Alternative Treatment For Neurodermatitis

Neurodermatitis is a chronic skin disease and is not life threatening. There is excessive itching and scratching cycle seen in the disease. The patient has intense urge to scratch the skin patch. It is not seen all over the body but only on certain parts of the body like back of the neck, ankles, feet, wrists, hands, etc. Due to scratching continuously, there is thickening of the skin patch and it looks leather like. The itching can aggravate after eating certain food substances that act as allergens and also due to some psychological stress. ⁽¹⁾

It is known that stress acts as a trigger factor for flaring up of neurodermatitis or any other dermatitis. So, controlling your stress can help you in reducing the symptoms of neurodermatitis. To reduce stress, the following methods can be used:

Training Your Mind: It has been found that there is quite a strong relationship between stress and skin diseases. There is a term called psychodermatology under which the doctors help the patients to reduce their anxiety and stress levels. Some of the methods used for this are- hypnosis, meditation and biofeedback.

Acupressure: Acupressure is same as acupuncture; only difference is that in acupressure, physical pressure is exerted over certain points of the body unlike using needles in acupuncture. This method helps by unblocking the life energy. There are very limited studies that show that acupressure actually helps in reducing the symptoms of neurodermatitis.

Massage: All of us know that massage helps a lot in relieving stress and thus helps in decreasing the severity of neurodermatitis. You must go to a massage therapist who is a professional and experienced. Before starting the massage, make sure that the lotions and oils that will be used for massaging do not contain any substances that you are allergic to.

Other Natural Remedies For Nerurodermatitis

Coconut Oil: Coconut oil has natural potential to kill the staphylococcus bacteria present on the skin; this helps in reducing the chances of infection with staph aureus. You must apply coconut oil everyday on the skin one or two times throughout the day. You must use virgin coconut oil as this doesn’t contain any chemicals, this will not irritate your skin.

Topical Application Of Vitamin B12: Using vitamin B12 topically has been found to be very useful in reducing the symptoms of neurodermatitis. There is commercial product available in market that contains vitamin B12. It can be made at home with the help of certain products like avocado oil, cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12), water, citric acid and potassium sorbate (it is a preservative). ⁽²⁾

Psychological Interventions Used To Control The Symptoms Of Neurodermatitis

Hypnosis: Hypnosis is a state of mind where the person is conscious and is made to follow certain orders, as the patient cannot use voluntary functions of the body. This is helpful in behavior modification of the patient. In hypnosis, the patient is made to enter a trance state of mind where the patient has decreased awareness, selective wakefulness, focused attention and increased susceptibility for a particular purpose for example relaxation or habit modification. The patient is made to focus on a particular suggestion only. This is helpful in neurodermatitis. Hypnosis also helps in reducing stress and anxiety. Hypnosis helps in reducing the sleep disturbances in patients and also reduces the urge to itch or scratch. The level of anxiety and pain also reduces that might occur due to neurodermatitis.

Biofeedback: Biofeedback is the method where you can gain control over some involuntary functions of the body. Biofeedback helps in reducing stress that is helpful in reducing the symptoms of neurodermatitis. Biofeedback increases the awareness of patient for tension and also helps him/her to relax; this reduces the severity of skin disease that worsens with stress like neurodermatitis. Hypnosis can be used with biofeedback as hypnosis produces relaxation and thus increases the effect of biofeedback. ^{(2) (3)}

Conclusion

Alternative treatment options for neurodermatitis include acupressure, training your mind and massaging, all these methods help you a lot in reducing the stress level. Under training the mind there are three components that are biofeedback, hypnosis and meditation. All of these therapies are very useful in behavior modification and reducing psychological stress. Other treatment options are application of coconut oil and vitamin B12 over the skin lesions.

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Alternative Treatment For Neurodermatitis