(5) Eczema
A well-balanced diet is essential for healthy skin, but
the involvement of diet in the aetiology of common skin diseases (eg,
eczema) remains unproven. Many sufferers and their carers are tempted
to try a variety of dietary treatments, particularly the avoidance of
certain foods, because of the belief that the condition may be caused
by food allergy. The following advice is appropriate:
- In a small proportion of people, certain foods may exacerbate the
disease, but special diets should not be started without dietetic help,
especially in young children in whom there is a risk of nutritional
deficiency.
- Exclusion diets can be restrictive and difficult to implement. This
should be explained to the patient and/or carer to ensure that they
assess whether the diet is worse than the disease.
- Exclusion diets are best reserved for those with severe eczema which
is unresponsive to standard treatment with emollients and corticosteroids
and for those with a clear history of allergy.
- Common food culprits include milk and dairy produce, pork, offal,
fish, shellfish, nuts and food colouring.
- For infants and children up to the age of five years, a properly formulated
infant milk formula (eg, Infasoy, Wysoy) is essential if cows’
milk is excluded from the diet.
- If there is no improvement in the eczema after three weeks of an exclusion
diet, the individual should return to the normal diet.
- If there is an improvement, foods should be reintroduced gradually
to identify which foods cause the problems.
- Evening primrose oil — Trials have shown that gamma-linolenic
acid (GLA) taken regularly in a dose of 160-320mg (children) and 320-480mg
(adults) can reduce itching in some patients.
|
|
This series of “dietary advice tips” is intended
to be a reminder of the main points to be made by pharmacists when giving
nutritional information to the public. The conditions included in the
series are those where diet is a well recognised risk factor, those in
which diet contributes to the management of the condition, and others
for which patients may welcome sound dietary advice.
Written by Dr Pamela Mason (a pharmacist with a postgraduate qualification
in nutrition)
|
