Ingredients and Eczema

This was a tricky subject.  I tried to bring logic into the debate of why questionable ingredients are found in products that can be helpful.  In 1996 I discovered that if I avoided lanolin, my skin was better.  (It made sense because wool made me feel itchy and lanolin comes from wool.)   Some people told me that lanolin doesn't bother their eczema, but more people told me that it does.  Different things can affect different people differently because we are biochemically different.

Cetyl alcohol, propylene glycol, glycerin, sodium laureth sulfate, sodium lauryl sulfate, parabens, fragrances, petroleum products, mineral oils and list the goes on have come up as being bad ingredients.   I have cautioned people about some of the above ingredients; but, I had to figure out why formulators of dermatological products use some of the above-listed ingredients and why their products have helped people.

Let's quickly just look at couple of ingredients to give you a general picture.  Cetyl alcohol is a fatty acid alcohol and not a drying alcohol like methyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) or ethyl alcohol (drinking alcohol).   Propylene glycol, used as a preservative and humectant, is used in a very small amount in some skin products.  Formulators agree that when used in large amounts it is an anti-freeze.   Basic  chemistry shows us that chemicals used at varying strengths have different chemical reactions.  If propylene glycol is horrible in small quantities, then why haven't formulators been banned from using it, and why do biochemists feel comfortable using it?  Sometimes chemicals can be used in very small quantities and formulated with other chemicals which can offset the negatives of questionable chemicals.

The analogy that comes to my mind is one that has to do with hydrochloric acid.  We need a small amount in our stomach to digest food (we can become ill from the lack of it); but, if we go drinking lots of it, it's a killer.   Similarly, our skin has a healthy acid mantle, but if we go pouring lots of acid on the skin, it'll burn us.  A little acid with a lot of water is a lot different than a lot of acid with a little water.

I'm not trying to whitewash anything; rather, I am trying to bring logic into why biochemists (concerned about things like cortisone and detergents who are educated and earnestly trying to develop products that will help skin) will use some chemicals that have been blacklisted.  I believe that the proportion of chemicals is of utmost importance and that varying sensitivities and proportions of chemicals play a bigger role than would appear on the surface.  It's the only logical explanation why questionable ingredients are found in products that have been helpful.

In my experience, using pure vaseline (white petrolatum) on my skin made me feel itchy.  But, there are products with those ingredients that have helped me.   Things that produce a lot of suds bother my skin.   Sodium laureth sulfate and sodium lauryl sulfate help form suds.   But, there are products designed for eczema that have those ingredients in them and have helped people with eczema.   Regarding fragrance, one manufacturer wrote saying that they use the least reactive fragrance that is available.  They also wrote that parabens are the least reactive of the available preservatives and said that the sensitivity rate of their products is less than 1%.

So, the bottom line must be what are the proportions of the chemicals, how do they interact with the other chemicals in the product, and what are the results of the products being used on our skin as we are biochemically different..  It is my experience that only small amounts of products should be used, and remember ... preservation of the natural oils is needed.