of exogenous and endogenous factors in each type]
Department of Dermatology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.

Hand eczema is one of the most common dermatological disorders. Although it is a general term referring to eczematous dermatitis of the hands, it actually covers a wide range of diseases. The classification of hand eczema is controversial even now, as definitions of individual diseases have not yet been established. It is well-known that exogenous factors, such as chemicals or water, are associated with the occurrence of hand eczema. In this study, we focused on endogenous factors, especially personal or family history of atopy as a causative factor in hand eczema. According to exogenous and endogenous factors, we classified hand eczema into three types: atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis and dysidrosis. This classification is useful because it makes the definition of each disease clear. Skin-humidity and sebum measurement are simple and rapid methods of determining personal atopy, skin condition and the effect of treatment on hand eczema patients.

PMID: 8083333 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Cuticles

Since I quit using regular soaps, I have cuticles again.  I hadn't seen my cuticles in a long time.  My fingernail even grew back after it was half way gone for a couple of years, and the deep ridges smoothed over.