Skin allergies occur when your body comes in contact with a foreign substance, and your body reacts with this foreign substance— such as pollen, bee venom, pet dander or certain chemicals. Various food items can also cause skin allergies. Your immune system produces responsory chemical proteins known as antibodies. When you get allergies, your immune system makes antibodies that identify a particular allergen as harmful, even though it is not always harmful. When you come in contact with this allergen, your immune system reacts by causing inflammation of your skin, sinuses, airways and digestive system.
The severity of allergies differs from person to person. It range from minor irritation to anaphylactic shock syndrome which is fatal to the patient. While most allergies cannot be cured, treatment with antihistamines can help relieve your allergic symptoms.
Let us look at a few common skin allergies and their treatment procedure.
Contact Dermatitis: This is a form of allergic reaction where the person if allergic to a certain chemical, comes in contact with the said substance ends up getting rashes, increased temperature at the point of contact and develops red scaly skin with boils. For Eg: Some people are allergic to some type of chemicals that are present in foundation creams and on the application of this foundation cream they encounter facial itching, increase in temperature, watering of eyes, boils and rashes. Immediate removal of the cream will result in decrease of the feeling of itching and rashes.
Treatment: Removal of the particular allergen substance. In order to ensure that the substance has been controlled in the body, antihistamines are given as a 3 day or a 5 day course.
Eczema: Intense itching coupled with rashes that appears to be red. Bumps of different sizes appear on the skin mimicking a patch. The rashes may eventually burn, ooze out serous or transparent fluid and may become scaly.
Treatment: Usually eczema is treated by prescription of corticosteroids to control inflammatory response and topical (skin level application) creams to aid in skin barriers. When the corticosteroids don’t work patients are prescribed with Calcineurin inhibitor pills.
Urticaria: It is a slow and prolonged allergic reaction to consumption of certain foods that cause allergic reactions in people. For Eg: consumption of red meat causes urticaria and rashes in some people. However, the exact aetiology is yet to be discovered.
Treatment: Ideally initial contact is treated with antihistamines and corticosteroids. It is followed up by cessation consumption of allergen substance. Urticaria does not occur only because of consumption of food it can also be caused due to certain medicines that the patient is allergic to.
Dandruff: It is the fungal infection of the scalp. It causes two kinds of allergy: the wet dandruff kind which causes oily scaly flakes that adhere to the scalp. It causes blockage of scalp pores making the hair more oily and a breeding ground for other bacterial infection. The other kind is the dry dandruff which causes dry scaly flakes which drop to the shoulder and face causing facial, chest and back acne.
Treatment: It is usually treated with antifungals like Ketaconazole.
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Ayusmart Team
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