Category Archives: Eczema

About 20 minutes drive from Athens, the capital of Greece, there lies a hidden treasure, Vouliagmeni Lake.

The beautiful lake formed around 2,000 years ago and holds a vast amount of history.

Originally where the lake now lies there was a large cave with a large number of hot springs. The high temperature and moisture of these springs caused the roof of the cave to collapse, creating the stunning layout that today is Vouliagmeni Lake.

There are a large variety of reasons as to why one should visit Vouliagmeni Lake.

The lake is continuously replenished by both the sea and underground thermal springs, offering visitors a unique thermal spa experience.

Besides the warm temperatures of between 22 to 29 degrees all year round, its waters are rich in salts and minerals thus making swimming in the lake a theraputic experience.

The combination of minerals in the water include potassium, natrium, lithium, ammonium, calcium, ferrum, chloride and iodine providing a magical mix of healing properties for those who take a dip in the water.

The water of the lake is known to assist with various ailments including eczema and dermatological diseases, neuralgia, headaches, disfiguring arthritis, chronic gynecological diseases, lumbago, sciatica and other problems.

Along with the list of fantastic benefits provided by the water, Garra Rufa, also known as spa or Dr fish, are part of the lakes unique ecosystem. Garra Rufa is a special type of fish that loves to nibble on the detritus of the lake floor.

These fish also provide complementary exfoliating sessions to those that swim in the lake, leaving everyone with baby-like skin at the end of the day.

Vouliagmeni Lake is full of mystery.

At the end of the lake there is an underwater 14 tunnel labyrinth cave that has yet to be fully with one of these being the longest such tunnel in the world at a length of 800 meters.

The unknown areas make the lake even more intriguing and those who visit simply cant get enough of its natural beauty.

Apart from the magical powers of the water and the fish that live in it, Vouliagmeni Lake is a breathtaking spot for a getaway from the busy city.

The lakes shoreline is surrounded by beach chairs and umbrellas as well as a cafe and even weekly exercise classes that are hosted at the lake to keep visitors fit and active.

As the spot is known for its breathtaking views, it is commonly known as a venue held for weddings, baptisms, fashion shows, meetings and other events.

Vouliagmeni Lake is the absolute perfect destination for all. It provides a quick escape from the city without having to actually leave the city.

There are many luxurious spas in Greece to choose from but nothing beats this open-air therapeutic lake that will leave everyone feeling refreshed, relaxed and wanting to come back again soon.

READ MORE ON GREEK CITY TIMES

Exploring the coastline of Athens

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Soak Up The Last Of Summer And Take A Dip In The Magical Vouliagmeni Lake - GreekCityTimes.com

Treating a baby's skin may save a child from a lifetime of allergic diseases

by: Len Rome

(WYTV) Eczema, food allergies and asthma are common conditions in children, and they all have a common link.

Treating a babys skin may save a child from a lifetime of allergic diseases.

Doctors call it atopic march a sequence of allergic diseases that starts in infancy with eczema and often progresses to food allergies, asthma and hay fever.

Heres how it happens

These people have dry, cracked skin, which allows allergens from the environment to penetrate through, said Dr. Donald Leung.

When food particles enter the body through the skin rather than the digestive system, they are more likely to cause allergies.

Parents can practice soak and seal, which starts with a warm, 20-minute bath for the child, followed by moisturizing ointment. This not only heals the skin, but also stops the atopic march before it gets started.

Understanding what causes the atopic march opens the door to finding solutions. Right now, doctors are looking at what weakens the skin barrier and how to repair it.

See the original post:
Len Romes Local Health: When skin conditions lead to allergies in kids - WYTV

News Release

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

An experimental treatment for eczema that aims to modify the skin microbiome safely reduced disease severity and increased quality of life for children as young as 3 years of age, a National Institutes of Health study has found. These improvements persisted for up to eight months after treatment stopped, researchers report Sept. 9 in Science Translational Medicine.

Atopic dermatitis, commonly called eczema, is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by dry, itchy skin and rashes. The disease is most common in children and is linked to an increased risk of developing asthma, hay fever and food allergy. While available treatments can help manage eczema symptoms, current options can be costly, and many require multiple daily applications.

