Insta: cccskindoc

Tuesday 1 August 2017

Steroid Fear

"Four out of five people are afraid of using corticosteroids in eczema..." --news from last week.


Definitely true in my practice.

Steroids generally have bad reputation. And perhaps western medicines have a bad reputation of dishing out steroids to patients so a lot of them turns to traditional medicines or alternative medicines, which are unfortunately sometimes being adulterated with steroids.There are reports of parents, in fear of using steroids for their children, turn to alternative medicines with potent steroids, click here for one of the report from Hong Kong.

Is Steroids Bad?

Yes and no. It depends on how it is being used.

If eczema is fire, then topical steroids (be it gel, lotion, cream or ointment) is water. Yes, and we are saying that 4 out of 5 people, in fear of drowning, many avoid water or use minimal amount of water to pour on the fire that is burning them down.

Common sense tells us that you can pour water onto the fire as long as it is still burning. Using the correct formulation and strength onto the appropriate area based on appropriate indications under proper supervision should keep you safe.

There are alternative of extinguishing fire without using water, and yes, there are alternative of non-steroidal preparation too. But I must say that most of the time, topical steroids are often powerful and yet cheaper.

Read about the Do's and Don't of Using Topical Steroids in Eczema here and how much steroids to use here.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Telemedicine - The Yay and Nay

Telemedicine is not new. My very first telemedicine experience started in 2013 when I was still practising in government hospital. The servi...