During the Victorian age, Sulfur was widely used to treat eczema as there was no other remedy known to people to cure this irritating malady that makes people go on scratching for endless hours. Amazing though it may seem, Aristotle, who suffered from eczema has been reported to have said that… “the disease is a curse but the scratching is a bliss.” Indeed the scratching part of eczema is so engrossing that people tend to forget about the world at large and concentrate only on the pleasure derived from scraping at the skin. But no matter whether there is any pleasure or not in the activity, scratching can only make eczema worse.

However, modern medicine has found the route to bring about a cure for eczema and here they are discussed in detail.

The importance of moisturizing the skin of an eczema patient has been considered in a special way. The first symptom of dermatitis is the dryness of the skin that prompts itching. Since soaps and detergents tend to remove the valuable natural oils from the skin, their use have been drastically cut as the primary stage of eczema treatment. Step number two is to enrich the skin with moistening agents that are called emollients. Some of the common emollients are Balneum Bath Oil, Medi Oil and other aqueous creams that are extensively used by eczema patients for providing the necessary moisture to the skin.

Itch relief is a big step in eczema treatment. This is often induced by antihistamines in a sustained release form. With adequate research on the sunject being conducted now, there are now drugs that can reduce the itching which in turn reduces damage and irritation to the skin. Doctors have also found that application of a counter irritant also provides relief. Controlling the itching not only provides the person the much needed relief, but it is also an essential eczema treatment to stop the disease from spreading.

Corticisteroids are often used by doctors in cream or lotion forms to provide releief to eczema patients. However, they do not cure eczema but are quite effective in suppressing the irritating symptoms and are thus an essential part of eczema treatment. Care, of course, needs to be taken about the side effects of steroids that may often prove dangerous.

Immunomodulators effectively suppresses the immune system and thus provides releief to the affected area. However, there seems to be some amount of risk involved in this therapy as it may lead to skin cancer according to reports.

Antibiotics do not have any curative effect on eczema but it certainly helps curbing secondary skin infection in eczema patients.

Light therapy through ultraviolet rays along with Psoralen called PUVA (Psoralen + UVA) provides releief to eczema symptoms in a therapy called Photo-chemotherapy. However, this line of eczema treatment can be dangerous too as continued exposure to ultraviolet light may put the patient at greater risk of skin cancer.

Alternate therapy in the form of homeopathy has been found to be working fairly well in reducing the symptoms of eczema. In many cases eczema treatment has also been completely successful through homeopathic and other natural remedies.