The experimental therapy contains strains of live Roseomonas mucosaa bacterium naturally present on the skinoriginally isolated from healthy volunteers and grown under carefully controlled laboratory conditions. For four months, clinical trial participants or their caregivers periodically applied this probiotic therapy to areas of skin affected by eczema.

A child suffering from eczema, which can be itchy, painful and distracting for the child, also is very difficult for the entire family, said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of NIHs National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which led the study. These early-stage findings suggest that R. mucosa therapy may help relieve some children of both the burden of eczema symptoms and the need for daily treatment.

Numerous genetic and environmental factors contribute to eczema, and scientists are learning more about the role that the skins microbiome plays in this condition. In 2016, NIAID researchers reported that R. mucosa strains isolated from healthy human skin improved outcomes in cell culture and mouse models of eczema.

To build on these preclinical findings, NIAID launched a Phase 1/2 clinical trial at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, to assess the safety and potential benefit of R. mucosatherapy in people with eczema. Interim results reported in 2018 for 10 adults and five children aged 9 to 14 years indicated that the treatment was safe and associated with reduced eczema severity. Since then, the trial has enrolled an additional 15 children, for a total of 20 children with mild to severe eczema ranging in age from 3 to 16 years.

Twice weekly for three months and every other day for an additional month, children or their caregivers sprayed a solution of sugar water containing liveR. mucosaonto areas of skin with eczema. For the first 15 children enrolled in the study, the dose of live R. mucosa was gradually increased each month. The last five children to enroll received the same dose throughout the four-month treatment period. Regardless of dosing strategy, no serious adverse events were attributed to the therapy.

Most children in the study experienced substantial improvements in their skin and overall wellbeing following R. mucosa therapy. Encouragingly, the therapeutic bacteria stayed on the skin and continued to provide benefit after therapy stopped, said NIAIDs Ian Myles, M.D., principal investigator of the trial. These results support a larger study to further assess the safety and effectiveness of this experimental treatment by comparing it with a placebo.

Seventeen of the 20 children experienced a greater than 50% improvement in eczema severity following treatment. Improvement occurred on all treated skin sites, including the inner elbows, inner knees, hands, trunk and neck. The scientists also observed increases in the skins barrier functionits ability to seal in moisture and keep out allergens. Additionally, most children needed fewer corticosteroids to manage their eczema, experienced less itching, and reported a better quality of life following the therapy. These benefits persisted after treatment ended, and the therapeutic R. mucosa strains remained on the skin for up to eight months.

The NIAID researchers next set out to better understand how R. mucosa therapy improves eczema symptoms. They found that treated skin had increased microbial diversity and reduced levels of Staphylococcus aureusa bacterium known to exacerbate eczema.

In addition to imbalances in the microbiome, the skin of people with eczema is deficient in certain lipids, or oils. By conducting experiments in cell and animal models of eczema, the NIAID scientists found that a specific set of lipids produced by R. mucosa strains isolated from healthy skin can induce skin repair processes and promote turnover of skin tissue. Study participants had increased levels of these lipids on their skin after treatment with R. mucosa.

The researchers emphasize that additional studies are needed to further elucidate the mechanism of R. mucosa therapy and to explore whether genetic or other factors may explain why some participants did not benefit from the experimental treatment.

For more information about the completed Phase 1/2 study Beginning Assessment of Cutaneous Treatment Efficacy forRoseomonasin Atopic Dermatitis (BACTERiAD), see ClinicalTrials.gov using identifier NCT03018275.

NIH has exclusively licensed the R. mucosa therapy to Forte Biosciences to advance this potential treatment through further clinical development,and the company plans to begin enrollment in a Phase 2 placebo-controlled trial later this month. For more information about this study, Evaluation of FB-401 in Children, Adolescents and Adults (2 Years and Older) With Mild to Moderate Atopic Dermatitis, see ClinicalTrials.gov using identifierNCT04504279.

NIAID conducts and supports researchat NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwideto study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

IA Myles et al. Therapeutic responses to Roseomonas mucosa in atopic dermatitis may involve lipid-mediated TNF-related epithelial repair. Science Translational Medicine DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaz8631 (2020).

###

Read the original:
Probiotic skin therapy improves eczema in children - National Institutes of Health

Here's a shorthand way to think of my research: Using bugs as drugs may one day bring hope to soaps.

