I knew that moving to a sunny seaside resort for good was the Top1 solution to take control over my eczema. Still, I took my time and read Eczema-Free For Life very carefully. Basically, the purpose of this blog post is to praise the book.
I have been struggling with eczema since childhood, and none of my doctors helped me to get better informed about my health condition. I do not blame them for that. They tried to help me with their pieces of advice. But reading this book was better than 100 visits to the dermatologists, who never had time to explain what is wrong-or different-about my skin.
1. Thanks to this book I understood the differences between an allergy and eczema. These should not be confused.
2. The book combats the old common myth according to which eczema is a result of the psychological problems. The faulty genes are responsible for my skin disorder and not "ill weak soul" or something like that. But this chronic skin disorder might effect psychological health of the patient.
3. The book explained what itching is and how to better deal with this very uncomfortable symptom.
4. Most importantly, the book describes the treatments of eczema in terms of what they are and what contemporary (American) scientists know about their efficacy. The authors accept the fact that some treatments work well but there is no reliable scientific research explaining why these treatments work.
5. The book, basically, disillusions, but for the patient's good: there is no sense in rushing for fast miracle cures, none exists yet. Taking control over this disorder takes a big effort, and there is no guarantee it will be cured.
The illustrations like this one are especially helpful in clarifying complex itch-scratch-rash cycle.
If you are diagnised with eczema, this book is a must. You should make sure your parents or peers understand your condition, so ask them to read this book as well. The book also helped me to understand how my loved ones, especially, my parents feel when I have severe inflamation. They have tough times seing me suffering. This book helped me to realize how egoistic and negative I was thinking my loved ones did not make an effort to understand how I feel and still try to "act normal".
This book had a very positive anaesthetic effect on me. I highly recommend it.
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Update November 1, 2010: I have published my brief review of this book on Amazon.com. It is slightly different. If you are interested, take a look.
Besides, I had a glimpse of The Eczema Community on Amazon: very useful if you want to purchase eczema treatment products in this on-line shop.
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