Badge of honor

At the bottom of the right-hand column you'll notice a snazzy new badge. End Eczema has been recognized! By that fine institution, www.medicalassistantdegree.com. If you click on it, as I did, you'll end up on a page listing nineteen blogs. "Score!" I thought to myself. "A whole host of eczema blogs-- the vibrant blogger community I always knew was out there!"

Unfortunately, on closer inspection, all of the other blogs, if not dead, either have been quiet for months or clearly have no scientific merit. Or any kind of merit. Sigh. Eczema Mom and Cindy: L'eczema blogging community, c'est nous.

But I'll wear the badge with pride, at least until a better one shows up. It's like having a degree in blogging from the University of Phoenix.

Speaking of academic institutions, today I found a syndicated newspaper column in the LA Times online, written by Henry Bernstein, senior lecturer in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. A reader asks him "what can I put on my 3-year-old grandson to treat his eczema?" According to Bernstein, those of us with eczema can expect to have

• Dry, scaly skin
• Plugged hair follicles that make bumps (usually on the face, upper arm and thighs)
• Swelling around the lips
• Darkening of the skin around the eye

Dry, scaly skin: check. Plugged hair follicles? Swollen lips? Dark circles around the eyes? Is this how they teach dermatologists at Harvard to diagnose eczema? I'd rather my dermatologist had a diploma from the University of Phoenix. Oh yes, Bernstein does get around to answering the question in the end: you should be putting moisturizer on your grandson. Duh!

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As you can see, I have been inspired by the holiday spirit.

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I learned that the company 23andMe in Mountain View, CA has a special deal out on personal genetic sequencing. For $99 you can send in your spit and find out your risk of developing 175 different conditions. Atopic dermatitis is one of them. If you're reading this, I suspect you already know what your risk is-- but FYI, they appear to be testing whether you possess one of the two common mutations of the filaggrin gene.

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In my last post, I mentioned that another Bay Area company, Anacor, has an interesting anti-inflammatory drug in the pipeline, a boron-based compound. I should have mentioned that I find it interesting because it is most likely not a steroid, and won't have the side effects of steroids-- though it will inevitably have other side effects. I'd like to know how it works and what strength it might be (compared to the US steroid scale).

And something else I'd like to know: is anyone making an anti-ITCH cream instead of an anti-inflammatory? Is anyone addressing itch neural fibers rather than just reducing the blood flow to the skin?

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Here's a story about another experimental drug: this lady, in England, suffered from hand eczema that became debilitating-- affected her right hand so that she could hardly use it for anything, and looked so nasty she had to wear a Michael Jackson-style single black glove. She was put on steroids, of course, and given UV treatment, which did nothing. What appears to have put her eczema in remission is a drug called alitretinoin, which is sometimes prescribed for Kaposi's sarcoma.

What is alitretinoin doing to relieve eczema? I'm not sure. At least it's not a complete shot in the dark for a dermatologist to prescribe: here's a story describing how a clinical trial of alitretinoin in Europe and North America cleared up hand eczema in ~50% of treated patients. I believe hand eczema (on the palms, not the backs) can often be triggered by rubber gloves or exposure to certain metals. A few years ago, I had eczema on the soles of my feet-- I think it was the hot, humid climate of Washington, DC, that was to blame-- and it was intolerably itchy. Denise Hyland has my full sympathy.