Patients with atopic dermatitis, more commonly known as eczema, suffer from dry, itchy skin and rashes, and have a higher risk of developing hay fever, asthma and food allergies.

The cause of eczema is still unknown, but studies completed by my team and others continue to suggest that manipulating the skin microbiome the community of all the bacteria and other microorganisms living on the surface of the skin may offer therapeutic benefits to patients.

We hypothesized that if we directly sprayed live bacteria named Roseomonas mucosa - a naturally occurring skin microbe - on the skin of patients with eczema, those healthy bacteria might make for healthy skin.

I am an allergy and immunology physician who explores the intersection of the microbiome, the skin and the environment in order to identify why allergic diseases have become more common in modern times.

All our scrapes, scratches, scrubbing and soaps take a toll on our skin. The natural oils that our skin makes are part of the normal processes the skin uses to repair itself after these insults.

Using human cells and mice, my colleagues and I were able to uncover additional evidence that oils from bacteria that reside on the skin may also play a role.

The oils from Roseomonas induce a specific skin repair pathway, in part through influencing molecules that are more frequently associated with our nerves than our skin. These oils also help kill Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium known to make eczema worse.

Our hope is that a topical treatment using this bacteria will be an improvement over current eczema treatments.

In 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began soliciting direct input from patients and patient advocacy groups for events known as Patient-Focused Drug Development meetings (or PFDD, for short).

In September of 2019, the FDA conducted a PFDD for eczema. One of the major findings was that itching was the symptom of primary concern for patients and their families. This stands in contrast with the FDA's current practice of approving new drugs based solely on the improvement in how bad the rash looks, instead of how bad the rash feels.

Patients also reported a high rate of complications from their current treatments and expressed particular concerns about using topical steroids.

Overall, patients said that eczema substantially decreased their quality of life because of the need to apply medications frequently. Eczema also drained their emotions and deprived them of sleep due to unmanageable itching in either them or their children.

Two years ago, my colleagues and I reported our results from 10 adults and five children who were at least 9 years old.

Since eczema most often afflicts children who are younger than 7 years old, our newest study enrolled an additional 15 children as young as 3 years old. Overall, our patients achieved a 60-75 percent improvement in their rash and itch by applying Roseomonas two to three times per week for 4 months.

Patients and their families also reported needing to apply topical steroids less often and a better quality of life as they slept more and itched less. One patient complained of mild itching during the minute or so it took the spray to dry on their arms, but there were no other complaints related to treatment.

Thus, taken together with some of our safety studies in mice, Roseomonas continues to appear safe.

Left: Inner elbow of a child with eczema before therapy. Right: Same patient after four months of treatment. (NIAID, CC BY-SA)

One of the more promising findings of our new study was that patients' symptoms improved for up to eight months after stopping the bacterial spray medication.

The advantage of using live bacteria is that the microbes can take up residence on the skin. We found that the bacteria lived on the skin at least eight months after treatment and likely continued to provide clinical benefit without the need for constant application.

While not cured, many patients in the study described their symptoms and "muted". Their typical day was better than ever, and while eczema flares still occurred, they were less frequent and less severe.

Theoretically, applying our treatment as soon as symptoms manifest might prevent future disease and thus be "curative" however, for now, such thinking is speculation.

Yet, even if Roseomonas is more treatment than cure, our findings are still directly aligned with the goals laid out in the PFDD: "sustained relief from itch," a reduced need for topical steroids and an overall improved ability to "go about daily life".

Starting this month, we are expanding our clinical Roseomonas study to include many more patients in a placebo-controlled trial. In the new clinical study, half the 120 or more patients that enroll will get our Roseomonas spray while the other half will get only a sugar water spray.

The knowledge that bacteria like Roseomonas can help patients with eczema will also allow us to examine which environmental exposures might harm these microbes.

According to a 2016 report from the Environmental Protection Agency, there are over 8,700 chemicals on the US market. Not all of these are common and not all are used on the skin, but the number of possible combinations and concentrations of chemicals we may expose our skin to on a daily basis could be near infinite.

By systematically evaluating which exposures help, which hurt and which are benign, we may be able to "bathe smarter" and identify the best way to keep ourselves clean without disrupting the balance of the bacteria that keep us healthy.

