How to Keep Your Hands Healthy and Germ-Free During Cold and Flu Season – Without Triggering Eczema

While frequent hand washing can help prevent germs from spreading from person to person, it is especially important during the upcoming cold & flu season. Germs are most often spread via person to person contact. Germs typically enter our body through the nose, mouth, eyes and even via broken skin.

Along with frequent hand-washing, these other steps are recommended to keep you germ-free:
• Avoid touching your nose, eyes or mouth
• While sneezing or coughing, use a tissue to cover your nose and mouth.
• If you don’t have a tissue handy, sneeze or cough into clothing.
• Be sure to throw the tissue away immediately in the trash.
• Disinfect surfaces.
• If you get sick, stay at home or limit contact with others

Here’s How to Wash Your Hands Correctly:
• Rinse your hands first with clean, running water (the temperature doesn’t matter, friction is what removes dirt & germs, but warmer water can cause more skin irritation)
• Soap Up
• Using friction, scrub your hands for at least twenty seconds. Include the front, back, between fingers and under your nails.
• Rinse under clean, running water
• Gently dry your hands with a clean towel or air dry. Germs transfer more easily when hands are wet.

For atopic dermatitis/dyshidrotic/eczema-prone skin, hand washing can trigger contact dermatitis and skin irritation. Certain chemicals in soaps can cause skin irritation. Frequent hand washing can also trigger skin irritation, as soap strips oils from the skin, leaving it prone to dry, cracked skin.

A better alternative is to switch to a hand sanitizer. They cause less skin irritation than using soap & water.

Is Hand Sanitizer Safe For Eczema?

Yes and No.

The Options Are Alcohol or Alcohol-Free Hand Sanitizers:

Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizers

How they work:
Typically containing 60 – 9% of alcohol as their active ingredient, these evaporative solvent alcohols are called SD Alcohol40, Denatured Alcohol, Ethanol, or Isopropyl Alcohol. They have antiseptic properties that kill germs and bacteria on contact.

Because they dry super quickly, they are extremely drying to the skin and damage your skin’s protective surface, especially those prone to eczema or dry skin.

If your skin is already damaged, irritated or broken, it can hurt during the application, as your skin will feel a burning and stinging sensation.

If your skin isn’t irritated and unbroken, then using a hand sanitizer with alcohol is an effective alternative to soap & water. They cause less skin irritation than repeatedly washing hands with soap and water.

If your skin is broken, have an eczema flare, or are sensitive to alcohol, switch to alcohol-free hand sanitizers.

Alcohol-Free Hand Sanitizers

How They Work:
These products contain fatty alcohol, benzalkonium chloride as the active ingredient in water-based foam. While fatty alcohol provides the same protection as evaporative solvent alcohols, it nourishes the skin, drawing in and retaining moisture.

Unlike alcohol hand sanitizers, alcohol-free hand sanitizers are also a low fire hazard and do not damage household surfaces.

Also, alcohol-free hand sanitizers provide extended protection versus hand sanitizers containing alcohol. Alcohol-free continue to provide protection long after the benzalkonium chloride has dried, while alcohol-based hand sanitizer’s ability to kill bacteria ends as soon as the alcohol has dried.

Make Sure To Use a Hand Cream after Each Hand Washing

Be aggressive in protecting your skin by using a moisturizer after every hand washing/sanitizing. Look for moisturizers or hand creams that are fragrance-free and designed for sensitive skin. Lotions contain the least moisturizing properties, the next level up is creams, and for the ultimate moisturizing properties, use an ointment.

Clear, Healthy Skin Starts With Eczema Pill

Protect your skin from autumnal eczema flares with Loma Lux Eczema Pill. Developed by our dermatologist founder for his patients, it contains an exclusive formula of seven all-natural minerals taken orally to clear skin and relieve itching from the inside out, for healthy skin from within.