Is Bacteria The Trick to Treating Eczema?
Eczema has long been the enigma of the skin and allergy world. Those who suffer from eczema don’t always know why, and products and treatments don’t always deliver results. Until now! According to recent research by Dr. Ian Myles, it is possible to use the power of healthy, helpful bacteria living naturally on the skin to treat eczema. Here is everything you should know about this groundbreaking discovery.
Why Does Eczema Develop?
Eczema is considered an inflammatory skin condition that causes the skin to become dry, itchy, red, and even scaly. It occurs because the skin does not have the fats and oils needed to self-moisturize and sustain a protective barrier. Without that barrier, harmful bacteria can easily cause reactions in the skin that lead to the signature redness, cracking, and scaling.
Why Would Healthy Bacteria Help?
A new therapy was recently tested to see how helpful, productive bacteria would affect eczema. According to the study’s lead research, Dr. Ian Myles, “By applying bacteria from a healthy source to the skin of people with eczema, we aim to alter the skin microbiome in a way that will relieve symptoms and free people from the burden of constant treatment.”
Trillions of helpful, healthy bacteria live in the digestive tract and on the skin, and Myles and his team believe that “microbiome” could hold the solution to this skin allergy. In particularly, the live Roseomonas mucosa, a bacterium naturally present on the skin, was taken from people without the eczema condition and applied to the skin of ten adults and five children with existing eczema.
The application of healthy bacteria onto the skin of patients with eczema in Trinity proved effective. After spraying a water and live bacteria blend onto their skin for up to 16 weeks, six of the ten adults and four of the five children in the study had greater than 50 percent improvement in their eczema symptoms. Some even reported being able to cut back on their steroid creams, and no complications occurred.
The researchers involved in this study also found that parabens, which are commonly added to moisturizers and skincare ingredients, actually inhibited the growth of the R. mucosa bacteria, which means that common skincare products could be hindering the skin’s defenses against eczema without anybody knowing it.
If future studies support the results found by Myles and his team, inexpensive microbiome therapies could become the new norm for eczema treatments. For help with your eczema now, call (813) 670-7062 to make an appointment at Kratz Allergy & Asthma in Odessa and Port Richey, Florida.