Ian Myles, Head, Epithelial Therapeutics Unit, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Go here to see the original:
A Spray Containing Live Bacteria Could Be The Eczema Treatment Children Need - ScienceAlert

Heres a shorthand way to think of my research: Using bugs as drugs may one day bring hope to soaps.

Patients with atopic dermatitis, more commonly known as eczema, suffer from dry, itchy skin and rashes, and have a higher risk of developing hay fever, asthma and food allergies. The cause of eczema is still unknown, but studies completed by my team and others continue to suggest that manipulating the skin microbiome the community of all the bacteria and other microorganisms living on the surface of the skin may offer therapeutic benefits to patients.

We hypothesized that if we directly sprayed live bacteria named Roseomonas mucosa - a naturally occurring skin microbe - on the skin of patients with eczema, those healthy bacteria might make for healthy skin.

I am an allergy and immunology physician who explores the intersection of the microbiome, the skin and the environment in order to identify why allergic diseases have become more common in modern times.

All our scrapes, scratches, scrubbing and soaps take a toll on our skin. The natural oils that our skin makes are part of the normal processes the skin uses to repair itself after these insults.

Using human cells and mice, my colleagues and I were able to uncover additional evidence that oils from bacteria that reside on the skin may also play a role. The oils from Roseomonas induce a specific skin repair pathway, in part through influencing molecules that are more frequently associated with our nerves than our skin. These oils also help kill Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria known to make eczema worse.

Our hope is that a topical treatment using this bacteria will be an improvement over current eczema treatments.

In 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began soliciting direct input from patients and patient advocacy groups for events known as Patient-Focused Drug Development meetings (or PFDD, for short).

In September of 2019, the FDA conducted a PFDD for eczema. One of the major findings was that itching was the symptom of primary concern for patients and their families. This stands in contrast with the FDAs current practice of approving new drugs based solely on the improvement in how bad the rash looks, instead of how bad the rash feels. Patients also reported a high rate of complications from their current treatments and expressed particular concerns about using topical steroids.

Overall, patients said that eczema substantially decreased their quality of life because of the need to apply medications frequently. Eczema also drained their emotions and deprived them of sleep due to unmanageable itching in either them or their children.

Two years ago, my colleagues and I reported our results from 10 adults and five children who were at least 9 years old.

Since eczema most often afflicts children who are younger than 7 years old, our newest study enrolled an additional 15 children as young as 3 years old. Overall, our patients achieved a 60-75% improvement in their rash and itch by applying Roseomonas two to three times per week for 4 months.

Patients and their families also reported needing to apply topical steroids less often and a better quality of life as they slept more and itched less. One patient complained of mild itching during the minute or so it took the spray to dry on their arms, but there were no other complaints related to treatment. Thus, taken together with some of our safety studies in mice, Roseomonas continues to appear safe.

One of the more promising findings of our new study was that patients symptoms improved for up to eight months after stopping the bacterial spray medication. The advantage of using live bacteria is that the microbes can take up residence on the skin. We found that the bacteria lived on the skin at least eight months after treatment and likely continued to provide clinical benefit without the need for constant application.

While not cured, many patients in the study described their symptoms and muted. Their typical day was better than ever, and while eczema flares still occurred, they were less frequent and less severe. Theoretically, applying our treatment as soon as symptoms manifest might prevent future disease and thus be curative however, for now, such thinking is speculation.

Yet, even if Roseomonas is more treatment than cure, our findings are still directly aligned with the goals laid out in the PFDD: sustained relief from itch, a reduced need for topical steroids and an overall improved ability to go about daily life.

Starting this month, we are expanding our clinical Roseomonas study to include many more patients in a placebo-controlled trial. In the new clinical study, half the 120 or more patients that enroll will get our Roseomonas spray while the other half will get only a sugar water spray.

The knowledge that bacteria like Roseomonas can help patients with eczema will also allow us to examine which environmental exposures might harm these microbes. According to a 2016 report from the Environmental Protection Agency, there are over 8,700 chemicals on the U.S. market. Not all of these are common and not all are used on the skin, but the number of possible combinations and concentrations of chemicals we may expose our skin to on a daily basis could be near infinite.

