Biological washing powders do not cause skin irritation

News sources reported that British researchers examined 44 papers about whether enzymes added to detergent washing powders can cause skin reactions and concluded that "biological detergents do not cause skin irritation. They advised that doctors should look beyond laundry detergents for the true cause of eczema, rashes and itches.

Critics said this seems a good advice but the readers should be aware of some of the limitations of this study - the researchers have not described their searching methods, it is not clear if all relevant papers have been looked at, they may fail to detect some publications which could influence their conclusion. The researchers have declared their consultancy fees from Unilever.

Source: "Enzymes, detergents and skin: facts and fantasies" British Journal of Dermatology 158(6): 1177-1181, June 2008

Diet rich in omega-3 can help eczema

The Daily Telegraph reported that omega-3 can help eczema - German researchers recruited 53 patients suffering from atopic eczema aged 18–40 into a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial and gave them daily tablets of either omega-3 supplements or placebos for 8 weeks.

Clinical outcome was assessed by a standard scale known as the SCORAD (severity scoring of atopic dermatitis) index. The researchers found that those on supplements resulted in a significant clinical improvement of atopic eczema in terms of a decreased SCORAD and concluded that the "data suggest that dietary DHA could be bioactive and might have a beneficial impact on the outcome of atopic eczema, but our results need to be confirmed in a larger study".

Source: "Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation in atopic eczema: a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial" - British Journal of Dermatology 158(4):786-792, April 2008