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Lifestyle and itchy skin home remedies

If you want to relieve the itchy skin at home, you can try these itchy skin home remedies. First of all, try and avoid situations in which your skin gets itchier such as

  • dryness,
  • clothes irritating on the skin,
  • central heating,
  • air conditioning,
  • excessive hot baths, or
  • irritation from soaps, detergents, perfumes or cleaning products including fabric softeners.

There are excellent quality moisturising creams that you can use on your skin such as Cetaphil, Eucerin and others which can be applied to the affected skin and last all day long. Dermol 500 can be utilised for washing in the shower and applicable to the skin to help soothe the irritated skin.
Some creams and gels can calm the skin such as calamine lotion or a product with a low percentage of menthol, anti-itch creams or weak hydrocortisone cream to the affected area. Very short term use of non-prescription hydrocortisone cream containing 1% hydrocortisone will temporarily relieve an itch from the red, inflamed skin. However, be cautious about its use and do not become dependent on it if you do decide to use it for 24 to 48 hours.
There are also topical anaesthetic creams that can be put onto the skin which may be helpful in the short term, for instance, if you have an acute allergic reaction to an insect bite that can also benefit from a combination of a topical anaesthetic, a topical antibiotic and a topical hydrocortisone cream.
When looking after your itchy skin at home, you should avoid scratching whenever possible as that will make it worse. Many patients wonder how they can avoid scratching. Well, it is a good thing to trim nails quite short and even wear cotton gloves at night that is often done for children who have eczema that cannot understand when you tell them not to itch the skin but if you have little cotton gloves or mittens on they will not be so useful in itching.
Application of cold, wet compresses can sometimes calm the affected inflamed, itchy skin and make it feel much better and less prone to scratching.
If you take a bath or shower, making sure that the water is lukewarm and sprinkle in some baking soda, some uncooked oatmeal or a finely ground oatmeal especially made for bathing. Each person will find different temperature fitting their pruritus best. Some are excellent with hot showers, and others prefer a cold shower. However, after showering using a Cetaphil soap or a Dermatol 500 type soap, you should make sure that you rinse thoroughly, dry off well and then apply moisturiser afterwards.
Stress can worsen itching, and a lot of patients find that when they are less stressed, their skin improves considerably.

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