Q: I have exema on my hands. the medication (clobetasol) my Drs are gave me worked for a while. Now it just seems to keep it in check. I bought Bag Balm. I can see any directions on how to use it. Do I wear polyethaline gloves on the.. Seem that it might be messy without protection. How log do I leave it on? The only direction that came with it is for cows!!!! Thanks, –bob
Hello, Bob,
Eczema is a type of inflammatory reaction of the skin. Your skin reacts with redness, itching and burning, and when you scratch your skin, it reacts even more, which becomes a nasty cycle. The reason doctors use clobetasol is to calm down this cycle of reactivity in your skin. Skin with eczema reacts with redness and itching to a lot of things: to hot water, detergents, soaps, perfumes added to personal products like deodorants, creams and lotions, to scented and non-scented soaps and laundry detergent. One of the biggest culprits is antibacterial chemicals added to soaps and lotions. And that’s not all…your skin can even react to you feeling stressed.
Bag Balm® can help soothe and protect your skin because it “seals” it from exposure, BUT frankly, Bob, it’s not any better than any other plain ointment at doing that. Bag Balm® contains an anti-infective, which is not much help with eczema.
What ointment does is trap the moisture your skin gives off, instead of letting it evaporate. This keeps moisture in the top layer of your skin, easing dryness and protecting the skin from coming in contact with substances that irritate it. Increasing moisture in your top skin layer will improve how well your prescription clobetasol works because the moisture helps it penetrate better into your skin, and that helps it will work better for you.
Whichever ointment you use, I strongly recommend you use it to the affected area every night, with cotton gloves. Any cotton glove will work, even cotton socks on your hands. You shouldn’t have to resort to vinyl or polyethylene gloves, although if you want to see what kind of moisture your skin gives off all day long you can put them on and see how much “sweat” you get underneath the gloves. That “sweat” is the continuous moisture being lost through your skin. Putting on cream helps to trap some of that moisture in your skin but an ointment is more occlusive so it traps even more moisture.
I used to suffer from skin breakouts on my hands every winter, and I finally broke the cycle of having to use strong prescription steroid creams with the help of a dermatologist colleague. He showed me how to calm down the reactivity of my skin so I could wean myself off the prescription stuff.
He taught me to treat my skin GENTLY, like a fine wool sweater. To use only cool water to wash with, with NO scrubbing and NO harsh soaps. I learned to protect my skin by using creams during the day and ointment every night, and to apply my prescription steroid cream frequently as a THIN LAYER ONLY because only the layer touching your skin gets absorbed; you can add more but it will just waste it. Use your steroid cream more frequently at first, up to 4 times a day, and ALWAYS use ointment at night.You can put the ointment right over the THIN LAYER of cream to help it work better for you. Try not to wash your hands for at least 30 minutes after applying your prescription cream, because that way most of the medicine will get absorbed before you wash it off.
Let me know if this helps you, Bob. Good luck!
