Q They say it heals if I just avoid the causative substance, but even after avoiding everything, once it flares up it won't calm down. Isn't avoidance enough?
A Avoidance is the most basic step, but already oversensitized skin flares up easily even with minor irritation. Along with avoidance, you need to stabilize the broken-down barrier and the sensitive immune system so the skin reacts less to the same exposure.
Detailed Answer
In allergic contact dermatitis, finding and avoiding the causative substance is the starting point of treatment, but skin that has been sensitized once and has a weakened barrier easily reddens again even with tiny amounts of irritation, sweat, or friction. Therefore avoidance alone has its limits, and the skin's own recovery capacity and the stabilization of the immune response are needed together.
Korean Medicine Clinic Perspective
At Dongjedang, we treat together the internal damp-heat and immune hypersensitivity that have made one react with particular sensitivity to the same substance. Through an internal-medicine approach that not only avoids the causative substance but also stabilizes the oversensitized internal immunity and constitution, we aim to build the resilience to endure, so that even when exposure is unavoidable, the skin is less shaken and calms down faster.
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