posted November 20, 2005 04:33 PM         

I have a problem with my skin. The skin on my fingers are peeling away, right to the middle of the fingers. Not only is it ugly looking, but it gets worse everytime I have a bath or dip my hands in water. Not only that, but the skin on my toes are also peeling. I have tried cream, but it only helps a little bit. My skin isn't as bad as it first started. But it still worries me.

posted November 20, 2005 05:39 PM         

1/2 cup bleach, in a gallon of water
soak your hands for 5 minutes a day
for 5 days, and the balance should be back

sounds weird, But Mother and Father, said it will work

posted November 20, 2005 05:45 PM         

to you peel them til they bleed?

posted November 21, 2005 01:25 AM         

Definately see a dermatologist, or go back to the doctor who prescribed the antibiotics, as this doctor knows exactly what you took and the conditions surrounding it.. I'd say medical history is a must here...
Have you ever had skin issues before?
Possibly seasonal? Do yopu have any dandruff/dermatitis of any type?
It could be a manifestation of a greater issue..... see your doctor!!!!
It could simply be a coincidence that it occurred at the same time as the antibiotics, but often they can throw off other healthy bacteria in your body as well as destroying the negative.

I don't know about soaking in bleach. Sorry Lotus.. But I don't want him endangering himself based on your assurance.
Soaking in anything isn't a wise thing right now, as people in the medical profession will tell you.. or in any profession that involves constant hand washing.. it strips the body of natural oils, and further irritates already irritated conditions, however necessary it is...

Get a very emolliant cream, something with a protectant silicone/dimethicone.. a very thick and easily absorbed, yet one that leaves a protectant film.
Barrier cream?
See, I don't know the products you have available, nor the weather conditions which might incline you to irritation.....
Wash your hands with a pH neutral cleanser, and tepid water. Dry them gently, and slather them in cream.. shea butter/olive oil/chamomile/lavender infused, oatmeal enriched, something that says 'humectant'
You could try Hyaluronic acid formulas ( naturally present in healthy skin cells.. holds a zillion times their weight in moisture) Urea.. which acts like a sponge, staying on your skin and attracting moisture.. although it can sting...)
Try things with catch phrases like humectant/moisture binding...
Put on cotton gloves, and rest. Keep them slathered in the creams. During the day, wear one with a protectant/barrier like I mentioned before..
DON'T PICK!!!!!
Let them heal.

posted November 21, 2005 05:30 AM         

I don't think I am going to try that bleach thing, as I am always weary about things concerning bleach-Sorry Lotus.

posted November 22, 2005 12:06 AM         

I use bleach in every load of whites, my whites, must be white
I use bleach to kill the bacteria in my sponge,
My hands are beautiful, I can confess
and bleach, never hurt them.

posted November 22, 2005 06:29 PM         

ph, balance, like a pool,
chlorine

purification

posted November 22, 2005 06:45 PM         

The following disadvantages of using bleach were published "Bleach Usage" on Facility-maintenance.com---

1. Bleach lacks the ability to cut through dirt. A surface or object being cleaned and disinfected must first be cleaned if bleach is going to be used as disinfectant, adding time and labor costs to any project. “Organic material readily inactivates these disinfectants, so the surface must be cleaned first,” said one industry consultant. “You have to essentially double the time that it should take to clean and disinfect a soiled surface.” [In a 2004 study of five different household products to try to clean a moldy shower curtain, The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the least effective product was bleach.]

2. More disadvantages of bleach are as follow---

· Bleach loses strength rapidly: Carol Bush, area manager for contract cleaner Central Property Services, Pittsburgh, said a bleach/water solution left on a shelf for any period of time will lose its effectiveness. At the same time, said cleaning industry educator William Griffin, Cleaning Consultant Services Inc, Seattle, bleach loses its effectiveness quickly when being used, “gassing off” before most disinfecting can be accomplished.

· Bleach can hide dirt: The bleach can make some soil transparent, leading a cleaner to think he/she has actually cleaned a surface when in fact the soil remains there, said Michael Smith, academic custodial supervisor, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA.

· Bleach damages floor finishes: Bleach attacks floor coatings, eating away at their effectiveness.

· Bleach damages fibers, carpets etc.

· Bleach corrodes hard surfaces: Metals and other surfaces can not only be corroded, but discolored.

