Eczema is a skin condition that results in rough, itching patches all over the body. In some cases, causes painful blisters. It affects all ages and millions of people around the world each year and can be ongoing. But there is a solution for eczema and this may be vitamin D cream. So, to answer your question—yes, vitamin D cream helps with eczema and here’s why.
What is Vitamin D?
Everyone loves a little sunshine and so does vitamin D. Each time you allow the sun’s rays to lap your skin, you’re helping to produce vitamin D. This is why it’s nicknamed the sunshine vitamin after all.
How it works is that the sun’s ultraviolet rays enters the skin and then changes to vitamin D3. What people may not know is that vitamin D is actually a hormone rather than an essential vitamin or nutrient. Your body produces quite a few different vital hormones (estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone) but only vitamin D comes from the sun.
Signs of a Vitamin D Deficiency
Exhaustion
Brittle bones
Hair loss
Depression
Muscle pain
Skin problems (eczema and psoriasis)
The hormone plays a significant role in calcium absorption. It absorbs the calcium in the stomach and moves into the bloodstream and on to other parts of the body. Calcium is necessary for building bones and to prevent osteoporosis.
While sunlight is the biggest generator of vitamin D, you can get from your food as part of a balanced diet. It’s also common for foods to be fortified with vitamin D or to use a transdermal cream to get your daily dose.
What is Eczema?
Eczema affects roughly 31.6 million men, women, and children in the United, which is equivalent to about 10% of the population. Doctors generally refer to eczema as atopic dermatitis. The word atopic refers to conditions involving the immune system, such as asthma, hay fever, and eczema. Dermatitis is inflamed skin.
The causes of eczema include hereditary factors, allergies, and environmental triggers like pollen, soaps, fragrances, and smoke. Eczema isn’t contagious but can be painful, embarrassing, and hard to treat.
Symptoms of Eczema
The signs and symptoms of eczema very from person to person. Also, symptoms may come and go or be triggered by dietary and environmental factors. For the most part, symptoms are mild and the person is bothered but can go about daily life.
It’s common for infants to have eczema and slowly go away as they grow. Putting a soothing calamine lotion on the eczema eases the inflammation. Regardless if the symptoms are mild or severe the most common symptoms include:
Skin flushing
Itching
Inflammation
Dry, scaly skin
Open, crusted, or oozing spores
Blisters
Redness
Skin infections can occur when the person or child constantly rubs or scratches eczema. The more one scratches the more painful it is to experience.
What Causes Eczema?
As mentioned above, vitamin D comes primarily from the sun and as our lifestyle has changed and become more sedentary, vitamin D levels have decreased. People spend less time outside and more time inside working and this has led to vitamin D deficiencies. Also, even when you do spend time outdoors, sunblock is applied to prevent sunburn and/or skin cancer. While necessary to protect the skin, this lowers the amount of vitamin D in the body.
The consequence of low vitamin D levels on bone density has been well researched and documented. But vitamin D also has an important effect on the immune system and allergies. Research has also show that there is a link between low vitamin D levels and eczema. People who live in higher latitudes had higher instances of eczema and lower vitamin D levels. Cold weather or during the transition from fall to winter is a common time for eczema to develop, especially in children.
How Can Vitamin D Cream Help Eczema?
There is no cure for eczema but rather different ways to treat it or ease the symptoms. When eczema flares up, it’s common for it to be treated with an antihystamine or even ultraviolet light to stimulate the production of vitamin D.
Another way is to take a vitamin D supplement or apply a vitamin D cream. Applying a cream gives you the hormones you need, without having to worry about sun burn or skin cancer. In one study involving children in Mongolia who had a vitamin D deficiency and eczema, supplementing with the vitamin improved symptoms.
Other studies have shown that applying vitamin D to eczema during a flare up can help with the redness and swelling. In addition to studies, there is lots of anecdotal evidence from adults who have suffered with eczema all of their life, who talk about how vitamin D reduces the symptoms drastically.
The reasons for this aren’t known for sure, but researchers hypothesize this has to do with how vitamin D boost the immune system. It helps regulate the immune system and having low vitamin D levels is connected to auto-immune diseases. Also, vitamin D help prevent colds and flus and there is some evidence that it helps prevent COVID-19 and lowers risks if infected.
A new study showed that people in the hospital with COVID and had optimal levels of vitamin D had a lower risk for negative outcomes and dying from the condition.
So, vitamin D is an important hormone that helps build bones, a robust immune system, and ease painful eczema symptoms. If you’re suffering with eczema and want relief, try a high-quality eczema cream.
Transdermal creams can be applied directly to the inflamed area to provide relief immediately and over time. They can be used to prevent flareups and are safe and effective. But not just any vitamin D cream will do. Choose one that’s completely natural, comes in dose right for your body, and highly reviewed by actual users. When it comes to your body, nothing but the best will do. Eczema waits for no one and neither should you.
