Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-04-17
Hand Eczema
Common
With Women
Contact With Irritants
More Frequent
By DIR. LOGAN CLENDENING

By DIR. LOGAN CLENDENING
ECZEMA is three or four
IL times as com mon on
women's hands as ii is on mems
because women are likely to
come in contact with more SUBJ
stances which are irritating and
have the property of causing
eczema.
I remember one case which
puzzled me for a long time
puzzled is a mild word for il.
She was a middle-aged woman
who had eczema only on her left
hand. was pretty sure that it
was a contact affair, but neither
she nor l could figure out ex-
actly what she had contacted
with her left hand which she
would not also touch with her
right hand.
finally asked her TO keep q
diary of exactly everything she
did. minute by minute, through
every day.
In a week she came back and
announced that we had both
been fools-which was a pretty
fair statement.
She found that when she
watered her primroses, she held
the watering can In her right
hand and lifted the leaves of the
plants and flowers with the
other so that water would get
down into the pots.
II was the left hand, and the
left hand only, that was exposed.
MOST Of these cases Of derma-
HA tits on the hands OF house,
wives are due to some sort of
contact with some object that
they have to handle in house,
keeping.
The eruption Is usually watery
pimples on the back of the fin-
gers and the hands.
For some reason or other II
tends to improve in warm
weather and is better or worse
according TO the degree and fire.
quency Of exposure to irritating
substances.
Many of these cases are called
ringworm and are unsatisfactory
lily treated as such.
1t may be a rug with some
kind of dust In IL, or something
used in cooking to which the
housewife Is sensitive.
Most Of the cases, however,
are due TO some kind of soap or
the over use Of soaps.
Most people in the latter dec
AIDES OF life wash their hands too
often with soap anyway, and
this causes drying and Debating
of the skin which leads to
eczema and the invasion of bac-
terra into the skin.
Medicated soaps may contain
some substances which will pro-
duce this representative reaction.
SOAPS are by definition metal
~ lie salts Of high fatty acid
content. but for practical pur-
poses sodium. potassium or am
monium salts are also used for
cleansing purposes.
Most soaps on the market also
contain rosin and such things
as sodium silicate in high quanti-
ties.
Cooks. dom estic workers,
housewives. hospital orderlies.
hairdressers. dish washers, bar
tenders and surgeons are all SUBJ
ject TO these eczematous erup-
tions.
A good deal Of the fault is un-
necessary rewas ing of the
hands and good deal of il is
due TO lack of sufficient rinsing
OF soap from the hands.
The way the dermatologist
makes a diagnosis is by what Is
known as the patch skin test.
He takes the object that the
skin comes in contact with. puts
some on the skin, and covers
that patch Of skin up with an
adhesive plaster and watches TO
see whether an eruption takes
place or not.
The treatment, once the dag
nosis has been made, is obvious
and in most cases very simple.
One OF the great features in
treatment is the use of rubber
gloves.
For most Of the people en-
ployed as we have described,
rubber gloves are the solution to
the condition.
QUESTIONS, ANSWERS
J. H.-Does a vegetable or any
food in a glass container lose
vitamins by being exposed to
light? / strain the orange juice
! serve. Is il necessary to use it
without straining il in order to
get all the vitamins?
Answer: Light and heat both
have a tendency TO destroy the
vitamins in fresh foods So does
simply standing at rest.
Nature protected the orange
with skin which shuts out light
and keeps the temperature even.
and IL would be well 10 take
Nature at its word and use the
fruit while ii Is fresh.
There is great deal OF waste
In pouring off water from vege-
tables and preserved fruits.
However, orange juice in tin
container retains its vitamins
a.anlI 1l.o. l. n..n.nrI,