By systematically evaluating which exposures help, which hurt and which are benign, we may be able to bathe smarter and identify the best way to keep ourselves clean without disrupting the balance of the bacteria that keep us healthy.

Read more here:
Live bacteria spray is showing promise in treating childhood eczema - The Conversation US

Eczema is an umbrella term for conditions that causes inflamed, itchy, cracked, and rough skin. Atopic eczema (atopic dermatitis) is the most common form of eczema. As the NHS explains, there are usually periods where the symptoms improve, followed by periods where they get worse - these are known as flare-ups.

Moisturising your skin can help prevent the skin becoming dry, flaky, irritated and itchy.

Speaking to The Sun Online, Dr Anton Alexandroff, spokesman for the British Association of Dermatologists, said: "The most important part of treating eczema is moisturising.

"Sometimes you'll need something else, like a topical steroid, but usually you just need a good moisturiser.

"Sunflower oil is a moisturiser and is actually included in some moisturisers."

The skin eventually thickens into leathery areas as a result of chronic scratching, it says.

To resist scratching, you could try gently rubbing your skin with your fingers instead, advises the NHS.

"If your baby has atopic eczema, anti-scratch mittens may stop them scratching their skin," says the health body.

It adds: "Keep your nails short and clean to minimise damage to the skin from unintentional scratching."

Excerpt from:
Eczema treatment: Apply this natural oil to improve skin hydration and boost skin barrier - Express

Simpson, E. L., Bieber, T., Eckert, L., Wu, R., Ardeleanu, M., Graham, N. M., Pirozzi, G., & Mastey, V. (2016). Patient burden of moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (AD): Insights from a phase 2b clinical trial of dupilumab in adults.Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology,74(3), 491498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2015.10.043

Simpson, E. L., Bieber, T., Guttman-Yassky, E., Beck, L. A., Blauvelt, A., Cork, M. J., Silverberg, J. I., Deleuran, M., Kataoka, Y., Lacour, J. P., Kingo, K., Worm, M., Poulin, Y., Wollenberg, A., Soo, Y., Graham, N. M., Pirozzi, G., Akinlade, B., Staudinger, H., Mastey, V., SOLO 1 and SOLO 2 Investigators (2016). Two Phase 3 Trials of Dupilumab versus Placebo in Atopic Dermatitis.The New England journal of medicine,375(24), 23352348. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1610020

Torrelo, A., Ortiz, J., Alomar, A., Ros, S., Prieto, M., & Cuervo, J. (2012). Atopic dermatitis: impact on quality of life and patients attitudes toward its management.European journal of dermatology : EJD,22(1), 97105. https://doi.org/10.1684/ejd.2011.1560

Read this article:
Eczema Is An Inflammatory Disease, Not Just An Irritating Skin Condition - Longevity LIVE

A MAN was left with red and painful sores after he scratched the pigment from his skin after years of battling a mystery illness.

Neil Cobb was left in agony after small patches of eczema on his hands spread across his body like wildfire.

7

The 64-year-olds skin is so itchy, he has scratched off the pigment.

For four years he has been plagued by red, open sores and he once collapsed unconscious and was left fighting for his life after an infection engulfed his body.

But Neils real torment is having no idea what is causing his pain. He is one of many people living with undiagnosed health conditions.

What makes these peoples illnesses much harder to cope with is the lack of answers and that uncertainty can cause mental as well as physical problems.

Now a new BBC series, The Diagnosis Detectives, hosted by Dr Michael Mosley, aims to help find answers with the help of 12 experts.

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Speaking on the programme Neil said: Im merely existing and suffering as I exist. If no one can help me, I dont think I will be around much longer.

Dr Michael Mosley, who presents the show, told The Sun the makers were inundated with people desperate for answers when creating the series.

He says: A lot of these people have had undiagnosed conditions for years. They have been around the houses and seen several different doctors.

You look at poor Neil and think, blimey, this has really affected his social life.

But happily, on the show Neil DOES get a diagnosis, and successful treatment, and Dr Mosley says this was life-changing for him.

7

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Neil, originally from Missouri, US, moved to England in the 1990s to work as a mechanic at a US Air Force base in Norfolk.

