Blog
22/05/2011
Aqueous cream can make eczema worse
However, research at Barts and Whipps Cross hospitals in 2009 found that aqueous cream can actually make your eczema worse. It is designed as a product to wash with, then wash off your skin, not as it is sometimes prescribed, as a cream to leave on your skin Already vulnerable skin can really react to it and become much worse.
This is particularly poignant for me as eczema on my hands first started when I was a student nurse. I was washing my hands, maybe a hundred times a day. We had lot of contact with patients and I washed my hands in a harsh chlorhexidine hand wash, Hibiscrub, after every patient.
When the skin on my hands started to get sore I took to carrying a tube of aqueous cream in my pocket and using it to wash with and also as a hand cream, never thinking that it could be contributing to the problem.
By the time I qualified as a nurse, my hands were so bad I was no longer able to nurse in a hospital environment, hence me moving on and eventually studying complementary therapy.
For the full story about the research on aqueous cream, click here.
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