Home Remedies for Eczema on Face, Hands and Legs

Home Remedies for Eczema
Home Remedies for Eczema

Skin disorders like eczema can take a toll on your peace of mind, especially in severe states. It starts out as a dry, itchy state and then develops into to a damaged, raised red patched skin which causes discomfort and sometimes embarrassment. The use of home remedies for eczema help to reduce the severity and eventually get rid of symptoms of eczema. This improves the quality of life allowing you to focus on other important aspects of your life.

What Is Eczema?

Eczema is a common inflammatory skin condition that affects both adults and children. It’s a disorder where patches of skin become rough, inflamed, red, very itchy and cracked. It can appear on the face, feet, hands, legs, or inner creases of elbows as well as knees and thus it’s relatively easy to identify. While it can occur at any age, the most affected are children (10-20% children compared to 5-10% in adults) courtesy, NIH.

Common symptoms;

  • Almost always unbearable itching which brings about rashes if scratched
  • Discolored patches patched
  • Swollen sensitive skin and raw from scratching
  • Raised bumps that ooze fluids and develop crust
  • Cracked, dry, thickened or scarily skin
  • Stiff swollen joint

Even if this condition is manageable, its symptoms can be so uncomfortable affecting your everyday life. Home remedies not only help to heal affected skin, they also prevent flare-ups of symptoms.

Home Remedies for Eczema

While there are modern treatments and medications to help with symptoms of eczema, lots of people still prefer home treatment. Compared to prescribed drugs, natural remedies are simple to use and pose no risk of side effects. Home remedies for eczema provide added benefits for the skin as they also help to moisturize, kill bacteria and aid in the regeneration of new skin.

Virgin Coconut Oil

Virgin coconut oil has various benefits when it comes to eczema. It reduces the number of staph bacteria on the skin thus reducing chances of infection. It’s a valid moisturizer, has anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties.

  1. Just apply coconut oil to your skin after bathing by deep compressing gently
  2. You can also consume 3 tablespoons of the oil daily by putting it on your meal to avoid vomiting filling if taken directly

Aloe Vera for Eczema on Face

Acts as a wound healer and anti-inflammatory agent. It will help treat eczema rashes faster, prevent secondary bacterial infection, as well as help alleviate symptoms like skin dryness and scaling.

Aloe Vera for Eczema Scars
Aloe Vera for Eczema Scars

Making your own Aloe Vera cream is simple you just need;

  • One Aloe Vera leaf
  • Five drops of vitamin E oil

Procedure

  1. Wash the Aloe Vera leaf, cut in half then extract as much gel as you can
  2. Add the five drops of vitamin E oil to the gel extract and mix the two
  3. Then using a cotton bud, gently dab the mixture on the affected area
  4. Then wait for 20 – 30 minutes before rinsing off with warm water and patting dry with a clean towel

Do these twice daily for three weeks, and you will see excellent results. The itching will completely stop. For convenience, consider growing an Aloe Vera plant at home. You can easily get fresh Aloe gel from your backyard. Alternatively, you can buy already made gel from the internet, health food shops or drug stores.

Wet Wraps

Wet wraps might be the cheapest and most straightforward way of dealing with eczema. Wet wrapping therapy helps relieve itching, improve the buildup and repair of outermost skin layer (epidermal barrier) and help keep on applied moisturizer on better. All this gives your skin a significant boost when combating eczema and its symptoms.

How to do it

  1. First, soak yourself in lukewarm water for 15 to 20 minutes
  2. Pat your skin dry then apply moisturizer (the one you commonly use or natural eczema cream) to damp skin
  3. Use water to soak a towel, cloth, or damp gauze then cover the moisturizer with the wet cloth after that follow up with a dry cloth.
  4. You can leave the wrap overnight or for several hours (2-4 hours) a day.
  5. Remove the wrapped clothing then moisturize your skin again

Wet wrapping works very well, especially in toddlers. And don’t overuse damp wrapping it can cause skin breakdown or infection so fast discuss with a doctor before use.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar for Eczema
Apple Cider Vinegar for Eczema

Vinegar is rich in mineral, vitamins, and enzymes which makes it excellent for eczema. It helps flush out toxins, bacteria and other impurities of our skin. It also has anti-inflammatory properties as well as antiseptic and antimicrobial properties. Vinegar also acts as a natural remedy that helps to clear eczema scars.

What to do;

  1. Mix two cups of apple cider vinegar in a warm bath
  2. Soak in the bath for 25-35 minutes
  3. Pat yourself dry with a towel and then moisturize
  4. Repeat this 3-4 in a week
  5. If the bath is for a child, use four teaspoons of the apple cider vinegar for every three and a half liters of water.

Soak in a Dead Sea Salt

Soaking in a salt bath helps reduce the irritation of eczema and clear up eczema rashes. Dead Sea salt has various minerals which give you a boost in some fighting of toxins that cause eczema and also improve the health of your skin.