· Bleach causes health concerns: Improper use of bleach – either using too much or mixing it with certain products – such as those that contain ammonia hydrochloric acid, acetic acid and phosphoric acid – can create hazardous health conditions. [Another bleach health hazard: bleach can contaminate groundwater.]

****

People have been using bleaches since the end of the 18th century. While these products work very well in whitening, stain removal and sanitizing, bleaches do have a negative effect upon the environment because of their chemistry. Care must be taken in using bleach as it is toxic to humans, animals, and plants. Also, we all have experienced destroying a colored article of clothing because bleach was accidentally spilled on it.

***

Many commercial soaps commonly irritate skin and flare allergic reactions to chemicals including dyes, heavy metals and perfumes. Bleach is another toxic culprit with dangerous fumes and poisonous dioxin that does not degrade.

***

Danger: Bleach!
Bleach is a toxic substance that can be easily replaced for a healthy home and earth. Bleach breaks down into dioxin, a toxic poison that does not ever bio-degrade and is dangerous to humans, wildlife and fresh water systems.

Hydrogen peroxide is a harmless natural agent that performs the duty of eradicating bacteria and bleaching surfaces. Eco-bleach is a good alternative to toxic bleach for clothes and available in health food stores and markets.

***

As bleach irritates mucous membranes, the skin and the airway, decomposes under heat or light and reacts readily with other chemicals, caution should be exercised in the use of it. Improper use of bleach may reduce its effectiveness in disinfection and also lead to accidents which can be harmful to health. Overuse of bleach or using a bleach solution that is too concentrated results in the production of toxic substances that pollute the environment and disturb ecological balance.

***

Procedures of Preparing/Using Diluted Bleach

1. Keep windows open when diluting or using bleach to ensure good ventilation.
2. Put on protective gear when diluting or using bleach as it irritates mucous membranes, the skin and the airway.
3. Cold water should be used for dilution as hot water decomposes the active ingredient of bleach and renders it ineffective.
4. Bleach containing 5.25% sodium hypochlorite should be diluted as follows (demonstration short):
* 1:99 diluted household bleach (mixing 10ml of bleach with 1litre of water) can be used for general household cleaning.
* 1:49 diluted household bleach (mixing 10ml of bleach with 0.5litre of water) is used to disinfect surfaces or articles contaminated with vomitus, excreta, secretions or blood.
5. Make adjustments to the amount of bleach added if its concentration of sodium hypochlorite is above or below 5.25%.
* Calculation: Multiplier of the amount of bleach added = 5.25 concentration of sodium hypochlorite in bleach
* For example, when diluting a bleach containing only 5% sodium hypochlorite, the multiplier is 5.25 5=1.05. That means 10 x 1.05 =10.5ml of bleach should be used when preparing a bleach solution.
6. For accurate measurement of the amount of bleach added, a tablespoon or measuring cup can be used.
7. Rinse disinfected articles with water and wipe dry.
8. Cleaning tools should be soaked in diluted bleach for 30 minutes and then rinsed thoroughly before reuse.
9. Finally, wash hands with liquid soap, then dry hands with a clean towel or disposable towel.

As undiluted bleach liberates a toxic gas when exposed to sunlight, it should be stored in a cool and shaded place out of reach of children.

***

Bleach harmful ingredients -- chlorine, lye, artificial dyes, detergents, fluorescent brighteners, synthetic fragrances.

posted November 22, 2005 06:47 PM         

Dioxin is the name generally given to a class of super-toxic chemicals, the chlorinated dioxins and furans, formed as a by-product of the manufacture, molding, or burning of organic chemicals and plastics that contain chlorine. It is the nastiest, most toxic man-made organic chemical; its toxicity is second only to radioactive waste. Dioxin made headlines several years ago at places such as Love Canal, where hundreds of families needed to abandon their homes due to dioxin contamination, and Times Beach, Missouri, a town that was abandoned as a result of dioxin.
Dioxin - An Unprecedented Threat

We now know that dioxin exhibits serious health effects when it reaches as little as a few parts per trillion in your body fat. Dioxin is a powerful hormone disrupting chemical. By binding to a cell's hormone receptor, it literally modifies the functioning and genetic mechanism of the cell, causing a wide range of effects, from cancer to reduced immunity to nervous system disorders to miscarriages and birth deformity. Because it literally changes the functioning of your cells, the effects can be very obvious or very subtle. Because it changes gene functions, it can cause so-called genetic diseases to appear, and can interfere with child development. There is no "threshold" dose - the tiniest amount can cause damage, and our bodies have no defense against it.

