Tag: Lesions

When to Seek Professional Treatment for Warts

Research and clinical experience shows that most warts go away without any treatment at all. In some cases, you might decide to treat warts on your own, at home. There are times, though, when you will decide that it’s time to seek professional treatment for warts.

If you try to treat warts at home and they only get worse, you should see a doctor. Go in if you have used salicylic acid preparations for three months with little effect. You can see a health care expert about professional removal treatments at this time.

A wart might be located in a spot on your body that is easily irritated. If you have warts like these, you will probably want to seek help. If warts are unsightly, you will want to have someone help you remove the warts just to ease your embarrassment.

Plantar warts can be especially painful. Sometimes they can be so painful that people will go to the emergency room of a hospital to seek care. Whether you go to an urgent care clinic or just to your doctor’s office, you will want help with plantar warts that you can’t remove yourself.

Anyone with diabetes or peripheral artery disease should not try to treat plantar warts or any other warts on their lower extremities. It is always better to have a podiatrist deal with such situations.

There are times when you might mistakenly think something is a wart when it isn’t. If the warts change shape or color, your doctor will probably want to check it to determine what it is. If you’ve never had warts before and you’re past middle age, there’s reason for your doctor to make sure the lesions aren’t actually cancer.

Sometimes warts will grow very large. They can spread very rapidly to many parts of your body. If they become too large or too numerous to deal with by home treatment, see a doctor. There are many appropriate treatments for these more severe problems with warts.

It is possible to get a bacterial infection in a wart. If you have a bacterial infection, you might see red streaks coming from the wart. There might be pus or you might have a fever. The wart might be inflamed with excessive pain, redness, swelling and heat. If you have any of these symptoms, it’s time to check in with a physician.

Even if you only suspect genital warts, you should consider seeking a doctor’s help and advice. If you see any kind of sores, bumps, or warts in your genital area or around your anus, you might have this STD. You might also have burning or itching when you urinate. A discharge can come from the vagina of a woman or the penis of a man.

Abuse is a possible cause if children are found to have genital warts. This is one of the few ways children pick up this strain of the virus. Children should be referred to social services as well as a doctor. Anyone, child or adult, who has genital warts, should go to a doctor.

There are several different types of doctors who treat warts. Family medicine doctors, dermatologists, podiatrists, and pediatricians all do this work. If you have warts that need attention, don’t hesitate to call someone.

Rosacea Medicine Find What Might Help You

While the cause of rosacea is still not understood, and there is no cure for this skin disorder, rosacea medicine is abundant on the market. The condition itself consists of redness and/or bumps on the cheeks, nose, chin, and or forehead. Most experts agree that rosacea is not caused by bacteria, but antibiotics are often prescribed and do work because of their anti-inflammatory properties. There are also a great deal of natural treatments and therapies that have been studied and discussed in the rosacea circle.

If you like only using homepathic aids, Emu oil; which comes from the back fat of an Emu.Is highly recommended by certain rosacea sufferers. It has both powerful ant-inflammatory and skin rejuvenating characteristics that are well-suited to treat all types of irritated skin. Pure Emu oil penetrates deep into the skin and mirrors the lipid profile of human skin, and it can be found in a non-pure state in soaps and moisturizers as well. Other natural ingredients that have been effective in combating rosacea include green tea extract, niacinamide, licorice, chrysanthellum indicum cream, and azelaic acid.

On the pharmaceutical side of rosacea medicine, which, some would argue, is more effective when it comes to treating this distressing condition.

A medicine under the name Sulfacet, with ten percent sodium sulfacetamide 10% and five percent sulfur has demonstrated good results in certain studies, with an 80 percent reduction in rosacea lesions, and a 69 percent reduction in redness.

Oral antibiotics (of which doxycycline is the most recognized) have proven in trials that paients improved from 50 to 60 percent in lesions. However, it is recommended that the patient and doctor be in close contact and make sure to keep the therapy short-term, not exceeding a year.

Metronidazole, known as MetroGel and MetroCream, is frequently prescribed. In studies of this topical antibiotic, results came up with a 72 percent decrease in rosacea lesions, and a 45 percent redness decrease.

Benzaclin (a combination of benzoyl peroxide or benzoyl peroxide and clindamycin) has been shown to reduce lesions by 71.3 percent and a significant reduction in redness.

Azelaic acid (Azelex) demonstrated a 73 percent reduction in rosacea lesions.

Other important actions to take when it comes to treating your rosacea have to do with your lifestyle. Make sure that you wear sunscreen (Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are best-tolerated) at all times when outdoors. Limit your exposure to the sun, and overexertion in the hot and humid summer months, and keep your face protected in extremely cold and windy weather.

Avoid all cleansing and moisturizing products that contain harsh ingredients such as alcohol, and you may also find that avoiding spicy foods, caffeine and alcohol will improve your condition, even if you are not taking a rosacea medicine.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to substitute the advice of a medical professional.

