Two immunosuppressives on the market now.

Tacrolimus (Protopic)

Pimecrolimus (Elidel)


Doesn't work as well as the steroids. Expensive.

Tacrolimus was originally developed to suppress organ transplant rejection.

Pimecrolimus is probably safer than tacrolimus.


For a start :

Take 6 500 mg evening primrose oil capsules a day. The cheapest is probably
the Naturalle brand by Upha.

Use a good moisturiser cream whenever you can. I use cocoa butter.
Cheapest is Fruit of the Earth.

Colloidal oatmeal bath lotions are supposed to be good, but expensive.
You can buy at pharmacies.

Otherwise, use any good mild soap or bath liquid like Cetaphil. Pine tar also
helps some people.

I use "Taharah" soap, made from mud at hot springs, which you can buy at some
of these Malay stalls in shopping complexes. $ 5 each.

Sometimes I also use "Najwa" black seed soaps, which you can buy at some
department stores.

Doctors usually give Oilatum or Eubos soaps, but expensive.

For eczema on your feet and lower legs, soak in Cosway's Zara sea salts, or any
good Dead Sea salts you can buy. The Himalaya rock salts are also supposed to help.

Lactacyd bath lotions are also alright.

At one time I ordered quite a lot of Emu oils from the States, but haven't in some
time. A bit expensive. Use it as a moisturizer.

For steroid creams, use the following which are safer :

Mometasone (Elomet)
Fluticasone
Clobetasone (Eumovate, U-Closone)

Mometasone is expensive, but some generics around. Use around
your face and groin.

No generics for fluticasone on the market here yet.

Clobetasone is a old steroid, low-medium potency (in between hydrocortisone
and betamethasone valerate), but it has a lower systemic absorption.
Eumovate by Glaxo is expensive, so get U-Closone.

For places around your groin or face, you can also use Efficort (hydrocortisone
aceponate), which is in a colloidal form.

No, I am not a doctor, but another eczema sufferer.

Common sense would tell you that no one can tell if the supplement or treatment
will work for you - only you can find out.

Everyone is an individual, and every eczema sufferer is too. No treatment works
the same for two different eczema people.

If you have not seen a doctor, how do you know it is eczema ? See one first to
confirm - it may be another skin condtion like psoriasis.

Eczema usually doesn't go away, especially in adults, but typically would be there
with your life. It is a lifelong autoimmune disease, meaning that your immune system
is a bit abnormal and reacts against your skin. It tends to get better or almost disappear
at some parts of your life, only to recur and get worse at other times.

About two out of three children tend to "grow" out of their eczema by their teens,
just like in asthma.

http://www.nationaleczema.org/

http://www.eczema.org.au/info/facts.html

http://www.drhilaryjones.com/your-health/o...-childs-eczema/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/...90320112110.htm




Fish oil, or cod liver oil, may also help eczema in some cases. Eczema is basically
an inflammatory skin condition, and fish oil has antiinflammatory properties.


This probiotic, Lactobacillus Salivarius LS01, developed in Italy, seems to help too.
Looks very expensive. I don't think you can find it here. Otherwise, taking any
probiotic brand which contains the normal L. salivarius may help.

http://www.pizetapharma.com/en/content/floratopic

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22230409

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22955359


Probiotic therapy as a novel approach for allergic disease.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3448073/

http://www.frontiersin.org/Respiratory_Pha...2012.00171/full




This post has been edited by Tham: Apr 12 2013, 06:37 AM

Yes, steroid creams can lead to thinning of the skin, but if you use a milder
form, don't use it too often and only for short periods at at time, it should be alright.

You could try on alternate days, just a thin layer, and for up to two weeks, then
stop for a week, and cycle again.

The milder ones are the low to low-mid potency creams :

Hydrocortisone acetate, the mildest
Hyfrocortisone aceponate (Efficort)
Clobetasone butyrate (Eumovate)
Mometasone (Elomet)
Fluticasone (Cutivate)


A little skin thinning is nothing to be alarmed about really. The main risk is systemic
absorption, when too much of the steroid is absorbed into your blood stream. The
second generation steroids - mometasone and fluticasone, as well as the older one,
clobestasone - minimize this risk.



At one time, I had to have steroid injections - Kenacort (triamcinolone 40 mg/ml)
every few months, given by Dr Ting of Jalan Imbi or my company GP. This is a depot
form injection - meaning the steroid is released slowly over a week, and stays in your
body for up to a month. Many times more powerful than any potent steroid cream.

Too many injections too often, and you will get muscle wasting, osteoporosis, diabetes,
cataracts, glaucoma, high blood pressure, gastric ulcers, liver and kidney problems, etc.




A study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of hydrocortisone aceponate 0.127% lipophilic
cream in steroid responsive dermatoses in Indian patients.

http://www.ijdvl.com/article.asp?issn=0378...st=Mukhopadhyay


Eumovate (clobetasone butyrate 0.05%) cream: a review of clinical efficacy and safety.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12775314



You could try adopting a vegetarian diet like the above poster successfully did.