Unfortunately, according to the EPA, much of the population of the U.S. is at the dose at which there can be serious health effects. How did this happen? For about 40 years we have seen a dramatic increase in the manufacture and use of chlorinated organic chemicals and plastics. For chemicals, it was insecticides and herbicides (weed killers). For plastics, it was primarily polyvinyl chloride (PVC). From phonograph records to automobile seat covers to wire insulation to shampoo bottles to handbags to house siding to plumbing pipes to wallpaper, we are literally surrounded by PVC. When these chemicals and plastics are manufactured or burned, dioxin is produced as an unwanted (but inevitable) by-product. Dioxin is also formed in paper bleaching, so that most paper products are contaminated. This exposes people who use chlorine-bleached coffee filters (most of the products available), as well as compounding the risks of cancer of those who smoke cigarettes.

Dioxin had been a little-known threat for many years near factories that produce PVC plastic or chlorinated pesticides and herbicides, and where those pesticides and herbicides have been heavily used, such as on farms, near electric and railway lines, apple orchards, paper company forests. It became better known when Vietnam War veterans and Vietnamese civilians, exposed to dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange, became ill. It has been a hazard downstream of paper mills (where chlorine bleach combines with natural organics in wood pulp and produces dioxin).

Several towns and cities have become contaminated as a result of chemical spills or manufacturing emissions, some that needed to be evacuated. Love Canal (Niagara Falls, N.Y), Seveso (Italy), Times Beach (Missouri), Pensacola (Florida), and the entire city of Midland, Michigan have high concentrations of dioxin.

Bizarre health effects, such as cancer, spina bifida (split spine) and other birth defects, autism, liver disease, endometriosis, reduced immunity, chronic fatigue syndrome, psychological disorders, and other nerve and blood disorders have been reported.

But in the last 20 years we have begun to burn household and industrial trash and medical waste in mass-burn incinerators. The result - given that we have disposable vinyl plastic all around us - has been a dramatic increase in dioxin contamination everywhere in the U.S. Dioxin, formed during burning, is carried for hundreds of miles on tiny specks of fly-ash from the incinerators. It settles on crops, which then get eaten by cows, steers, pigs, and chickens. It contaminates lakes, streams, and the ocean. Like the pesticides such as DDT, dioxin accumulates in the fat cells of the animals, and re-appears in meat and milk. Dioxin is virtually indestructible in most environments, and is excreted by the body extremely slowly.
How To Avoid Dioxin

Do not eat beef or pork, which have some of the largest concentrations of dioxin of all food sources. Limit your intake of ocean fish; do not eat any freshwater fish. Chicken has the lowest dioxin content of all meats, but is still significant. Vegetarian meat substitutes such as tofu, beans, and rice have essentially no contamination.

If your family drinks milk, drink only skim milk, since dioxin is carried in the butterfat. Avoid all full-fat dairy products, such as butter, cheese and ice cream. Use non-fat skim-milk products or non-dairy substitutes. If you are female and are considering having children, it is essential that you eat a non-dairy, low-fat vegetarian diet for several years before you have children. Dioxin is passed from the woman's body to the infant through the placenta and in breastmilk, which contains more dioxin than any other food (in relation to an infant’s body weight) for women who consume meat and milk.[1]

Avoid all organic chemicals that have "chloro" as part of their names (such as the wood preservative pentachlorophenol, which is probably the most dioxin-contaminated household chemical). Avoid chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite) and products containing it. (Use oxygen bleach instead). Use unbleached paper products.

Do not use weed killers or insecticides that contain chlorine. Especially avoid the chlorophenol weed killers, such as 2,4-D, found in most fertilizer/weed killers and used by commercial lawn services. Avoid "Permethrin" flea sprays for pets.

Avoid household or personal products and toys made of or packaged in polyvinyl chloride - PVC - labeled V or #3 plastic. Avoid using Saran Wrap and similar "cling-type" plastic wraps (unless they are clearly identified as polyethylene.).

Wash all fruits and vegetables carefully to remove chlorophenol pesticide residue. Avoid grapes and raisins unless they are clearly labeled as organic (grown without pesticides).

Avoid all products which have cottonseed oil as an ingredient (such as potato chips), since cotton is often sprayed with chlorophenol insecticides. Do not use soaps containing tallow (most soaps), as it is made from animal fat. Avoid "deodorant" soaps and deodorants containing "triclosan," a chlorophenol.

