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Symptoms, Their Causes & Cures: Rashes

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Rashes

WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR

* A rash develops when you take any medication.

* You also feel ill or have a fever.

* Your rash burns, stings, turns raw or becomes blistered.

* You suddenly get a bad headache, feel lethargic or have small black or purplish dots on most of your skin.

* You develop a red "bull's-eye" rash anytime after being bitten by a tick, even months later.

* More than one person in your household gets the same type of rash.

* You develop a roughly butterfly-shaped, patchy, red rash on your cheeks or over the bridge of your nose.

What Your Symptom Is Telling You

It looks like a dash of red pepper on your back, a connect-the-dots picture in purple on your arm, or the constellation Orion on your forehead. It's bumpy or smooth, wet or dry, warm or cool. It itches, stings, burns or feels normal. It comes and goes or stays awhile. It's a rash.

Rashes take many different forms, but they're generally eruptions, or break-outs, on the skin, says Stuart M. Brown, M.D., clinical professor of dermatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. The main message sent out by a rash is that your body is simply not "happy" about something. And your body can be unhappy about almost anything that is happening to it or is placed on, in or near it—from nuts that cause allergy to lethal infectious diseases.

Allergy Alert

Rashes are one of the most common symptoms of allergies, says Glenn Kline, M.D., an allergist and assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas at Houston. Allergies can be systemic (coursing through the body but peeking out through the skin as a rash) or localized (causing dots in specific spots). They're often caused by something you ate—eggs, milk, soybeans, fish, peanuts and wheat are the most common culprits. They can also be triggered by something you touched—the classic example being poison ivy.

There are some thoroughly modern allergic rashes out there, too: Chemicals in clothing, sunscreens, preservatives and fragrances in many cosmetics are a few common offenders, says Ivor Caro, M.D., a dermatologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. You'd think a rash would pop up where an offending material touches you, but, no—nail polish and hairspray, for example, often cause rashes on the eyelids.

"One of the more interesting things right now is allergy to latex," says Dr. Kline. As more and more people don latex gloves for disease prevention, more and more skin is raising rashy ruckuses. This kind of allergy can be dangerous, says Dr. Kline, because some emergency first-aid equipment—as well as surgeon's gloves—contain latex. The last thing you want is a rash on your gallbladder or an open wound! If you're allergic to latex, or other materials, your doctor can provide a medical alert bracelet for you to wear at all times.

Rashes can also arise in reaction to antibiotics or other medications.

Infections Raise Rashes

A wide assortment of infectious diseases can announce their presence in your body with a telltale rash. These diseases include bacterial infections, such as impetigo; viral infections, such as chickenpox; and fungal and yeast infections, such as athlete's foot and some types of seborrhea. Rashes can also accompany dry skin, eczema or other skin conditions.

Parasites can also cause rashes. Scabies, for example, is caused by a mite that burrows into soft skin between the fingers, on the wrist and sometimes on the genitals or elsewhere. It causes an intensely itchy rash wherever they tunnel. (The itch may develop before the rash.) Scabies is very contagious and should be seen by a dermatologist, who can often find the microscopic mites in a skin scraping, says Dr. Caro.

Symptom Relief

Rashes are so difficult to decipher that they're out of the realm of most self-diagnosis and over-the-counter treatment, says Leonard Swinyer, M.D., clinical professor of dermatology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Be prepared to take any stubborn unidentified rash to a dermatologist, where you will have to do a lot of talking. In order to pinpoint the reason for the rash, the doctor will ask you about the foods you eat, medications you take, your pets, home, workplace, clothing and your family's medical history, Dr. Caro explains.

If the cause of your rash is not obvious after that, the doctor may begin skin tests to see if a rash can be raised "on demand" by placing tiny amounts of various substances placed on the skin, says Dr. Kline. But until you get to the doctor, here are a few things you can try.

Call on cortisone. The first thing to try on an itchy rash is 1 percent hydrocortisone cream, such as Cortaid, says Lon Christianson, M.D., a psoriasis expert with the Dermatology Clinic Limited in Fargo, North Dakota, and spokesperson for the American Academy of Dermatology. Rub it on a mildly itchy or inflamed rash twice a day. If the rash does not show signs of healing after five or six days, see your doctor. Use cortisone only if the rash is not infected, says Dr. Christianson. An infected rash may be more inflamed and possibly swollen or producing pus.

Look around you. If someone else nearby is scratching away and so are you, you could have a scabies invasion. If so, a dermatologist can prescribe a medication to smite the mites.

Don't let your laundry do you. If you often get rashes, it's a good idea to cut the number of chemicals you use in your laundry. Stick with one soap or detergent and forget all those softeners and perfumes. Or baby yourself by using laundry soaps like Ivory Snow and Cheer-Free that are recommended for washing diapers and infant wear. It might also help to run your clothes through the rinse cycle twice.

Fight fungus. Fungal rashes, such as athlete's foot, jock itch and yeast infections, may be treated with an over-the-counter antifungal cream, such as Lotrimin. These conditions should be diagnosed by a doctor first, says Dr. Brown, so you know exactly what it is you're treating.

Drive away ivy. If you touch poison ivy or poison oak, very quickly wash the area and you may save yourself from a week or more of nasty rash. If you miss your chance and get an itchy, blistery rash anyway, take an oral antihistamine, like Benadryl, Dr. Kline advises. And stay away from hot water, which will make the itch worse. And never eat poison ivy leaves, Dr. Kline warns. This old folk "remedy," could prove fatal to sensitive individuals.

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