Alternative Treatment of Common Skin Diseases
Alternative treatment aims not only to minimize the patient's complaints, but also to restore the skin barrier function as quickly as possible in order to reduce the effects of irritants or allergens.
Crusts should be first removed gently by a tepid water bath, preferably supplemented with anti-inflammatory agents (e.g., wheat bran) and bath oil, or by wet dressings. With efficient anti-inflammatory treatment itching also resolves in many cases.
Most drugs used in dermatology are topical: they are applied to the skin surface in the form of ointments, creams, lotions, gels, and powders.
Topical drugs have advantages over systemic drugs. They deliver the medication directly to the organ that needs treatment - sometimes called the target organ - the skin. Topicals are also less likely to provoke systemic side effects than systemic drugs are.
A topical drug cannot be effective if it does not penetrate the skin's outer protective layer and deliver its healing medication. Penetration through the skin is affected by the condition of the skin itself and the physical and chemical properties of the two parts of a topical dermatologic drug: the active, the vehicle and the presence of skin enhancer.
Topical herbal drugs can be an alternative for treating skin ailments if we take into consideration their benefit/risk ratio compared to synthetic drugs. Many of the well-known plants are currently widely accepted by patients because of their heeling power. The efficacy of herbal drugs, their extracts and isolated substances can be deduced from pharmacological and biochemical in vitro experiments. Clinical trials are very promising (24).
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