Sea Salt for Eczema
Sea Salt for Eczema

Using baths such as sea salt, magnesium and apple cider vinegar helps deal with symptoms of eczema that are spread over a larger surface area like the hands, fingers, legs and the torso.

Ingredients;

  • A half cup of Dead Sea salt
  • A quarter cup of baking soda
  • 10 drops of essential oil (lavender, Geranium, bergamot or chamomile)
  • 1/3 cup of cider vinegar

Procedure;

  1. Boil water and dissolve dead sea salt and baking soda
  2. Prepare a bath of lukewarm water
  3. Add the apple cider vinegar in the tub
  4. Pour the salt, and baking soda mixture in the tub then add essential oil and stir
  5. Then get in the bath and soak for 25 to 35 minutes
  6. After getting out, pat dry and apply moisturizer

You can do this once daily or four times a week.

Lavender essential oil

Lavender essential oil is an excellent eczema treatment that has proven to help reduce eczema symptoms like anxiety, frustration, poor sleep, and depression. What lavender essential oil does is help you relax plus making your skin less dry and sooth the itching.

The aroma will facilitate good sleep thus reduce the intensity of itching and scratching. This means that healing will be quicker, flare-ups will mitigate and prevent skin damage.

How to do it

Just add ten drops of Lavender essential oil to almond oil, mix the two when then gently apply on affected area.

Tea Tree Oil

Tea tree has various properties that give it a boost in dealing with eczema symptoms. It possesses antibacterial, antiseptic, and anti-inflammatory properties that help to soothe itchy skin. It reduces inflammation, fights off infection and prevents further contamination to the skin-surface thus promoting proper and faster healing of the skin.

What to do?

  1. Mix eighteen to twenty drops of Tea Tree Oil and half a cup of coconut oil together
  2. Rub gently on the affected area
  3. Do this twice daily

If eczema has affected various area of the body you can set up a tea tree oil bath

What to do?

Procedure;

  1. Add Tea Tree Oil (15 drops) and two tablespoons of virgin olive oil together
  2. Pour the mixture into a warm bath
  3. Get in the tub and soak for 20-30 minutes
  4. After getting out pat dry with a towel and moisturize

Diet Plan to Help You Deal With of Eczema Symptoms

Take Probiotics

Probiotics such as kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, raw cheese and miso work very well in reducing eczema symptoms.  Over the years research has shown that use of this probiotics by an expecting mother and breastfeeding mother helps reduce the risk of their children getting eczema by 40 % in families with a long history of the condition and a 31 percent average improvement in eczema scores in the probiotic group.

Probiotics introduce healthy bacteria to the digestive and prevent or reduce flare-ups and inflammation by creating a barrier.

Fish oil

Fish contains a fatty acid known as omega-3 which can be found in salmon, mackerel, and trout. You can also get the oil as liquid capsules or pill and shellfishes such as oysters, mussels, and crabs.  Studies have shown that fish oil supplements with omega – 3 help a lot in improvement in eczema symptoms.

Weekly supplements of at list 3 to 4 ounces of fish will give you a massive boost in the fight against eczema Aim for at least three 3 to 4-ounce servings of canned fatty fish per week

Eat Foods Known to Fight off Eczema

Ingredients and properties in certain foods have been known to fight off eczema, thus its common sense that if you or someone you know has the condition, you should include this in your diets on a regular basis. And especially food with omega- 3s fatty acids which research has shown has a significant impact on healing eczema and its symptoms.

They include:

  • Seeds and nuts contain high amounts of omega-3s.
  • Cold water fish, like tilapia, halibut, wild caught salmon, etc.
  • Onions, especially green onion include Vitamin K (improves skin health), histamine-lowering compound quercetin and has anti-inflammatory properties.
  • Zinc is a mineral known to fight eczema, and thus eggs and oatmeal both contain Zink
  • Banana is rich potassium as well as histamine-lowering magnesium and vitamin C

Important Tips

Prevention of flare-ups is very important in leading the least problematic eczema life. This may range from tweaking a few things in your lifestyle to making grand changes. The most important part is to learn about the patterns and find out what are your triggers. Once you have this info, it becomes easy to avoid them making possible to lead an eczema free life. Here are the most important tips;

  1. Moisturize, moisturize and moisturize. Apply moisturizer as soon as possible after baths to lock in moisture.
  2. Use a humidifier in cold and dry weather seasons
  3. Wear clothes made of cotton
  4. Go for clothes made of soft fabric- clothes with rough material that irritates skin
  5. Avoid tight clothing
  6. Avoid abrupt changes in temperature
  7. After baths, pat dry your skin rather than rubbing
  8. If you have allergies, avoid allergens or triggers such as pet dander and hay.
  9. Clip fingernails to avoid injuring your skin during those itching breakouts.

 

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