Monsoons triggering skin and allergy flare-ups

In your health watch this morning if your skin is itching like crazy this week you are not alone. The rise in humidity can trap sweat against leading people of course to eczema and you can experience some of those severe flare-ups as well. So what can you do to stop the itch before it begins? Dr. Christina Harview, a dermatologist at Banner University Medical Center joins us this morning. It's nice to see you Dr. Harview. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. I think a lot of people are seeing the eczema. I know my son. Mom what's going on? And you're thinking this is kind of unique. We haven't seen it in previous years. Yeah the monsoon season can definitely trigger some patients with eczema like your son probably. Humidity can lead to increased sweating and that sweat can build up on the skin and lead to flaring. Also with the dust and the wind that can break up some of the plant particulates and pollutants in the air and then the sticky sweaty skin right it connects to that and then that can lead to flaring. Also the rains right the rains will bring that humidity and that moisture that will lead to the spores like the fungal and the yeast spores which can also trigger allergic rhinitis or seasonal allergies asthma and eczema as well. You know I'm glad you mentioned the seasonal allergies because that is also something and I think that we've seen people talk about online and on social media and people in the newsroom they say oh my allergies are kind of picking up what is happening? Yeah it definitely has to do with that moisture. I mean those desert plants that we have as soon as it rains right they're going to be sending out that pollen and then that gets on the skin it gets in your eyes and leads to all of those symptoms that everybody's complaining about. My patients are certainly suffering as well. So what is that does does hydrocortisone like over-the-counter help? It doesn't seem to help my son but is that for mild cases? It can really mild eczema or just slightly itchy red scaly skin can respond to that lower one percent over-the-counter hydrocortisone yeah but if it's not working like in your son's case I do recommend you know making sure that he gets a prescription medication from a physician. Are there things that that we don't think about simple things like showering during you know twice a day or showering once a day or kind of the hygiene aspect what can you recommend? Yeah it's less of a hygiene thing and more of just if you are sweaty sticky going to the gym for example rinsing off that sweat can help prevent the eczema flaring and then certainly trying to stay out of the haboob when it comes that dust and all that particular matter I was talking about if it does get on you then making sure you shower right away to help reduce that flaring. I have heard and when I was doing some research using like an Aquaphor or Vaseline or something like is that also still something people can use? Yeah absolutely Vaseline and Aquaphor are both what we call emollients they kind of create a barrier to your skin when you have eczema you've got that a little bit of a reduced skin barrier and just putting like a moisturizer on top of it helps protect the skin barrier so doing that once to twice a day maybe increasing the frequency during the monsoon season would be a really good idea to help prevent flaring. And I think we've had such an active month it like picked up all of a sudden right so then it's like night and day we see this change. Yeah the temperature the changes is something people complain about a lot again it has to do with those desert plants they respond to the temperature and the moisture changes send out all their pollens try to create flowers and then people suffer. You're like no more flowers. Dr. Harvey how do we find you folks out there you know want to reach out for more information? Yeah I work at Medical Dermatology Specialist Phoenix it's really close to the downtown actually and we're still accepting new patients so anyone who needs help with their eczema during monsoon season come on in. All right great nice to see you. Yeah thank you so much.