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Eczema can be an unrelenting source of frustration, affecting your appearance and producing enough pain and discomfort to make everyday tasks far more difficult. It’s also an enduring problem. Many people who suffer from eczema see it flare up intermittently, often at particularly inconvenient times.
While it isn’t possible to outright cure eczema, meaning there’s no silver bullet that will prevent it from ever returning, our guide does offer steps on how to get rid of eczema to help make it less likely that it will bother you again in the near future.
Before you start looking at our eczema treatment options, here’s our general guide of how to clear up your skin and stay eczema-free for as long as you can:
There are still many things about eczema that aren’t fully understood, but we do know that the following things tend to exacerbate it:
To give yourself the best chance of preventing eczema in the first place, so you don’t need to treat it when it’s serious, you should avoid these things:
Moisturising on a regular basis is hugely important for protecting your skin from harm, particularly during the colder months or in areas with low humidity. There’s a lot written about proper moisturising, but it doesn’t need to be very complicated — it’s just a matter of habit.
Particularly if you’re using a simple moisturiser, it can be very useful to carry some around with you so you can apply more if the need arises. If you suffer with eczema of the scalp, take a look at our guide on how to moisturise your scalp.
While you can try to keep the fabric of your clothing away from your patches of eczema, it isn’t very practical to walk around intermittently adjusting your sleeves. It’s far better to wear items of clothing that won’t irritate or damage your skin.
Stay away from synthetic fabrics such as nylon or polyester. Wool is another fabric to avoid: it can lead to the skin overheating, but the main problem is how much the fibres irritate the skin. In general, you should stick to fabrics that are light, cool, and won’t wick away moisture.
Among common fabrics, there are two strong choices: cotton, and silk. Cotton is light, smooth, and reasonably cheap (the only drawbacks are that it’s absorbent and textured). Silk might be comparatively expensive, but it’s as good as you’ll get without investing in specialist micro-fibre clothing — it’s smooth, cool, and doesn’t dry the skin.
Whether you’re trying to protect eczema-affected skin or stop it from developing, there are certain things that you should make a point of avoiding. Here are some recommendations:
If your eczema is too severe to be addressed with the recommendations we’ve looked at so far, you may benefit from using topical steroids such as Betnovate Cream or Betnovate Scalp (depending on the location of the eczema).
Keep in mind that they’re not available over the counter, though — if you want to use a topical steroid cream containing betamethasone, you’ll need to get a prescription. Topical steroids use anti-inflammatory and/or antibacterial active ingredients to treat the causes of eczema much more potently than other treatment options, but they’re dangerous if used incorrectly. Fucibet cream is an example of a topical steroid that also contains an antibacterial agent.
If you’ve exhausted other options, and you truly feel that topical steroids are justified in your case, be sure to get an expert opinion before making any decisions.
To wrap up, let’s recap everything we’ve looked at so far:
You might be able to make some real progress with your eczema using the advice on this page, but it’s possible that you’ll try our suggestions and still have a big problem. If that happens, get in touch for a free consultation — we’ll help you find the right treatment for you.
We stock over 1079 treatments for 90 conditions