The term ‘Eczema’ is derived from a Greek word meaning ‘to boil’. It refers to an inflammation of the skin which results in the formation of vesicles or pustules. It is the most common and most troublesome of all skin diseases.
Eczema is essentially a constitutional disease, resulting from a toxic condition of the system. The disease covers a wide variety of forms, the majority of them, being of a chronic variety.
The skin is one of the excretory organs of the body through which large quantities of toxic matter are easily eliminated. Because of its large surface, it can effectively eliminate waste matter which other organs of elimination – namely the kidneys, intestines and lungs – do not have the capacity to handle.
Symptoms
Eczema, in its acute form, is indicated by redness and swelling of the skin, the formation of minute vesicles and severe heat. If the vesicles rupture, a raw, moist surface is formed. From this, a colourless discharge oozes, which forms skin crusts when it accumulates. The disease is usually worse at night when the heat of the body is retained by the bed-clothes.
The skin itches at all stages. In the wet stage, it may become infected with bacteria. Healing of the condition is affected by scratching in response to the irritation. Scratching not only spreads infection but also lengthens the stage of drying and scaling.
Causes
Allergies play an important part in causing eczema. Some women get eczema on their hands due to an allergy to soap or detergents used to wash clothes or dishes. Some persons develop it around the fingers when they wear rings because of allergy to metals.
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Centre at San Antonio, in a recent study of children with atropic eczema, found that 75 per cent were allergic to a number of foods. The most common triggers for sensitive persons are eggs, peanuts, chocolate, wheat, cow’s milk, chicken and potato.
The real cause of eczema is the failure of the human system to excrete the poisons from the various orifices of the body. Waste matter is excreted from the rectum through stools, from the bladder through urine, from the lungs through breath and from the pores of the skin through sweat.
Sometimes the pores of the skin are over- worked as waste matter is not properly eliminated from the other orifices. If the pores are not given the chance to perform their normal function, the sweat will be full of toxic matter and this will give rise to skin diseases like eczema, acne, boils and other eruptions.
Eczema can also be caused by stress. The skin is recognised as the release organ for built-up tension. Senior executives who have often to face labour problems or carry out time-bound assignments fall prey to the skin disorders known as tension or stress eczema. It manifests itself on hands and feet and behind the neck through circular oozing lesions.
The condition can also be brought about by a nagging spouse, jealousy, frustration and a host of other emotions. Other causes include faulty metabolism, constipation and nutritional deficiencies. Suppressive drug treatment of former diseases is also a most potent subsidiary causative factor in many cases.