He first noticed symptoms in 2016 and military doctors put it down to an allergic reaction to a chemical in cleaning fluid.

Initially, he was given a steroid cream to treat small patches of irritation on his hands. But the rash then spread like wildfire up his arms and across his body, and he was unable to work.

He tells the show, before his diagnosis: I itch so intensely, I have scratched my pigment off. Indeed, so severe is his scratching that he is left with gaping sores and widespread infection.

Neil was recently found unconscious, his body consumed by sepsis a deadly immune response to an infection, where the body attacks its own tissues.

7

He turned to the TV specialists in the hope of finding an answer.

Consultant dermatologist Dr Sharon Wong, who leads the investigation into Neils case, says: Skin is the gateway to the rest of your body and in extreme cases some patients can die from skin disease. So it isnt a superficial problem. It goes a lot deeper than that.

Dr Wong tells viewers Neil recently had a tumour removed from his kidney, so it is possible some cancerous cells were left behind and that could be contributing to his skin problem.

She says there could also be an underlying blood cancer such as T-cell lymphoma, which can appear on the skin in a way that mimics eczema.

7

Otherwise, the rash could come down to the initial diagnosis of an allergic form ofeczema, which needs to be brought under control.

Dr Wong takes three skin biopsies and sends Neil for a CT scan to rule out anything related to cancer. In the meantime, she prescribes strong steroid cream and tablets, as well as a course of antibiotics.

When Neil returns to her London clinic weeks later, his condition has improved. His skin is much smoother and the flare-ups appear to finally be under control.

His test results show no evidence of kidney cancer and there was nothing to point to T-cell lymphoma.

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After four years, Dr Wong is able to give Neil the diagnosis he has craved he does have a severe case of eczema.

Dr Wong says: Over years, unfortunately, the hand eczema wasnt fully contained and Neil continued to get more and more eczema in other parts of the body.

"Your skin, head totoe, is one organ, so if youve got an inflammatory process like eczema happening on your leg and you dont contain it, just like a wildfire will do, it will continue to spread.

Given his diagnosis, and the treatment he needed, Neil has now managed to return to work.

See the article here:
Man scratches the pigment from his skin after years of battling mystery illness - The Sun

FOR most people, a trip to the GP goes something like this: Symptoms, examination and diagnosis.

But for some patients, that is not their reality.

17

Instead, they live each day with an undiagnosed condition and the agony of not knowing can leave them questioning if life is really worth living.

A condition such as endometriosis can take on average seven years to diagnose, while superstar Lady Gaga has opened up about her battle with fibromyalgia which can also be hard to spot.

New BBC series The Diagnosis Detectives, hosted by Dr Michael Mosley, aims to help find answers with the help of 12 experts.

Here, we meet some of their patients.

17

WHAT started as just small patches of eczema on his hands soon spread like wildfire around his body and has left Neil Cobb in agony.

The 64-year-olds skin is so itchy, he has scratched off the pigment.

17

For four years he has been plagued by red, open sores and he once collapsed unconscious and was left fighting for his life after an infection engulfed his body.

But Neils real torment is having no idea what is causing his pain. He is one of many people living with undiagnosed health conditions.

What makes these peoples illnesses much harder to cope with is the lack of answers and that uncertainty can cause mental as well as physical problems.

Neil tells tomorrow night's episode of new BBC series The Diagnosis Detectives: Im merely existing and suffering as I exist. If no one can help me, I dont think I will be around much longer.

17

Dr Michael Mosley, who presents the show, told The Sun the makers were inundated with people desperate for answers when creating the series.

He says: A lot of these people have had undiagnosed conditions for years. They have been around the houses and seen several different doctors.

You look at poor Neil and think, blimey, this has really affected his social life.

But happily, on the show Neil DOES get a diagnosis, and successful treatment, and Dr Mosley says this was life-changing for him.

17

He added: This is more emotional than many of the series I have made. There were a lot of tears.

Dr Mosley and 12 other top specialists from various different fields put their heads together to try to crack some of the most puzzling unsolved medical cases.

Their aim is to give their patients the answers they so desperately need, and have often waited years for.

Dr Mosley says: Diagnosis is at the heart of everything we are taught at medical school. You start with a persons medical history, you find out if there is any pain, where it started, and then theres a physical examination.

