Eczema – Simplicity Is the Answer

In countless entries on Facebook, the Internet, and in private conversations the suffering addicted and withdrawal RSS patients report endless lists of foods, medicaments, potions and oils that they have tried in futile attempts to relieve their suffering. Advice came to these patients from friends, practitioners, gurus and various soothsayers. The reality is that none of their remedies work. Only complete withdrawal from steroids provides cure for the RSS patient. Simplicity is the answer.

The soul’s maladies have their relapses like the body’s. What we take for a cure is often just a momentary rally or a new form of the disease.

Sir James Bryce

Henry David Thoreau in “Walden” said it best. “Let your affairs be as 2 or 3, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail … simplify, simplify.” He wrote, “our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.”

These profound words written a hundred and sixty years ago are particularly instructive for the struggling RSS patient today. In our modern society we have selections of creams in the thousands, 800,000 apps in the Apple app store and innumerable herbs and foodstuffs available. None of these have helped the RSS patient.

About the Author: Dr Marvin Rapaport, MD

In 1978 I initiated and set up the contact and photo dermatitis clinic at UCLA. There was a need to evaluate a large group of patients who exhibited severe eczematoid rashes, especially on the face. Patients were referred from all over Southern California. All patients underwent a lengthy history and examination. Further evaluations included blood studies, allergy patch testing, special sunlight (photo) testing and skin biopsies. From the start it was apparent that most patients experienced a mild dermatitis on various parts of the body that progressively worsened. Their histories always included numerous doctor visits, multiple physicians, and therapy consisting of an increasing amount of corticosteroids. My testing failed to reveal any specific culprit chemicals, cosmetics, perfumes, workplace or recreational exposures. It became increasingly clear that the physician’s therapy, the corticosteroids, was invariably causing the problem. I wrote 7 scientific articles that were published in the most august peer-reviewed dermatologic journals and I gave many lectures at various dermatology meetings. To this day an unfortunate reluctance exists on the part of most physicians to accept this simple concept.