Dr. Jalahuddin Farooqui

The skin covers and protects all parts of the body. It is also most exposed to the outside world including the dust, pollution and other environmental pollutants. Smooth, healthy, glowing skin is what most of us desire, in addition to diet, lifestyle and stress produce various changes to the skin, which are just totally undesirable. In addition to the cosmetic effects, they also have a huge psychological bearing on a person. Imagine a person with acne-filled face, or a person with eczema on the hands, or a person with warts on the neck. They are obviously embarrassed and try to hide the affected part with clothing.

Homeopathy believes that these skin conditions are not just due to environmental causes, but have a deep underlying health condition. Correcting that will help restore normal healthy skin and improve the overall personality and quality of life of a person. Acne, psoriasis, eczema, warts and urticaria are the most common skin ailment commonly seen. Let's know more about these skin disorder-

1. Acne: Acne is a common skin disease that causes pimples. Pimples form when hair follicles under your skin clog up. Most pimples form on the face, neck, back, chest, and shoulders. Anyone can get acne, but it is common in teenagers and young adults. It is not serious, but it can cause scars.
2. Psoriasis: Psoriasis is a noncontagious skin condition that produces plaques of thickened, scaling skin. The dry flakes of skin scales result from the excessively rapid proliferation of skin cells. The proliferation of skin cells is triggered by inflammatory chemicals produced by specialized white blood cells called lymphocytes. Psoriasis commonly affects the skin of the elbows, knees, and scalp.
3. Eczema: Rather than a specific condition, eczema is a group of unrelated diseases that have a similar appearance. When it is new eczema, the affected skin appears red and elevated with small blisters (vesicles) containing a clear fluid. When the blisters break, the affected skin will weep and ooze. In older eczema, chronic eczema, the blisters are less prominent and the skin is thickened, elevated, and scaling. Eczema almost always is very itchy.
4. Warts: Warts are raised bumps on your skin caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). Wart viruses are contagious. Warts can spread by contact with the wart or something that touched the wart. Warts are often skin-colored and feel rough, but they can be dark (brown or gray-black), flat, and smooth. 
5. Urticaria: Hives, also known as urticaria, affects about 20 percent of people at some time during their lives. It can be triggered by many substances or situations and usually starts as an itchy patch of skin that turns into swollen red welts. The itching may be mild to severe. Scratching, alcoholic beverages, exercise and emotional stress may worsen the itching.

However, there is a lot of overlap in terms of what homeopathic medications are used in each of these conditions. Most commonly used medicines are:

1. Graphites: In patients with eruptions on the face, scalp, various joints, which are extremely itching, scaly, and dry, graphites is used. These people have dry hair with increased hair fall.
2. Lycopodium: If the eruptions are dry and scaly, this can be used.
3. Causticum: This is again widely used in treating warts, acne, and psoriasis.
4. Calcarea: Eczema which covers the scalp and the face with white crusting, which is extremely itching especially in the morning. This is also useful in solitary warts which are round and hard.
5. Sulphur: The sore skin has pustular eruptions. The scalp is dry but hot to the touch. There is a great tendency to scratch, especially at night. This is also the first choice to treat pustular acne, warts, and urticaria. It also helps in removing old scars from acne. A word of caution, it can cause exacerbation of symptoms, and this should not cause panic.
6. Puslatilla: Acne is often associated with puberty, and in young girls, this is commonly used where there is an association with menstrual cycles.
7. Antimonium crudum: This is widely used in warts that can be single or in groups, hard or smooth. There could be associated digestive issues and irritability.

With treatment for most of these skin troubles, there would be a dramatic improvement in the person’s mood before the actual skin problems improve. The person also would feel more motivated with higher energy levels. This is one of the major benefits of homeopathy, where not just the symptoms, but the person’s overall quality of life improves without any known side effects.