"Eczema Treatment with Coconut Oil, Mineral Oil, vs. Vaseline"
Despite the availability of drugs
with proven efficacy for eczema, like topical steroids,
many patients seek out natural alternatives.
Which plant, then, should be used for which skin disease?
Well, in the case of eczema, two appeared to beat out placebo.
One was licorice root.
Smearing on a placebo gel didn’t appear to help much
with clearing redness or itchiness
after one week or two weeks,
but a 1% licorice gel, and especially a 2% gel,
did seem to clear the symptoms in most patients.
They conclude that licorice extracts could be considered
an effective eczema treatment agent.
The other successful trial was with St. John’s Wort cream,
showing a reduction in eczema severity scores
week by week superior to that of placebo;
so, it works better than nothing,
but the question is: Does it work better than drugs,
better than topical steroids?
That we don’t know.
Sometimes, the drugs don’t work, though,
on so-called recalcitrant atopic dermatitis;
so, these researchers in Japan asked patients
to try drinking 4 cups of oolong tea every day for a month,
and most patients showed marked
or at least moderate improvement, starting after 1 or 2 weeks,
and then, most remained better
even 5 months after they stopped.
The problem is that there was no control group.
So, we don’t know how many would have gotten better
on their own.
But, since drinking tea is healthy anyway,
why not give it a try.
Back to topical treatments:
a vitamin B12 cream beat out the same cream
without vitamin B12.
Most of the patients and doctors rated the results
of the B12 cream as good,
better than they rated the placebo cream.
Regardless of what topical agent you use,
steroid or otherwise, first and foremost, though,
it's essential that the skin barrier be protected
and maintained with the use of emollients,
meaning moisturizers, ideally once or twice a day,
especially right after showering, to lock in the moisture.
Petroleum jelly, like Vaseline, is highly effective,
but it’s kind of greasy and messy.
What about something like coconut oil,
which is less greasy?
It was found to improve skin dryness,
though no better than mineral oil, which is cheaper.
Is mineral oil safe, though?
Exposure to mineral oil was found to be
associated with rheumatoid arthritis,
but that was occupational exposure
to industrial mineral oils, like hydraulic fluid.
The same group of researchers subsequently found
that cosmetic grade mineral oil did not
seem to carry the same risk.
In general, topically applied mineral oil
shouldn’t present any health risk.
That doesn’t mean you can safely inject it into your penis,
as that “may have devastating cosmetic
and sexual function consequences.”
There is, however, one good use
for mineral oil on the penis,
and that’s for penile zipper entrapment.
Skin of the penis is “susceptible to entrapment
in the zipper of careless young boys,
particularly those who fail to wear undergarments."
Understandably, this mishap provokes distress
in the unfortunate victim, in his parents,
and ultimately in the healthcare provider
charged with the task of liberating the organ.”
A recommended textbook approach is surgery,
believe it or not,
but just liberally dose with some mineral oil
and you can just slip the zipper off,
minimizing trauma for all involved parties.
But, just because it works as well as coconut oil
for dry skin, doesn’t mean it works as well for eczema.
Head-to-head topical virgin coconut oil works better
than topical mineral oil at decreasing eczema severity,
with twice as many children experiencing
an excellent response after 2 months treatment.
Thus, among pediatric patients with mild to moderate eczema,
topical application of virgin coconut oil was superior
to that of mineral oil,
but what about compared to virgin olive oil?
Olive oil worked, dropping eczema severity,
but coconut oil worked better.
What do these numbers mean?
What does it mean going from a severity score
of 35 down to 20 look like?
From this to that: before and after 4 weeks
of topical coconut oil.
Now, we know coconut oil has a lot of saturated fat;
so, we don’t want to eat it.
But, the saturated fat isn’t absorbed into your skin
unless you’re a baby, where your skin is so thin
you can actually absorb saturated coconut fat
into your bloodstream.
But, in older children and adults, using coconut oil
on your skin or hair is considered safe.
That still doesn’t mean you can inject it into your penis.
He certainly achieved enlargement, the medical student noted,
looking at the swollen, red, oozing mass before her.
OK, but what about treating eczema with just plain Vaseline.
Eczema can already be expensive to deal with.
The average out-of-pocket costs can be $274 a month;
that’s more than a third of a typical
family’s disposable income,
and you can rub a kid head to toe with petroleum jelly
for like four cents,
whereas coconut oil or some of the fancier
over-the-counter moisturizers can be many times more expensive,
though not as bad as some prescription moisturizers
that can cost over a hundred dollars per tube
and work no better than the over the counter stuff.
Wait, I only see one line—exactly,
they’re right on top of one another.
No evidence of superiority over the traditional petroleum
jelly-based over the counter products
that can be 65 times cheaper.
Yeah, but doesn't virgin coconut oil have active ingredients,
whereas petroleum jelly is just inert?
Vaseline has been around since 1872,
but it took the scientific community 144 years
to put it to the test.
And, it’s not inert at all,
significantly upregulating genes that fight infection,
and inducing the expression of genes
that help with barrier function,
increasing the thickness of the protective outer layer of skin,
and actively reducing inflammation.
Yeah, but is it safe?
Not, if you inject it into your—.
What is it with men injecting stuff into their penis?
In less severe cases, the problem can be solved
with basic surgery.
Otherwise, it may require major reconstruction.
Evidently, done a lot by prisoners,
giving a whole new meaning to the term Jailhouse Rock.
An unbelievable 1 in 6 inmates at the largest prison
in Hungary admitted to Vaseline self-injection.
Or, how about actual rocks,
the surgical implantation of stones in the penis...
or injecting industrial silicone?
I will never look at the term “silicone caulk”
the same way, ever again.
When men were asked why they were injecting
fishy substances into their penises,
most explained that it was because they felt under-endowed,
but one guy said he just wanted to give it a try.
But, why inject cod liver oil into your penis
when you can just inject the mercury directly,
and cut out the middlefish.
Anyway, based on 77 studies of moisturizers for eczema,
no reliable evidence that one moisturizer
is any better than another,
though a consensus of experts concluded
that petroleum jelly may be best
for skin barrier function protection.