For the past 10 years or so, I have been suffering from moderate eczema. As anyone with eczema would know, this is incredibly irritating to deal with, and practically impossible to treat.
But we can try. So with the topical corticosteroids prescribed by my doctor only serving to temporarily quell the condition, with a risk of withdrawal syndrome, I elected to look for other solutions.
Helge Bjørnå and Birger Kaada (1987) describe an experimental treatment by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). These are available to consumers as a TENS unit, which is a little box with dials that can control the strength and frequency of electrical pulses sent to pads attached to your skin. This was intended to improve circulation in the skin and thus promote healing and relief of itching. After 2 years, they observed significant improvement in both, though this was only tested in a singular patient.
So I decided it might be fun to try it out myself, and so for the past few months I have been applying electrical pulses to my hand twice a day. So far there has been no noticeable improvement, however I will report back results once a year has passed.
