Air Pollution May Be The Reason For Eczema

New research indicates that chemicals from vehicle exhaust, wildfires, and cigarette smoke wrench our skin's capacity to produce healthy oil, making it prone to Eczema. 

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, directs the researchers on how to treat the skin ailment better. The cases of Eczema have risen tremendously in the bygone decades in both children as well as adults.

Jessica Hui, MD and a Denver-based pediatric allergist and immunologist, said, "The authors of this study have accurately recognized that the incidence of allergic conditions is increasing concurrently with the increase in different pollutants in our environment, giving us insights about why more people are getting eczema."

Genetics may predispose some people to Eczema, but the new research explains how diisocyanates(chemical) can initiate the symptoms of severe itching, skin redness, and oozing or painful rashes. An experiment on mice demonstrated that exposure to a specific part of diisocyanates, called isocyanates, hampers the oil production that the skin requires to stay healthy.

Investigators at the National Institutes of Health discovered that when bacteria that reside on healthy skin are exposed to isocyanate, they adapt to survive, followed by shifting their metabolism away from producing the lipids or oils that skin needs to remain healthy. This finding indicates that Eczema may be cured by replacing the modified skin bacteria with healthy bacteria.

Previous research has attempted to restore healthy skin bacteria called Roseomonas mucosa to treat eczema symptoms, with mixed results. The NIH has made this bacteria available for commercial, non-therapeutic development as a potentially beneficial probiotic.