Can Chinese Herbs Relieve Eczema?
Chinese Herbal Medicine May Offer Relief
for Dry, Itchy Skin of Eczema, Studies Say
By Charlene Laino
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise
Chang, MD
March 17, 2009 (Washington, D.C.) -- Traditional Chinese herbal medicine may
help to relieve the dry, itchy, scaly skin of
eczema in children and adults, two
new studies suggest.
Other research shows that toddlers who have egg, elm, or cat allergies are at
increased risk of developing eczema by age 4. Children whose parents have eczema
are also at risk.
All three studies were presented this week at the annual meeting of the
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
Chinese Herbal Medicine Safe,
Effective in Children
As many as 30% of patients with eczema have been prescribed traditional
Chinese medicine, but there are still questions about whether it works and is
safe, says researcher Julia Wisniewski, MD, of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
There is clearly a need for alternative treatments for the skin condition,
she says, because many patients with severe allergies continue to have flare-ups
a decade after standard therapy with steroids and immune-suppressing agents.
Wisniewski and colleagues studied 14 children with persistent eczema who were
treated with traditional Chinese medicine at Ming Qi Natural Health Center in
Manhattan between August 2006 and May 2008.
All of them drank Erka Shizheng Herbal Tea twice a day and soaked in an
herbal bath for 20 minutes daily. They also applied an herbal cream to their
skin two or three times a day and had acupuncture treatment.
At the start of the study, more than half of the participants had severe
symptoms on a standard scale that doctors use to gauge eczema severity. After
eight months of treatment, most had mild symptoms.
"Improvement in symptoms and quality of life was seen as early as three
months," Wisniewski says. She showed before-and-after photos of several children
to document their progress: Red, scaly feet and hands appeared normal six months
into therapy.
Participants also reported a reduction in the use of steroids, antibiotics,
and antihistamines within three months of being treated with traditional Chinese
medicine.
The herbal treatments proved safe, with no abnormalities in liver and kidney
function observed, Wisniewski adds.
"Chinese medicine is a very good alternative to conventional therapy for
children with eczema," she says.
Chinese Herbal Medicine Also Helps Adults With
Eczema
Adults with eczema also can benefit from traditional Chinese medicine,
Japanese researchers report.
They studied 274 men and women who had suffered from eczema for an average of
12 years. Nearly one-third had severe or very severe symptoms, with patches of
chronically itchy, dry, inflamed skin over at least 10% of their body.
"Medicinal Chinese herbal remedies were selected and administered in
accordance with the sufferer's symptoms -- an approach known as Sho in oriental
medicine," says Yoshiteru Shimoide, MD, head of the Yoshiteru Shimoide Clinic of
Internal Medicine in Kagoshima City.
After 3-4 months of treatment, 87% of the patients were symptom-free. An
additional 12% markedly improved, he tells WebMD.
One patient showed mild abnormalities in liver function, which were
alleviated by stopping the herbal therapy.
Experts say more study is needed.
"While the findings are promising, I wouldn't recommend [traditional Chinese
medicine] at this point," says Mitchell Grayson, MD, associate professor of
pediatric allergy and immunology at the Medical College of Wisconsin in
Milwaukee.
Grayson tells WebMD that larger, longer studies comparing herbal treatments
to standard therapy or placebo are needed.
If you do decide to seek out complementary or alternative medicines, speak
with your doctor first, he advises.
Eggs, Cat Allergies Are Risk Factors for
Childhood Eczema
To find out risk factors for developing childhood eczema, University of
Cincinnati researchers followed 636 infants of parents with allergies.
By age 4, babies whose parents had eczema had more than double the risk of
having eczema than other children. Those who tested positive for egg allergies
on skin tests at age 1 were four times more likely to have eczema at age 4. And
children who had a cat at age 1 and tested positive for cat allergies at age 1,
2, or 3 were at more than 13 times the risk of having eczema at age 4 than other
youngsters.
Pollen from elm trees was also a risk factor: Children who tested positive
for elm allergies at age 1, 2, or 3 had nearly three times the chance of having
eczema at age 4 than other children.
Although the association between egg allergy and eczema is fairly well known,
doctors don't always think to test young children with eczema for pollen or cat
allergies, says researcher Tolly Epstein, MD, a fellow in the division of
immunology.
If a child has unexplained symptoms, it might be prudent to consider elm and
cat testing, she tells WebMD.
Interestingly, having a dog as an infant or toddler appeared to protect
against eczema, Epstein says. "We don't know why."
SOURCES:
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Annual Meeting, Washington
D.C., March 13-17, 2009.
Julia Wisniewski, MD, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.
Yoshiteru Shimoide, MD, head, Yoshiteru Shimoide Clinic of Internal Medicine,
Kagoshima City, Japan.
Mitchell Grayson, MD, associate professor, pediatrics (allergy and immunology),
Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Tolly Epstein, MD, fellow, division of immunology, University of Cincinnati.
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