Why does eczema occur and how to treat it?

It is the season of transition from spring to winter. Especially when the weather is particularly dry, some people will have dandruff and cracking on their bodies. If left untreated, it may further cause itching and redness, and once you start scratching, the result is a rash. I guess many people have encountered this situation. In fact, this is what is medically called eczema.

However, eczema is more like a phenomenon. Clinically, eczema is often associated with dermatitis and is further divided into atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis and other dermatitis types.

In fact, eczema troubles many people, and a considerable proportion of people suffer from eczema for a long time. For example, about 10% of adults have atopic dermatitis alone, and for babies, the proportion of eczema is even higher.

The presence of eczema not only affects health, but also affects life. Physical discomfort is not only an internal feeling, but often also has certain obvious manifestations in appearance, especially when it appears in obvious exposed parts, which makes many people distressed and even has psychological effects. Eczema itself is a skin disease that is difficult to cure, and there is no specific medicine, so many people are troubled.

So why does eczema occur and how to deal with it? Today I will talk to you about it.

01. Why does eczema occur?

When facing eczema, I think we should first understand why eczema occurs, and then we can deal with it in a targeted manner.

In fact, eczema is a symptom description, which mainly refers to a skin inflammatory reaction with severe itching caused by a variety of internal and external factors. In other words, no matter whether it is internal or external factors, as long as the skin inflammatory reaction is triggered, symptoms of eczema may appear. However, for most eczema patients, eczema is mainly caused by external factors.

Such external factors include microorganisms, allergic substances and many other situations, among which microorganisms are the most common factors.

As the outermost layer of our body, the skin itself is home to a large number of microorganisms. Studies have found that there are millions of bacteria, fungi and viruses on the skin. [1]

These microorganisms start to come to the surface of the skin after birth and live with the human body for a long time. They use the oil and sweat secreted by the human body as the basic nutrition source. After a long period of adaptation, they form a stable skin microecology. Studies have found that the human skin microecology may be fully established and begin to exist stably after the age of 3. This stable skin microecology itself has a certain balance ability, so our daily cleaning will not cause damage to it. Even if there is a short-term change, it will recover quickly. Their existence also forms the outermost protective layer of the human body, which is of great significance to our health.

However, if this balance is disrupted, it will be troublesome. There are many reasons for the imbalance of skin microecology, such as excessive cleaning, which leads to the inability of skin microecology to recover in time, and even some people use strong cleaning agents, which often cause serious damage to the skin microecology.

The skin itself is also a barrier, which includes both the oily substances secreted by the skin itself and the active structures composed of skin cells. These structures are stable in metabolism. If they are damaged due to diseases or physiological metabolism, the skin of an individual will be damaged. In this case, the balance of the skin microecology will be destroyed, and some harmful bacteria will begin to breed.

For example, the typical one is Staphylococcus aureus, which is a spherical microorganism that is often golden in color and tends to gather together like grapes. Under normal circumstances, human skin will have other microorganisms to inhibit the birth of Staphylococcus aureus. As shown in the figure below, it is a schematic diagram of the role of Staphylococcus aureus and other microorganisms on the skin. For example, Staphylococcus lugdunensis will secrete antibiotics to inhibit the colonization of Staphylococcus aureus, and Staphylococcus epidermidis can also inhibit the formation of Staphylococcus aureus biofilm by producing serine protease glutamyl endopeptidase.

Therefore, healthy skin can resist the invasion of Staphylococcus aureus.

However, once the skin barrier is damaged, these beneficial microorganisms cannot exist well. Next, Staphylococcus aureus begins to colonize the skin in large numbers and then invades the inside of the skin, triggering an inflammatory response in the body. At this time, eczema appears.

It can be said that this is one of the main factors that cause many eczematous dermatitis. Of course, in addition to this, allergies can also cause corresponding symptoms. This situation is also closely related to the destruction of the skin barrier. After all, once the skin barrier is destroyed, the permeability will increase, and the probability of foreign substances invading will increase significantly.

02. How to deal with eczema?

Because of this, the most important strategy for dealing with eczema is to restore the skin barrier and rebalance the skin ecology. This balance can be divided into several levels:

First is the balance of skin microecology

As we mentioned above, if the skin microecology is damaged by strong external factors or metabolic disorders in the body, it will lead to an imbalance in the skin microecology and weaken the inhibition of foreign harmful bacteria, thus leading to the invasion of foreign harmful bacteria and harmful substances, thus affecting health.

Therefore, it is crucial to restore the balance of the skin microecology. Therefore, it is very important to promote the colonization of beneficial microorganisms on the skin while inhibiting harmful bacteria on the skin.

The second is to restore the skin cell barrier.

On the one hand, it is necessary to replenish skin oil in time, as this layer of sebum itself is also an important protective layer of the skin. On the other hand, it is necessary to further promote the recovery of the skin cell barrier and restore the healthy metabolism of skin cells, so that the skin barrier can be more stable.

However, these are not quick results, because the skin barrier and microecological balance are not destroyed in a short period of time, but rather takes years to recover, and it takes time. This is why many people have stubborn eczema, because people are too anxious and always want quick results, which is difficult to achieve.

The correct approach is to slowly recover over time and gradually restore the skin barrier to a balance. For example, using a skin cream that has a barrier-restoring effect is one way.

In fact, eczema, as a difficult and complicated disease, is characterized by slow recovery and lack of specific medicine. Therefore, when facing eczema, we must maintain a good attitude and don't be anxious. Eczema is generally related to damaged skin barrier, and this damage is caused over the years. It is impossible to recover in the short term. We must also respond slowly, gradually improve the skin ecology, reduce harmful microorganisms, promote beneficial microorganisms, and further promote the balance of skin cells. If we persist in this way for a long time, after the skin barrier is restored, the skin condition will get better and better.

1. Byrd, Allyson L., Yasmine Belkaid, and Julia A. Segre. "The human skin microbiome." Nature Reviews Microbiology 16.3 (2018): 143-155.

2. Maiese, Kenneth, et al. "The vitamin nicotinamide: translating nutrition into clinical care." Molecules 14.9 (2009): 3446-3485.