Acne Scarring 101

When acne heals or when treated by a dermatologist, there are some instances when it will leave some scarring on skin. This is especially true with acne that appears on the later stages of life. Adult skin does not have a store of collagen that helps the skin heal and regenerate. Scarring may also occur when the acne is quite severe. This is because the problem is more intensive, cutting through the skin with more depth than what is usually seen with acne that are only on the surface.

A scar may initially appear as reddish in appearance. After a white, when the skin heals and try to regenerate, the scar will become lighter, sometimes turning white, several shades lighter than the skin tone. There may be pain sometimes, even irritation. Itching is of course not uncommon because as the skin heals, the wound dries up. Sometimes, there may also be some inflammation, swelling and redness.

Normally, only nodules and cystic acne types result in scarring. However, there are people who are more prone to scarring than others. With these people, even the common lesions may result in scarring if not treated well. This is why it is important that people have their acne treated even at the initial stages to prevent scarring and permanent damage to the skin.

Basically, there are two kinds of acne. One kind is the one caused by the increase in tissue formation while the other is caused by the loss of tissue on the skin. The former is what people call keloids, which does not look like your usual scar. Keloids are bumps of skin that resemble a pimple, forming even after the wound has already healed. It can even form on the surrounding healthy tissue. Keloid scarring is actually quite rare and only affects people who have family history of it.

Hypertrophic scars, on the other hand, form above the skin level and appear as bulges and bumps on the skin. Because of this, some people do not think of it as scars but rather pimples that have not yet healed.

The more usual scars are the deep and shallow kind that resembles small crevices on the skin. These are called the Atrophic scars, which are formed below the skin level. There are several types of these kind of scar depending on the shape that it forms on the skin. The ice pick scars, which is the most common, is characterized by deep pits that form v-shapes on the skin. Another form is the boxed scars that are usually seen on temple and cheeks. They are angularly shaped, almost similar to the ones gotten in chicken pox. They can be either superficial or deep depending on the severity of the acne condition. The rolling scar, on the other hand, is the kind that gives the skin a wave-like appearance.

Scarring can actually be treated depending on the severity of the scarring problem, your skin type and of course the type of scars that you have. Sometimes, the location of the scars will also affect the treatment. Often, scarring at the back and at the chest are more difficult to treat compared to those found on the face.

There are a lot of treatment procedures available for scarring such as corticosteroid injections and cryosurgery. Surgical procedures may also be done to remove the scarring as well as x-ray therapy.

Eczema Treatment Conventional vs. Natural

Some of the symptoms of eczema include inflammation, reddening, itchiness and formation of blisters on the affected areas of the skin. An eczema treatment is designed not to cure eczema itself because there is actually no cure but to spare the person afflicted with the disease form such symptoms. Body parts where lesions are likely to occur include the face, elbows, at the back of the knees and the wrists.

The eczematous skin tends to be really dry, which contributes to the itching of the area. Although scratching might give the person afflicted with eczema a certain degree of relief, however, this is not really advisable. Scratching will only exacerbate the condition. When an eczematous skin is scratched, it thickens.

The symptoms are at their worst during flare ups. It may cause the person discomforts and many sleepless nights because of the severe itching. Because of this, it is wise for anyone afflicted with the skin disease to find out the triggering factors of flare ups. They include dust, yeast, cosmetics, detergents, solvents and many others. Stress is also a triggering factor. When a person is stressed, the immune system of the body is decreased, which leads to the susceptibility of the person with eczema to have flare ups.

One can opt for a conventional or natural mode of treatment for eczema. So is one better than the other for you? Read on as we compare known conventional and natural treatments for the skin disease.

Conventional corticosteroids

Creams containing corticosteroids are used to reduce inflammation, redness and itching of the eczematous skin. They basically contain the same bodily hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex. This hormone is secreted to control the inflammation process. Topically applied, corticosteroids do the same thing on the affected skin: inflammation, redness and itching are relieved. However, some people afflicted with eczema are fearful of using steroids as part of their treatment. It is because of the many side effects on the skin, such as:

* Thinning of the skin
* Dilation of blood vessels
* Formation of stretch marks
* Rashes
* Skin infections

When used for long periods, corticosteroids may also get accumulated in the body and cause some metabolic imbalances. One reason for this is the competition of the topically applied steroid and the one secreted by the body for the same receptors that make them do their job. Another reason is giving the kidney a hard time to get rid of it through urination. You see, even when a medication is applied topically, it is absorbed by the skin, and may get into the blood stream. That is why the use of topical corticosteroid creams have to be maintained at low doses, and for a short period of time.

Natural herbal and antioxidants

The herbal approach to treating the symptoms of eczema are generally milder and gives little or no side effects. There are many herbs known to be beneficial to anyone suffering from the skin disease. Such herbs may be used as teas, tinctures and topical treatments. They can either be used alone or in combination, to boost the potency. Some of the herbs used for treating eczema include:

* St. Johns Wort
* Chamomile
* Chickweed
* Yarrow
* Nettle
* Licorice

Antioxidants are also great natural eczema treatment, as they are for many other skin diseases. For instance, Sea Buckthorn and Grape seed oils contain loads of antioxidants such as selenium, beta carotene and vitamins A, C and E.