Do you know of any alternative treatments for eczema?

My sister(23) has had eczema all her life. It completely covers her legs. She used to get regular cortizone shots, but there not good for your body after years of treatments. Oatmeal doesn't work anymore. Most creams/lotions just help with the dryness but not the itching. Anyone know of natural treatments that might help?Do you know of any alternative treatments for eczema?
The following treatment should work fine:-


Ask her to wash her legs everyday morning and evening in luke warm water and apply olive oil. After one week or so when the skin has become soft, start applying Aloe Vera, a certain cactus plant which has a sticky fluid coming out of the leaves. If you practice this religiously, she should be free of eczema for the rest of her life and her legs will start glowing. Send me a photograph of her legs after curing.Do you know of any alternative treatments for eczema?
Has she tried tanning? Fake and bake or natural sun light should help.
believe it or not, there is a cream lotion you can buy at walmart. its their generic brand and its simply called ';eczema';. it WORKS LIKE A CHARM EVERYTIME for me! stops the itching right away, and i must say, i enjoy the scent too! another good way to stop the itching, is to take a hot bath with moisturizing body wash or bubble bath.
There is a company called DermaTechRx who has wonderful safe products for eczema. They even offer samples so you can try before you buy. I highly recommend this company and their products.





They also have an exceptional Customer Service Staff that know a lot about eczema and their ProEcza is even safe for babies. My Dermatologist gave me a sample for my son and that is how I found the site. They have moisturizers, special soap, and creams.





www.dermatechrx.com/eczema 1-866-314-8917
If you can reach a Korean traditional medical treatment clinic, I would recommend you take her it and check the type of her body. It is similar to Chinese traditional treatment. However the grouping people( through their know-hows) and thereby, giving them treatment is distinctive.





Depending on the body system of an individual, he/she is given a different regimen whereby they are forbidden to eat meat, egg, or bean ; reversely recommended to eat bug whit, rice, seafood, etc.





The treatment works like this. If you easily get hot and sweat despite short-time and mild exercise by nature. You should stop eating food which makes you hot and gives extra energy so that you can keep cool your body down.





I know this may sound unfamiliar to you and your sister. I am also with people who suffering eczema. It is not easy to follow the regimen but it will worth her awhile to try it.





I hope your sister will get better in no time.
i had a mild case of eczema, and my doctor prescribed a steroid creme. it helped instantly, but mine was really mild. also, lotions aren't good, because they don't actually really return moisture to the skin, they just temporarily adds moisture to the skin. for long-term moisture to relieve dryness and itchiness try an ointment designed for extremely dry skin. my doctor recommended aquaphor. it's helped a lot.
Oatmeal in a Muslim bag in the bath tub. It great for eczema. Oatmeal is full vitamin e. Make sure there nothing else in the bathtub. Another thing is 8 oz of apple juice quarter tea spoon of Epsom salt it clean the liver. If the liver is cleaned out it helps eczema.
try the water only with out using any kind of soap or body shampoo avoid totally any chemicals from any sort use wet towels and try towels every hour easy do not irritate and ask your doctor for tablets to reduce the irritation,do not fore get to replace clean towels at list after being used twice
Soothe your eczema irritation. This common skin condition is characterized by dry, itchy skin. According to research or other evidence, the following self-care steps may be helpful:


Avoid allergens and irritants


Work with a qualified professional to identify airborne allergens, chemicals, foods, and irritants that make your condition worse


Take fatty acids


Supply anti-inflammatory fatty acids missing in many people with eczema by taking 500 to 1,000 mg a day of GLA (gamma-linolenic acid) from evening primrose oil or borage oil, or 1,800 mg a day of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) from fish oils; children should take amounts proportionately less according to body weight


Help children avoid allergies with beneficial bacteria


Pregnant women and newborns should get probiotic supplements that contain 10 billion colony-forming units a day of lactobacillus-type bacteria to reduce risk of eczema in early life Dietary changes that may be helpful


Eczema can be triggered by allergies.1 2 Most children with eczema have food allergies, according to data from double-blind research.3 A doctor should be consulted to determine whether allergies are a factor. Once the trigger for the allergy has been identified, avoidance of the allergen can lead to significant improvement.4 However, “classical” food allergens (e.g., cows’ milk, egg, wheat, soy, and nuts) are often not the cause of eczema in adults. A variety of substances have been shown, in a controlled trial, to trigger eczema reactions in susceptible individuals; avoidance of these substances has similarly been shown to improve the eczema. Triggers included food additives, histamine, salicylates, benzoates, and other compounds (such as aromatic compounds) found in fruits, vegetables, and spices.5 These reactions do not represent true food allergies but are instead a type of food sensitivity reaction. The authors of this study did not identify which substances are the most common triggers.