The reality is, for most people their condition is fairly obvious. But how many people are out there living without a diagnosis? I dont know.

The grim reality is that it is likely the hundreds who applied for the show are just the tip of the iceberg.

17

Neil, originally from Missouri, US, moved to England in the 1990s to work as a mechanic at a US Air Force base in Norfolk.

He first noticed symptoms in 2016 and military doctors put it down to an allergic reaction to a chemical in cleaning fluid.

Initially, he was given a steroid cream to treat small patches of irritation on his hands. But the rash then spread like wildfire up his arms and across his body, and he was unable to work.

He tells the show, before his diagnosis: I itch so intensely, I have scratched my pigment off. Indeed, so severe is his scratching that he is left with gaping sores and widespread infection.

17

Neil was recently found unconscious, his body consumed by sepsis a deadly immune response to an infection, where the body attacks its own tissues.

He turned to the TV specialists in the hope of finding an answer.

Consultant dermatologist Dr Sharon Wong, who leads the investigation into Neils case, says: Skin is the gateway to the rest of your body and in extreme cases some patients can die from skin disease. So it isnt a superficial problem. It goes a lot deeper than that.

Dr Wong tells viewers Neil recently had a tumour removed from his kidney, so it is possible some cancerous cells were left behind and that could be contributing to his skin problem.

17

She says there could also be an underlying blood cancer such as T-cell lymphoma, which can appear on the skin in a way that mimics eczema.

Otherwise, the rash could come down to the initial diagnosis of an allergic form of eczema, which needs to be brought under control.

Dr Wong takes three skin biopsies and sends Neil for a CT scan to rule out anything related to cancer. In the meantime, she prescribes strong steroid cream and tablets, as well as a course of antibiotics.

When Neil returns to her London clinic weeks later, his condition has improved. His skin is much smoother and the flare-ups appear to finally be under control.

17

His test results show no evidence of kidney cancer and there was nothing to point to T-cell lymphoma.

After four years, Dr Wong is able to give Neil the diagnosis he has craved he does have a severe case of eczema.

Dr Wong says: Over years, unfortunately, the hand eczema wasnt fully contained and Neil continued to get more and more eczema in other parts of the body.

"Your skin, head totoe, is one organ, so if youve got an inflammatory process like eczema happening on your leg and you dont contain it, just like a wildfire will do, it will continue to spread.

17

Given his diagnosis, and the treatment he needed, Neil has now managed to return to work.

Next up on the TV show, hoping for answers, is Katie who has been plagued by health problems since her teens.

The mum-of-threes joints crack and pop, leaving her in constant agony and just walking across a room can cause her heart rate to spike to 140 beats per minute, way above the healthy range of 60 to 100.

More recently, she started experiencing excruciating stomach pain and being sick, which caused her to lose a lot of weight very quickly.

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Mum-of-three Katie, 35, from Lancashire, says: I lost 4st 7lb in 18 months. My appetite went down and down. I had tests done and it turned out that my stomach wasnt emptying properly.

The part-time nursing assistant had a temporary feeding tube fitted to bypass her stomach and deliver nutrients straight into her intestine.

But she continued to lose weight and still doesnt have any answers. She says: If I were to go to my GP with everything that I feel in my body, Id be there for a weeks appointment, not a ten-minute slot.

I was a dress size 12 to 14, I felt good and confident, but now Im heading towards half the person I was.

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Im still fairly young, I have a family, I want to know what the future holds.

Examining her case, the Diagnosis Detectives tell Katie that all her different symptoms could be linked.

Dr Stephanie Barrett, a consultant rheumatologist, suggests she could have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), which affects the connective tissues and causes very flexible joints.

Dr Barrett says it could have caused a weakening of the tissues in the stomach, and caused her blood vessels to stretch, causing Katies fast heartbeat.

But this is not the only option they explore. Dr Barbara McGowan suggests Katies symptoms could also be a sign of a tumour in her adrenal glands.

She also notes that Katie had a neck op to remove one of the four parathyroid glands which regulate calcium levels when she was 17.

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The endocrinologist specialising in hormone-related diseases explains that the combination could point to a rare genetic disorder known as multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN).

It can be life-limiting and is genetic, so could potentially put Katies children at risk.

