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Asthma and eczema relationship


Eczema is a skin condition which results in the skin developing dry scaly patches which often become red and painful. The most common symptom of eczema is simply itching. Your skin reacts to the outside environment and interacts with certain stimuli, certain stimuli can cause irritation and lead to inflammation of the skin. This means that eczema is caused by allergens and so is an allergic reaction.

The National Institutes of health suggest that an overproduction of a certain protein changes the protective barriers in the skin.

If the protective barrier is broken then chemicals that can stimulate the immune system are able to penetrate the skin and so cause an inflammatory reaction which causes the skin cells to grow too quickly. An eczema sufferers skin is much more porous which allows more impurities to enter than normal, once chemicals enter this makes the pores open even more leading to what we know as eczema.

It is possible to create an artificial barrier to aid the skin in preventing foreign bodies entering the body, by doing this it should be possible to break the cycle. If it is possible to develop such a solution it would be wonderful for sufferers.

Eczema has been linked with many other allergic conditions including asthma and hay fever. Most families that have eczema also have hay fever and/or asthma somewhere in their families. This suggests that eczema is a deficiency in how the body views allergens, it overreacts to many of them.

So it can be seen that many people think eczema is the body overreacting to external stimuli. If a baby’s family suffers from hay fever or asthma then they are much more likely to devlop eczema at some time in their life.

Many people also suffer from one or more of the conditions, many people actually suffer from all three, hay fever, asthma, and eczema. It is very scary that asthma seems to be coming more of a problem, which suggests it could be something to do with the modern environment and pollution levels.

Doctors have found that sufferers of eczema have weakened immune systems and some suggest that this is why they may go forward to develop hay fever and asthma. However many people suffered from hay fever well before they developed eczema symptoms. Either way this suggests that the same thing is to blame for all three conditions.

Not everybody who suffers from eczema also suffers from asthma, it is only a possibility. Make sure you visit your doctor to get diagnosed properly as this is just a guide.



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