It has been reported that when heavy coffee drinkers with eczema avoided coffee, eczema symptoms improved.6 In this study, the reaction was to coffee, not caffeine, indicating that some people with eczema may be allergic to coffee. People with eczema who are using a hypoallergenic diet to investigate food allergies should avoid coffee as part of this trial.





Vitamins that may be helpful


Researchers have reported that people with eczema do not have the normal ability to process fatty acids, which can result in a deficiency of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA).7 GLA is found in evening primrose oil (EPO), borage oil, and black currant seed oil. Some,8 9 10 but not all,11 12 13 14 double-blind trials have shown that EPO is useful in the treatment of eczema. An analysis of nine trials reported that the effects for reduced itching were most striking.15 Much of the research uses 12 pills per day; each pill contains 500 mg of EPO, of which 45 mg is GLA. Smaller amounts have been shown to lack efficacy.16





Supplementation with borage oil, another source of GLA, has led to reductions in skin inflammation, dryness, scaliness, and itch in eczema patients in some,17 but not all, preliminary18 or double-blind trials.19





Many years ago, use of large amounts of vegetable oil (containing precursors to GLA) was reported to help treat people with eczema,20 21 but these studies were not controlled and do not meet modern standards of research.





Ten grams of fish oil providing 1.8 grams of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) per day were given to a group of eczema sufferers in a double-blind trial. After 12 weeks, those using the fish oil experienced significant improvement.22 23 According to the researchers, fish oil may be effective because it reduces levels of leukotriene B4, a substance that has been linked to eczema.24 The eczema-relieving effects of fish oil may require taking ten pills per day for at least 12 weeks. Smaller amounts of fish oil have been shown to lack efficacy.25





One trial using vegetable oil as the placebo reported that fish oil was barely more effective than the placebo (30% vs. 24% improvement).26 As vegetable oil had previously been reported to have potential therapeutic activity, the apparent negative outcome of this trial should not dissuade people with eczema from considering fish oil.





Although supplementation with 400 IU of vitamin E per day has been reported in anecdotal accounts to alleviate eczema,27 research has not supported this effect.28 Moreover, rare cases of topical vitamin E potentially causing eczema have appeared.29 People with eczema should not expect vitamin E to be helpful with their condition.





A double-blind trial reported that use of a hypoallergenic infant formula plus probiotics (500 million organisms of Lactobacillus GG bacteria per gram of formula, taken for one month) initially led to improvement in eczema symptoms in infants with suspected allergy to cow's milk.30 However, by the end of two months, both the group receiving Lactobacillus GG and the placebo group had improved approximately the same amount. In the same report, a preliminary trial giving 20 billion lactobacilli twice per day to breast-feeding mothers led to significant improvement of their allergic infants’ eczema after one month. In another double-blind trial, a different probiotic preparation (1 billion organisms of Lactobacillus fermentum VRI-033 PCC taken twice a day) reduced the severity of eczema in a group of young children with moderate or severe eczema.31 Probiotics may reduce allergic reactions by improving digestion, by helping the intestinal tract control the absorption of food allergens, and/or by changing immune system responses.





In 1989, Medical World News reported that researchers from the University of Texas found that vitamin C, at 50–75 mg per 2.2 pounds of body weight, reduced symptoms of eczema in a double-blind trial.32 In theory, vitamin C might be beneficial in treating eczema by affecting the immune system, but further research has yet to investigate any role for this vitamin in people with eczema.Herbs that may be helpful


The table below summarizes the three categories of herbs used for people with eczema: anti-inflammatories and herbs that affect the immune system (immunomodulators), astringents (herbs that bind fluids and exudates), and herbs that affect the liver (also called alteratives). Alterative herbs are poorly researched. Astringents are only helpful if applied topically when weeping eczema is present; they will not help people with dry eczema.





