By keeping my wrist covered all all times with a sweat band, it protected it from chaffing and sun exposure, which made my eczema rash subside.
To be honest, I don’t know if I have simple eczema or psoriasis. All I do know is that I have a little patch on my wrist that has persisted for years. I tried all sorts of creams and ointments to stop the flaking, cracking, and subsequent bleeding. The most successful remedy I have found so far is to keep the area covered. The eczema is now just a red spot on my wrist, which I can live with.
About 10 years ago I noticed an irritation on my wrist under my watch band. As long as I wore a watch – I used to love wearing a variety of different wrist watches – the red, scaly, irritation persisted. It didn’t matter if the watch band was plastic, leather, or metal-link; it always made my wrist break out in the red irritation.
I finally stopped wearing a watch, but the eczema irritation would not go away. I tried moisturizers, sun screen, hydro cortisone cream, and some more caustic treatments hoping to make the skin irritation disappear for good. Nothing worked and I resigned myself to having to live with the condition.
Several years ago we took a short vacation trip to the coast where we did a lot of hiking and walking around. Because the weather was cool I always wore a long sleeved shirt or jacket. After 3 days my eczema was burning red angry. That’s when I realized that my shirt or jack sleeves were constantly rubbing on the irritated spot on my wrist.
Before covering up the eczema on my wrist, it would routinely get red, rashy, flaky, cracking, and bleeding from irritation by my clothes and the sun.
I trimmed my arm hair for a better picture of the eczema.
But I also do a lot of hiking during the summer with full sun and a short sleeve shirt. If I didn’t put on sun screen, my wrist eczema would flare up. Even with sun screen, the area would still get a scab on it if I was doing lots of hiking. This makes sense because regardless of what is causing the eczema that area does not have the same layer of skin cells for protection from the elements or chaffing cuffs.
Covering Up The Eczema As Remedy For Rash
By the spring of 2017 I had figured out that the eczema is really sensitive to chaffing and sun. So I decided to do an experiment and keep the area covered at any time it might get rubbed by my clothing or exposed to the sun. But I also needed something that would absorb sweat as I work out in the yard with gloves. I settled on athletic wrist bands like the ones you see tennis players and ball players wearing.
I went down to the sporting goods store and bought a pair of the stretchy absorbent wrist bands and it worked! Because they fit snugly on my wrist the material didn’t rub against the skin. They absorbed the sweat, protected the area from being rubbed by my gloves and shirt cuffs. And possibly most important of all, they kept the sun’s ultra-violet rays from reaching the sensitive area.
After wearing the sweat band for just a few weeks, the eczema subsided to just a red patch, with no itching, cracking, or bleeding.
The only downside is that when I take the sweat band off that part of my wrist has no sun tan.
At first, I felt a little foolish wearing the sweat bands on my wrist like I was some sort of ultra-athlete which anyone could figure out I was not by my gray hair and skinny legs. Over time, I really didn’t care because the eczema had ceased to be a problem. Seriously, no rash, no scales, no cracking, no bleeding since wearing the sweat bands.
My little skin-rash-irritation-eczema-psoriasis thing is pretty trivial compared to what some people endure. And what do people do if the eczema is more wide spread? You can’t wear five sweat bands up your arm. But there are arm and leg sleeves used by bikers and runners to keep the sun and dirt from building up. I don’t know what the SPF factor is of these garments. But if the chaffing from garments and the sun’s ultra-violet rays are trigger for the eczema to explode into a nasty looking rash, they might afford some cheap protection.
There are a variety of manufacturers that make arm and leg sleeves to protect the skin from over exposure. They may work to control some forms of eczema.
Because I have the eczema under control, I’m not going without some sort of protection on my wrist in the future. The cover up remedy keeps the eczema under control. I know that it is still there and it might spread. But I’m ready for it if it does spread. Now all I have to do is find a watch that is built into a sweat band so I can see what time it is when I am hiking.
See Also:
Uncontrollable Itchy On Arms Due to Stress And Anxiety
Hikers Rash From The Knee To Ankle