Are diabetics prone to have eczema?
I don’t know about eczema, but diabetics often have psoriasis which is another autoimmune disease. My endo says almost all his diabetic patients have psoriasis even if it’s just a little on their elbows.
Best thing for psoriasis is sunlight on the infected area, so I wonder if this is another Vit D deficient condition.
I don’t know about the correlation with diabetes and eczema, but I do know that dry skin is a symptom of hyperglycemia due to the dehydration you experience. If you’re running high you could have dry skin. I know that I was diagnosed with eczema when I was 10 and diagnosed with diabetes when I was 11 and I am convinced that my dry skin became severe when my pancreas stopped working and my blood sugars slowly started rising.
That’s my personal experience with eczema. I now just deal with moderately dry skin, it’s never been as bad as it was the winter before I was diagnosed.
I have mild eczema on my elbows… i’ve noticed it flares up when my blood sugar is running high.
I have recently been seeing a dermatologist for an injury on my hand that has turned into eczema. In addition to the steroid creams, he gave me some samples of a very nice moisturizer called CeraVe. He mentioned that he frequently gives it to his pediatric patients with eczema. It was so nice, I bought a bottle at the drugstore - I put it on all over after my shower.
Psoriasis is suspected to be an autoimmune condition and is considered by many to be common in autoimmune diabetics. Dr. B has noted this some of his writings, although he does not mention it in his main book. Eczema occurs typically at the joints and is often consider different than psoriasis, usually being attributed to an inflammation of the skin rather than in immune reaction. But telling the difference between the two is basically impossible as there are poor diagnostic tools. It may well be that skin inflammation occurs more often due to high blood sugars or due to vascular damage to the blood supply feeding the skin, but I’ve not heard anything more.
Either way, it totally s*cks. I have known at least one person with severe Psoriasis who recovered almost totally by moving to Florida and getting more sun, so perhaps Gerri’s suggestion is worth exploring. It won’t hurt to at least make sure you are not vit D deficient.
eczema is actually what finally drove my parents to bring me to the doctor for a diagnosis. it covered almost the whole back of my head and one day my sister was doing my hair and noticed it and no one had a clue what it was and she made my parents bring me to the doctor. i was then diagnosed with diabetes and had to wait another few years before anyone could truly tell me what was on my neck/head. when i brought up to my dermatologist that the eczema only came about right before i was diagnosed he insisted that it had nothing to do with diabetes at all and to let it go.
i still believe diabetes was a big part of it though.
Interesting, I was told repeatedly that my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome was unrelated to my diabetes. Of course I know better now.
My son was first diagnosed with eczema on the backs of his knees about 2 months before he was diagnosed with T1. Although that place has healed, he now has it on his elbows and thighs. I definitely see a correlation between T1 and eczema.
My skin was so dry and itchy before I was diagnosed. Especially on my legs and ankles. I used to scratch the blank out of them and used tubes of hydrocortisone cream. It only flares up now if my BG goes too high.
I was diagnosed with eczema about 4 years before my diabetes, so there is no obvious relation for me. I have my eczema mostly on my face (eyelids and cheeks) and on the place where my ears meet my head. Last winter which was very very cold in Boston I had it on my elbows too. My dermatologist just has me treat it w/ elidel (which doesn’t thin your skin like other eczema stuff does).
Indeed Gerri. I was diagnosed to have a small patch of psoriasis on my back 5 months after I was diagnosed with diabetes. This was the time I was in a lot of stress in a hospital after surgery after a very bad accident. My dematologist said that it can be genetic and aggrevated by stress…Much that I want sunlight on it (Im a bit shy to expose any part of my back) I use some steroid ointments and moiturizers.
I didn’t even know I had psoriasis until my endo pointed it out on one elbow. It never bothered me & I thought most people had dry elbows.