Description
Around one in twelve adults and one in five children in the UK suffer from eczema - a skin condition that makes the skin feel dry, hot and itchy. The often unbearable itchiness means it's almost impossible not to scratch, which can lead to infection if the skin becomes broken, raw and bleeding. Living with Eczema explains how to tackle this uncomfortable and sometimes unsightly condition.
Topics covered include
- how to care for your skin
- types of eczema
- eczema in children and teenagers
- managing eczema day to day
- how your doctor can help
- diet, food sensitivities and eczema
- beneficial lifestyle changes
- complementary therapies
Jill Eckersley gives a simple, straightforward explanation of this condition, and of the medical, complementary and self-help approaches that can help people with eczema to lead a normal, or near-normal, life.
Living with Eczema
- Your skin and how to care for it
- What can go wrong
- Eczema in children and teenagers
- Eczema day to day
- How your doctor can help
- Lifestyle changes
- Eczema and diet
- Complementary therapies
- What about the future?
Introduction
Eczema — a condition in which the skin is excessively dry, reddened, often unbearably itchy and inflamed — has become increasingly more common in the UK and other Western countries over the last thirty years. It is now felt that the increase has 'flattened out' over the last decade, at least in the affluent West, although rates are still going up in the developing world. Eczema is related to other allergic conditions like asthma and hay fever, and many people who suffer from one type of allergy find that they are affected by the others as well.
Currently, the National Eczema Society (NES) estimates that as many as one in twelve British adults and one in five British schoolchildren suffer from eczema. Some children grow out of the condition by the time they go to school, others when they reach puberty. There's still a lot we don't know about eczema, most particularly why there has been such a big increase in the incidence of the condition in recent years. Everything from environmental pollution to our over-clean, poorly ventilated, centrally heated houses and our excessive use of household chemicals has been blamed, but the jury is still out on the causes of eczema, and there is, as yet, no 'cure'. It is not life-threatening — but it does affect people's lives, as Diane, 33, explains.
I often think about the life I would have, or could have had, if I didn't have eczema. It affects everything I choose to do and a lot of my choices about what I don't do. It has affected my confidence, as I was bullied as a child because of the state of my skin. Even now, people stare and make comments. It affects the clothes that I wear, the places that I go to, the jobs I apply for, the relationships that I build and the social life that I have — or don't have. It also impacts on big decisions like deciding not to have children.
Diane has extremely severe eczema which affects her whole body from her head right down to her toes. She has tried many forms of treatment, from the conventional to the complementary, and says that what she has found most helpful is accepting that her eczema is with her for life and that she is not one of the lucky ones who will grow out of it.
'I no longer think about the life I can't have; I have learned to live with the condition and to manage it positively,' she says.
Living with eczema, as Diane does, is what this book is about. We shall be looking at healthy skin and its care, as well as investigating what leads so many people to have problem skin. We shall be finding out what those with eczema and their families and friends can do to make living with eczema less of a challenge, whether that means assessing the success of the latest treatments, looking at future research or recommending the lifestyle changes and helpful products which enable those with eczema to lead normal or near-normal lives.
About the author
Jill Eckersley is a freelance writer with many years' experience of writing on health topics. She is a regular contributor to women's and general-interest magazines, including Good Health, Bella, Women's Fitness, Slimming World and other titles. Coping with Snoring and Sleep Apnoea, Coping with Childhood Asthma, Coping with Dyspraxia, Coping with Childhood Allergies, Helping Children Cope with Anxiety and Every Woman's Guide to Heart Health, six books written by Jill for Sheldon Press, were all published in 2003-6. She lives beside the Regent's Canal in north London with two cats.