This is an interesting product. Their creams are made from calendula, gotu kola,
propolis. The kids' cream is colloidal oatmeal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-m4E6GjQnQ&NR


You could try asking the above product owner to send you some samples.

http://www.itchy.net.au/webcontent21.htm




This post has been edited by Tham: Apr 13 2013, 12:06 AM

I've already explained that steroid creams are quite safe, but you
still can't understand. Don't listen to everyone who tells you that steroids
are going to kill you.

If you feel you can get by without the creams, then good for you.

The creams I told you are nothing - even babies can use mometasone.

Even if you go for Kenacort jabs, say once every half year, it won't really mess
up your system.


It's only when you go for too frequent Kenacort jabs, then the risk of
those systemic diseases start coming in. And that is only if the doctor gives
you 40 mg/ml triamcinolone acetonide. The lower strength vial, 10 mg/ml, is
too weak to do anything for your eczema for a prolonged period.


My eczema at certain periods many years ago was quite bad, with lesions all
over my hand and legs, uncontrolled by the creams.

They included times when I was hospitalized for other reasons, and the eczema
flared up due to the stress, particularly after surgery.


An alternative to the jabs, typically favored by skin specialists such as Dr Chang
in PJ, and also given by GPs, is oral prednisolone, 40 mg daily and tapered off over
a week. He will ask you first if you have gastrititis or gastric ulcer.






This post has been edited by Tham: Apr 14 2013, 04:14 PM

How much do you expect from conventional allopathic medicine
in the treatment of a complex disease which they don't understand
properly to this day, and of which an immune suppressive drug - steroids -
remain the mainstay of treatment ?

Cure ? Common sense would tell you otherwise.

The word "cure" should not be in the vocabularly of educated individuals
like you and me - it was popularly used only during our primary school days.


Go the the National Library - that is where I taught myself what I know about
drugs and diseases.

Pick up any mainstrem medical textbook. Flip to those pages relating to chronic,
autoimmune, little understood diseases such as multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus
erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, as well as the degenerative diseases of aging,
such as heart failure, osteopororis/osteoarthritis and diabetes.

Page after page, disease after disease, they talk about the MANAGEMENT of the
disease. In other words, they are talking only about controlling the SYMPTOMS of
the disease. Apart from that, they have little idea about what else to do.

The only diseases where they can achieve a "cure" are infections, curable by
antibiotics, and physical or pathological conditions correctable by surgery.

That is the limitation of mainstream medicine.

In eczema, which is thought to be the cellular immune system gone haywire
(T-cell migration to the epidermis secreting chemicals causing inflammation),
and using steroids to suppress these cells' overreaction - what do you
really expect ? A "cure" ?

Common sense would tell you that once the steroids are withdrawn, the
T-cells would start causing trouble again.

A cure would lie in an alternative medicine system - homeopathy, naturopathy
or holistic medicine, TCM, Ayurvedic medicine. Not mainstream medicine.

If you wish to try homeopathy, there are at least a couple of good homeopathic
doctors I could point you to.











This post has been edited by Tham: Apr 15 2013, 01:01 AM

This is why I recommended clobetasone. It was ahead of its time
when first introduced by Glaxo in the mid-70s.


The effect of clobetasone butyrate and other topical steroids
on skin thickness of the domestic pig.

" ..... good topical anti-inflammatory activity and a minimal effect on
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function. Among a group of topically
active corticosteroids, compared in a controlled study in the domestic
pig, clobetasone butyrate is shown to cause less epidermal thinning
than any of the others except only 1% hydrocortisone. "

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1268065



A separation of clinical from epidermal thinning effect in the
topical glucocorticoid clobetasone butyrate.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/320995



Clobetasone butyrate, a new topical corticosteroid: clinical activity and
effects on pituitary-adrenal axis function and model of epidermal atrophy.

" Clobetasone butyrate 0.05% ointment and cream gave every indication of offering
clinically effective topical anti-inflammatory activity with a wide margin of safety. "

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1164639




Clinical evaluation of clobetasone butyrate in the treatment of children
with atopic eczema, and its effect on plasma corticosteroid levels.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/949903



Adrenocortical function during prolonged treatment with clobetasone butyrate
in children with chronic atopic dermatitis and elevated IgE levels.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4018942



Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function in children with atopic dermatitis
treated with clobetasone butyrate and its clinical evaluation.

" This steroid offers clinically effective topical antiinflammatory activity
with a wide margin of safety. "

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2985514



Halogenation and topical corticosteroids: a comparison between the
17-butyrate esters of hydrocortisone and clobetasone in ointment bases.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7011356



Alclometasone dipropionate cream 0.05% versus clobetasone butyrate cream 0.05%.
A controlled clinical comparison in the treatment of atopic dermatitis in children.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6389385