But after blood tests rule out MEN, Dr Barrett tells Katie she has a rare form of EDS known as hypermobile EDS.

Dr Barrett adds: The painful symptoms youve been getting are to do with the tendons and muscles, which have had micro injuries over the years. So it all fits together.

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Although happy to finally get a diagnosis, Katie says she is concerned that two of her children also have hypermobility.

The medics explain that her type of EDS does not have a gene test yet, but confirm it is hereditary.

Speaking after her appointment, Katie says: Ive seen umpteen different specialists and never really got anywhere and now I finally have an answer.

It will be a massive change for me to now be able to move forward, with just that very clear definition of what is going on.

'Failure to diagnose'

NOT all health conditions present equally, with some typically harder to diagnose.

Failure to diagnose, as it is known medically, can prove upsetting and frustrating for patients, Dr Mosley tells The Sun.

Sometimes it is just a matter of time. The way symptoms manifest can mean the condition becomes more apparent over time. What it shows is how complicated the human body really is.

If these conditions were straightforward, GPs would be able to find the answer easily, all the time.

The range of possibilities can be vast, so we doctors have to narrow them down and go down some blind allies before we can get an answer.

Almost any illness can be mis-diagnosed, but below are some common conditions that are more routinely missed.

AROUND one in every ten women in the UK is plagued by endometriosis, which takes on average seven years to diagnose.

It causes agonising periods, when the tissue that lines the womb grows outside the uterus, on the ovaries or Fallopian tubes, the charity Endometriosis UK explains.

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It is often confused with other conditions which cause pain in the same area, such as ovarian cysts or irritable bowel syndrome.

Scans, blood tests and internal examinations are not a conclusive way to diagnose endometriosis.

The only way to be certain is with laparoscopy, which is when a thin tube with a light and a camera is inserted into the pelvis to check the tissue.

THE likes of Lady Gaga and broadcaster Kirsty Young have spoken out about their battles with fibromyalgia.

It is a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body and again, due to the lack of a specific test, it can prove difficult to diagnose.

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Symptoms can be similar to other conditions and, to get a diagnosis, certain criteria usually have to be met:

Doctors will try to rule out conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis before diagnosing fibromyalgia.

THIS is an auto-immune disease where the body attacks its own nerve cells and disrupts the communication between the brain and rest of the body.

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From fibromyalgia to eczema do you have an undiagnosed illness like Lady Gaga? - The Sun

Representative image

The time of year a baby is born may be a risk factor for food allergies, say researchers, adding that babies born in fall (post-monsoon or autumn season, lasting from October to November) are at higher risk of allergic diseases. Food allergies are on the rise, with more than five million children, about two kids in every school classroom, now suffering from allergy to at least one food, according to the study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.

For the study, the research team worked to discover what is responsible for this increase and have determined that many allergic conditions likely start with dry, cracked skin, which leads to a chain reaction of allergic diseases known as the atopic march. It begins in infancy with eczema and leads to food allergies, asthma and hay fever later in childhood. "We looked at every child treated in our clinic, and those born in the fall were much more likely to experience all of the conditions associated with the atopic march," said study author Jessica Hui from National Jewish Health in the US.

Children with eczema often have high levels of a harmful bacteria called staph aureus on their skin, which weakens the skin's ability to keep out allergens and pathogens. "When food particles are able to penetrate the skin rather than being digested, the body sees them as foreign and creates antibodies against them, which causes the child to become allergic," Hui said. Researchers are now conducting a clinical trial to look at a wide variety of factors that may contribute to this weakened skin barrier in babies.

They're enrolling pregnant women and following their babies into early childhood to consider everything from environmental factors to genetics to medications taken and products used in the home. They hope that this will not only help explain why babies born in the fall are at greater risk, but will also help develop solutions to stop the atopic march in its tracks.

"We think if we can intervene at a very young age, even right after the baby's out of the womb, then potentially that's a way for us to try to stop the development of this atopic march," Hui said. Other potential solutions to prevent the atopic march is sealing the skin barriers of babies with eczema using wet wraps and lotions and introducing allergenic food early in life for kids at risk, the authors noted.

Link:
Study finds that the time of year a child is born can determine the risk of allergic diseases - EdexLive