Use unbleached (brown) coffee filters, or those marked as having been bleached with non-chlorine bleach. If you smoke cigarettes (although tobacco has other cancer hazards) roll your own in unbleached paper.
What You Can Do

The way to reduce the dioxin threat is to stop burning trash and to stop producing PVC and other chlorinated chemicals. If your town sends its trash to an incinerator, tell your town officials to institute comprehensive recycling. Write to companies that use vinyl and ask them to use the known safe substitutes. Ask your supermarket and office supply stores to sell Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) products. Learn more about the dioxin threat. Read the books Dying From Dioxin by Lois Gibbs, and Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn. Talk to your friends and neighbors about dioxin and what you can do to reduce the threat. Join a community environmental organization, or form one if there are none in your town. Call a state or national organization to get help. Download a copy of a Microsoft Word Version 6-compatible version of this document for a community information leaflet.

Notes:

posted November 22, 2005 06:57 PM         

The skin on my hands and feet is peeling
Question

The skin on my hands and feet is peeling quite badly. Could this be because of the medication I am currently taking (Amoxilycillin) or can you suggest another cause?

Answer

If you have no generalised rash or peeling skin elsewhere, or other possible side effects from the Amoxycillin, then it is unlikely that the peeling skin on your hands is due to the antibiotics.

There are a number of skin conditions associated with peeling of the skin, but it can be difficult to tell exactly what is going on without actually seeing the problem.

It may well be that in your case it is associated with the fact that you have been ill. You may have been running a high temperature and sweating a lot, and sometimes that will lead to retention of sweat in the thicker parts of the skin such as the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. This can cause little clear pustules than then break down and the skin can look as if it is peeling. There are also fungal infections that can make the skin look as if it is peeling.

If this developed at about the time that you were ill, then I would finish your course of antibiotics and then if it is not troubling you, wait a few days to see if the process stops. You should see nice smooth pinkish skin appearing as the skin recovers. If however you get more trouble, especially if you start to get peeling or other skin problems elsewhere, then it is important that you show these to your GP. However I hope it will all soon settle down.

Yours sincerely

Dr Keith Barnard, GP
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/ate/skinandhair/206856.html

Interestingly, alot of people seem to have this problem!!! I found this site, didnt manage to look throught the whole thing but you might find a helpful response; http://ehealthforum.com/health/topic2907.html

Also: Skin Peeling

WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR

* You also have a rash.

* Your skin begins to peel soon after you begin to take a new medication.

What Your Symptom Is Telling You

Your nose is peeling, your arms are peeling, your back is peeling. It's all so . . . unappealing.

"In general, peeling skin in and of itself is not a big problem and no harm comes of it," says Guy F. Webster, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of dermatology and director of the Center for Cutaneous Pharmacology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Besides sunburn, common skin peelers are dryness, irritation by household chemicals and solvents, and overuse of products like Retin-A, a prescription acne and wrinkle medication that decreases the number of surface skin cells. Skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis can also make the skin peel.

"Occasionally, severe and potentially dangerous peeling of large areas is caused by a condition called TEN, or toxic epidermal necrolysis, which means toxic skin death," says Jerold Z. Kaplan, M.D., medical director of the Alta Bates Burn Center in Berkeley, California. TEN is an extremely uncommon allergic reaction to relatively common drugs, such as sulfa drugs, gout medications or penicillin, and requires hospitalization.

Symptom Relief

When you look like a chameleon in full molt, here are a couple of things you can try.

Stop picking on you. You may hate the look of peeling skin, but you should probably resist the temptation to pick at it, Dr. Webster says. Broken skin is an invitation to infections. "And if you have a skin disease like eczema or psoriasis, peeling the skin back can damage tissue and worsen the underlying skin problem."

Get out the scissors. "If skin is hanging, the best thing is to snip it off with fine scissors so you don't pull areas that are still adherent," says Diana Bihova, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at New York University School of Medicine in New York City and coauthor of Beauty from the Inside Out.

Moisturize. Soothe dry, peeling skin by moisturizing it with any good moisturizing cream or lotion, suggests Dr. Kaplan. (For the lowdown on dealing with eczema and psoriasis, see Rashes on page 436.)

posted November 22, 2005 07:32 PM         

when you drink water
take a shower
go swimming in a pool
a hot tub