Mechanism of Action Examples


Anti-inflammatory and/or immunomodulator Allium cepa, Calendula, chamomile, chickweed, licorice, onion, Zemaphyte® Chinese herbal formula


Astringent (helps dry up weeping lesions) Oak, witch hazel (also anti-inflammatory)


Alterative (liver-supportive) Burdock, red clover, sarsaparilla, wild oats





Zemaphyte®, a traditional Chinese herbal preparation that includes licorice as well as nine other herbs, has been successful in treating childhood and adult eczema in double-blind trials.33 34 35 One or two packets of the combination is mixed in hot water and taken once per day. Because one study included the same amount of licorice in both the placebo and the active medicine, it is unlikely that licorice is the main active component of Zemaphyte®.36





Several Chinese herbal creams for eczema have been found to be adulterated with steroids. The authors of one study found that 8 of 11 Chinese herbal creams purchased without prescription in England contained a powerful steroid drug used to treat inflammatory skin conditions.37





A cream prepared with witch hazel and phosphatidylcholine has been reported to be as effective as 1% hydrocortisone in the topical management of eczema, according to one double-blind trial.38





Topical applications of chamomile have been shown to be moderately effective in the treatment of eczema.39 40 One trial found it to be about 60% as effective as 0.25% hydrocortisone cream.41





In a double-blind trial, people with eczema applied a cream containing an extract of St. John’s wort to the affected areas on one side of the body, and a placebo (the same cream without the St. John’s wort) to the other side. The treatment was administered twice a day for four weeks. The severity of the eczema improved to a significantly greater extent on the side treated with St. John’s wort than on the side treated with placebo.42 Although the mechanism by which St. John’s wort relieves eczema is not known, it might be due to the anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects of hyperforin, one of its constituents. The cream used in this study contained 5% of an extract of St. John’s wort (standardized to 1.5% hyperforin). As topical application of St. John’s wort can cause sensitivity to the sun, care should be taken to avoid excessive sun exposure when using this treatment.





Onion injections into the skin and topical onion applications have been shown to inhibit skin inflammation in people with eczema, according to one double-blind trial.43 The quantity or form of onion that might be most effective is unknown.





A Japanese topical ointment called Shiunko has been reported to help improve symptoms of eczema, according to preliminary research.44 The ointment contains sesame oil and four herbs (Lithospermum radix, Angelica radix, Cera alba and Adeps suillus) and was applied twice daily along with petrolatum and 3.5% salt water for three weeks. Clinical improvement was seen in four of the seven people using Shiunko.





Topical preparations containing calendula, chickweed, or oak bark45 have been used traditionally to treat people with eczema but none of these has been studied in scientific research focusing on people with eczema.





Radiation therapy for breast cancer frequently causes painful dermatitis at the radiation site. In a study of women undergoing radiation therapy for breast cancer, those who topically applied Calendula officinalis had significantly fewer cases of severe dermatitis, compared with those who used a standard medication.46 Calendula treatment was begun after the first radiation session and was applied twice a day or more, depending on whether dermatitis or pain occurred.





Burdock, sarsaparilla, red clover, and wild oats have been used historically to treat people with eczema, but without scientific investigation.





Though it has not been studied, theoretically shelled hemp seed or its oil may be useful for people with eczema due to its content of essential fatty acids.47





Are there any side effects or interactions?


Refer to the individual herb for information about any side effects or interactions.





Holistic approaches that may be helpful


Numerous trials have reported that hypnosis improves eczema in children and adults.48 A preliminary trial emphasizing relaxation, stress management, and direct suggestion in hypnosis showed reduced itching, scratching, and sleep disturbance, as well as reduced requirements for topical corticosteroids. All of the patients studied had been resistant to conventional treatment.49
Have you tried Melaleuca products? I know a couple of people with eczema and by using melaleuca's products they have actually gotton their eczema under control to the point that they have no outbreaks at all. The one main product that helps is Melaleuca's Renew Lotion. I have samples of it, I could send you one to try and see if it works for your sister. A woman I just sent it to called me a couple of days later and said she couldn't believe how much it calmed down the itching so quickly. It actually helps the skin to heal itself. Here is some information on a Study of Renew Lotion on eczema... http://melaleuca.com/ps/pdf_us/US_RenewP…


All I can say is give it a try and see for yourself. You are welcomed to email me and I can mail it out to you.
Please also consider treating the eczema from within. The typical American diet is deficient in Omega 3 fatty acids. The single best source is all natural flax seed. Take a tablespoon a day with cereal or milk.