What is the Difference Between Eczema and Psoriasis
If you have the symptom of red, itchy, and dry skin and cannot stop scratching, you start suspecting it to be eczema. But there is another disease that has similar conditions known by the name of psoriasis. Psoriasis and eczema are like twins as they have similar looks, but fundamentally they are different.
The similarity between the two
Both psoriasis and eczema can cause the rash as the patches of red, itchy skin and raised appearance, and they can appear in the same place like the scalp and hands. Both diseases are not contagious but can lead to infections. Only a trained specialist can spot the difference, but the untrained eye may not understand the difference. stressing about psoriasis very common than eczema, and this helps to make the self-diagnosis harder. In spite of the similarity in appearance, there are clues that can set them apart. Though you can easily detect eczema, psoriasis detection will need an expert.
Difference in itchiness
When you have an itchy spot with irritation, the specialist can help you to decide which skin condition you are having. Psoriasis causes mild itching, and in some of the cases, types of psoriasis cause a terrible burn. Eczema can lead to intense itching, and when it starts to become severe, some people scratch the skin so hard that their skin starts to bleed. Both psoriasis and eczema can appear at any part of the skin, yet they have their own dedicated areas. Psoriasis mainly happens on the scalp, knees, buttocks, elbows, and face. Eczema occurs and most often inflames the skin on the back and inside of the elbows and knees.
Things to know about eczema
You can notice a red rash, dry skin on the arms and cheeks, and legs. Eczema is not contagious, and environmental and genetic factors play a great role. There are few things that you need to know about eczema, and they are as follows-
- Eczema normally improves with age, and it can start from 6months of age and wears off by five years of age among children. Within a small portion of the population, it can persist into adulthood.
- Eczema can lead to asthma and allergies like seasonal allergies, food allergies. For eczema, asthma, and seasonal allergies share common pathways.
- You can have effective treatments but can have no cure for eczema. You can reduce the swelling and itching by regularly moisturizing and by taking self-care prescribed by the doctor. You can use ethical and transparent skincare to get relief.
- If you have dry skin, then the effect of eczema can be worse. The dry skin causes itchy skin, and when you scratch, the skin swells turn red and itch more.
Steps to reduce eczema
There are some methods that you can take to reduce the effect of eczema. Some of the ethical and transparent skincare for this disease can include-
- You need to wash the new clothes before you wear them and remove the extra dye that can otherwise affect your skin. The dyes can cause mild to serious skin reactions as they may be allergic to them.
- You need to avoid the use of skin irritants like detergents, chemicals, and scented soaps. If you use these, it can enhance the skin problem and cause severe irritations.
- It will help if you avoid the things you are allergic to so that you can reduce the itching. It will help if you stay away from animals, pollens of flowers and food.
- When you go swimming, you need to immediately take a bath as it will help to remove and reduce chemical exposure. The water of the beach and swimming pool can be a factor to cause allergic.
Things to know about psoriasis
Psoriasis is a chronic problem related to the skin, and this has no cure. There are a few things that you and the expert need to know about the disease. The points are as follows-
- stressing about psoriasis, it is an inflammatory condition of the skin. It manifests red, scaly, and itchy plaques in locations across the body.
- It is not as same as eczema, and it is an autoimmune condition. The lesions of psoriasis have sharper borders, and scaling is thick than eczema.
- The researchers are continuing to advance, and they are researching how and why the patients develop the disease.
- Psoriasis is not contagious, and you do not develop it by staying in close contact with the patient. Genetics plays a main role in passing down the disease to the next generations.
The overlap between the two
Though both the diseases look similar in appearance, they still have a few distinct that you can differentiate with the help of the experts. Yet, in some people, you will not be able to differentiate. In such a case, the expert can diagnose with a condition known as psoriasiform dermatitis. An expert will generally be able to differentiate between psoriasis and eczema as they are common skin diseases. In some cases, both psoriasis and eczema can overlap and increase the problems of the patient.