A suggested earlier, it is generally believed that one of the major causes of eczema is a hereditary predisposition to suffering from the condition.
However, there has to be some kind of trigger that causes a flare-up of the itchy red skin lesions that are characteristic of eczema. For example, a flare up of contact dermatitis might be brought on by something as seemingly innocent as wearing rough clothes such as those made from wool or other similarly rough fabrics.
This is a form of eczema that is caused by contact with irritants that can trigger an eczema flare-up.
The reactions that you might suffer as a contact dermatitis sufferer can be categorized in one of two ways.
In the first example, irritant contact dermatitis is a condition that comes on extremely quickly after you have been exposed to a chemical substance that immediately irritates the skin.
Atopic eczema is the most common form of eczema, which is believed to be a hereditary condition. The condition is sometimes known as infantile eczema, because by the very nature of being hereditary, it is the form of eczema that is most commonly seen in children.
If one parent is an eczema sufferer, or if they suffer from hay fever (the strongest indicator) or asthma, the child has a significantly higher chance of having eczema. In fact, if both parents are eczema sufferers, the chances of their child suffering from the condition are as high as 80%.
The answer is, there are a few different types of eczema, each of which is believed to have different causes. Hence, the cause of eczema depends on the particular type of condition that the sufferer has.
The main types of eczema that you are likely to come across are as follows, with the most widely accepted causes of each different type listed in the description.
The answer to the question is, anyone can suffer from eczema.
While it most commonly starts when someone is a baby or child, it can strike men and women, young and the old, so it is not confined to those who are still in the first few years of life.
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, eczema is defined as ‘an inflammatory condition of the skin characterized by redness, itching and oozing vesicular lesions which become scaly, crusted or hardened’.
This basic dictionary definition immediately gives you some idea that eczema is not a pleasant condition to suffer from. Eczema has been around for thousands of years, but sadly, modern medical science is no nearer to curing eczema than were our forefathers.
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