Photodamaged Skin - How Homeopathy Plays A Role?

Photodamaged skin is a disorder which is mainly caused due to overexposure to the sun. This is why it is also referred to as sun damaged skin. The sun’s rays causes the naturally occurring oils of the skin to evaporate that eventually leads to dry skin. Once the skin is dried out, the UV rays from the sun can burn it which in turn causes the disorder.

Types of Photodamaged Skin
Sun damage to the skin is not limited to just a single form. In fact, there can be 4 distinct types in which the disorder can affect the skin.

1. Dry Skin- This causes the skin to flake off and look wrinkled in the process.
2. Sunburn- When your skin is slightly over-exposed to the sun, it may become red and painful. However, greater exposure may even cause blisters and other forms of boils to appear over the skin’s surface.
3. Actinic keratosis- A more permanent form of sun damage, Actinic keratosis results in the formation of a small patch of scaly eruptions on the skin. This does not go away on its own and needs to be removed by a physician.
4. Long-term changes- If the exposure to the sun continues for a considerably long period of time, it may cause permanent damage to the structural protein in the skin. Photo-ageing or premature ageing may be one of the long-term changes.

Effective homeopathic treatment for sun damaged skin
Homeopathy treats the underlying cause of the sun damage and not just the external area of the skin where the damage has occurred. This is why the practitioners will first conduct a complete checkup of the patient to know about the normal skin condition of that person. Some people tend to have oily skin while others are predisposed to have drier skin. The people with dry skin are at greater risk of sun damage, as compared to those who possess oily skin.

Certain homeopathic medications are devised to treat mild sunburn while others are effective against the photodamaged skin cases of greater severity. For instance, the medicine extracted from Cantharis sp. is a great homeopathic medicine for treating sun damaged skin where blisters are also visible. However, the medicine extracted from the plant Belladonna is used in case the sunburn has only caused redness and no other symptoms.

At any rate, patients are recommended to avoid exposing their skin to the sun, as continued exposure can lead to skin cancers as well. In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!