Detailed Information On Common Skin Diseases

peeling skin. Itching and burning are frequent symptoms of ringworm.

Once established in the scalp ringworm is difficult to control. The hair must be eliminated before remedies can attack the organisms in the roots. The hair may be pulled out or removed by X-ray, which may cause permanent loss of hair. The area may be shaved. Many cases are over treated, and the resulting inflammation spreads the infestation.

Because ringworm is easily transmitted, those who are affected should wear a close-fitting skullcap and use only individual towels, combs, or hairbrushes. The newest applications include gentian violet, undecylenic acid and sodium propionate.

The specialist in diseases of the skin will usually make some scrapings from the ringworm area and examine the material with the microscope.

Psoriasis

The cause of psoriasis has not yet been determined. Many theories have been proposed relating the condition to the diet, to infection, to glandular disturbances, or constitutional disorders, but not one has yet been established. Psoriasis begins with flat, symmetrical reddish-brown spots or plaques on the skin, covered with silvery-white scales. Usually the condition is dry, without blisters or exudation. The spots are seen usually around the elbows, on the scalp, on the lower part of the back, and the upper chest. About four per cent of all the cases of skin diseases that come to doctors’ offices are psoriasis.

Psoriasis is a chronic condition and once established tends to get better and worse and to disappear entirely for a while.  Many patients with psoriasis do well when put on a meatless diet. Some improve when treated with the appropriate sex gland extracts. Instances have been reported of psoriasis clearing up when treated by ultraviolet light, thiamine and other vitamins. Most recent in the treatment is the use of ACTH, the adrenal cortex tropic hormone, derived from the pituitary gland. This substance causes profound changes in the actions of various cells of the body and may act in that way to disturb the basic mechanism responsible for psoriasis.

Urticaria Or Hives

Hives are the response of the skin to sensitivity to some foreign protein substance. Hives are swellings, like long blisters, filled with a yellowish fluid which may come on any part of the body. Most frequently they appear on the legs, the back of the neck, the buttocks, and outer surface of the thighs. Like other forms of allergy the tendency to hives seems to run in families.

Among the foods most commonly associated with hives are shellfish, strawberries, and eggs. Light, heat, cold, the sun’s rays, insect bites, contact with moths, nettles, and caterpillars and many similar contacts may result in the appearance of these itching eruptions in the skin. Following emotional upsets people with a tendency to hives may have attacks. The skin in such cases may be so sensitive that blisters or a white line may develop simply from stroking the skin, a condition called “demographia. “

More recently the antihistaminic drugs like pyrabenzamine, benadryl, neohetramine and others have been proved almost specific against urticaria and other forms of sensitization. The itching can be stopped by washing with baking soda solution, or by applying a calamine lotion with one per cent of menthol or phenol.

Warts

There is no proof that warts are caused by a virus, but the vast majority of medical opinion now inclines to the view that a specific virus is responsible. Warts occur most frequently on the hands, the face, the soles of the feet, and the neck. Ordinary warts, called verrucae vulgaris are hard grayish-yellowish or brownish elevations on the skin of varying size. Juvenile warts are usually smaller. Unless the wart is in intimate contact with a nerve ending it is not likely to be painful. Warts may grow rapidly and spread, or they may remain isolated and stop growing or disappear, often without any special treatment.

Warts may be destroyed with acid, or with carbon dioxide snow or with the X-ray. For ordinary juvenile warts a paste containing salicylic acid is sometimes effective. If warts are large or disfiguring, the best treatment may be simply removing them surgically.

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