I'm a twenty three year old female and have had dyshidrotic eczema for nine years. Mine began as a result of obsessive hand washing, which started while I was suffering from undiagnosed Hashimoto's hypothyroidism at the age of fourteen.

My derm prescribed Clobetasol .05% ointment during flare ups, and Protopic Ointment in between flare-ups. He recommended Cetaphil brand hand moisturizers, which did help a bit. He also cautioned that over usage of the Clobetasol would result in minimized results over time, as your skin's tolerance for the steroid ointment would increase and become used to it.

My flare ups are frequent, but certainly not as bad as other cases posted here. Mine is limited to a few fingers and small patches on the back of my hands. Nothing on my feet (yet, and hopefully never!)

My flare ups result directly from any water, citrus, cleaning chemicals, sweat, heat, perfumes, etc. It's so inconvenient! I haven't found good gloves, so I've resolved to throw away plastic wear instead of doing dishes, and order food instead of making my own because I'd need to do dishes.

I've been on different types of birth control (Seasonique, Loestrin 24Fe, Orthi-TriCyclen) for the past four of the nine years with this condition. Although I have noticed slight spreading of this eczema over my fingers, I have noticed no correlation between my menstrual cycles, birth controls, and eczema flare ups.

I think what is best for mild cases such as myself is to find a good balance between lifestyles, products, and medications. What I mean is... change your lifestyle to avoid known triggers, change your toiletry products to something non-irritating, find a great lotion, and get protective gloves. All of this will help prevent flare-ups. And visit your local derm to determine which prescription medication is best suited for you to shorten the length and severity during the times you do get flare-ups. Being both preventative and proactive is best.

I've found that the Clobetasol ointment worked WONDERS for me. As the doc mentioned, I used it sparingly, and nine years later, it's still effective and my eczema remains under control mostly. However, I found the ointment to be super greasy, and I could only use it in socks or gloves while I was asleep. Also, it totally bleaches your skin just ever so slightly. This usually isn't a problem until you fall asleep and wake up with a bleached hand print on your face because the glove fell off (true story). So, instead of the ointment, I opted to use the Clobetasol lotion instead. In reality, the ointment is actually just a bit more effective than the lotion. However, because the lotion wasn't greasy, I was able to use it during the day as well as the night without gloves, which meant it was more convenient for me to use, and therefore more effective for me specially.

A word of caution on the ProTopic however. It was fine the first two years I used it, but I didn't really notice it actually doing anything, so I went for an entire year without it. When I finally did refill it, I quickly found out I had developed a severe allergy to it. My hands swelled up and got beet red. They felt like 3rd degree burns. Ice packs were my only relief, and I felt like a fool going to school with my hands all wrapped up. It cleared up within a day and a half of stopping ProTopic. I'm still not entirely sure why this reaction happened, but my doctor thought it was because the pharmacy substituted a different generic then the time before. Perhaps I was allergic to a non-active ingredient?

Anyways, in addition to sharing my own experience, I also had a question.

As I mentioned, I believe finding good gloves is important to battling this condition and resuming daily life. I've read that cotton-lined vinyl gloves are non-allergenic and perhaps the best type of glove to get. I've called my local pharmacy and visit grocery stores. Where do I find them? It was recently suggested to me to try a medical supply shop. Has anyone had any help? Can anyone help me with this?

wow, starting tomorrow - hope this is my answer.

HI. I came across your post. If you could answer that would be great. So you take two products? What brands did you purchase and what about milligrams ect, other info like how many time s a day you take it ect. Thank you so much for posting that. I have a little hope now.

Sorry, I also meant to ask is the glut in powder form because you mentioned mixing it with apple juice. Just trying to get specifics so I can follow your regimen and try and get some relief. This condition has changed my life and not for the better. I am just looking for hope like the rest of us here. I am so sorry that any of us have to deal with this.

Hello. I suffer as well and have been taking vitamin A for several years. Be very careful. It will almost clear it up, but prolonged use in higher doses can cause liver damage as I am now finding out. Taking 24,000 IUs daily eliminated this from my life, but now I have to quit. I will try adding your suggestion.

I have been dealing with this for 18 years and I have found out what causes my flareups. It is washing my hands or body with any kind of ANTIBACTERIAL SOAP. Try using a soap like dove or old spice that does not contain any antibacterial ingredients. It will take a couple weeks to see a difference. I've also noticed that if I use any antibacterial products of any kind I will have a full relapse filled with lots of itching, blisters, and cracking. I know your pain, I've been there. Hope this helps.

I had pompholyx for almost 10 years. I used corticosteroids, creams, soaks, etc. Nothing worked. It turned out that I had Candida overgrowth and when I treated it, then the eczema went away completely. I would also warn others about the candida die off symptoms. They are extreme and horrible. I recommend following the candida diet plan. I wish I knew about it before I eliminated Sugar from my diet and took antifungals.

I have never done any allergy shots, and I am not planning to. I believe that I need to cleanse my body in a natural way to be more resistant to allergic substances.

This may be irrelevant but I responded very badly to flu shots whenever I got them. When I get a flu shot during the fall one year, I would get flu for almost all fall, winter and spring. I was even diagonosed with bronchitis once. So I stopped receiving flu shots 3 years ago. This year I did not even get the flu.

For cleansing, I have started doing Internal Cleanse (by Nature's Medicine) 2 weeks ago, here is the web site: http://www.allnaturalcleanse.com I learned about this from Aunty's posts on this forum.

After I finish this cleanse I will do Liver Flushes every 2 weeks until my liver and gallbladder gets cleaned. Meanwhile I will start using Solgar Herbal Female Complex and Solgar Herbal Liver Complex daily. The first one includes Chasteberry (for hormone balance) and the second one includes milk thistle (to heal and support the liver).

By the way I suggest you to take flax seed oil and evening primrose oil daily. I started these supplements 6 months ago and I have seen that my condition improved slightly from these.