When to See a Dermatologist for Your Summer Skin Rashes
Summers are beautiful times. The sun soars up high, the air is pleasant with plenty of moisture content and it always feels bright, warm, and inviting to step out of the house. However, as heat waves rise full-swing, so does skin sensitivity, giving way to a range of skin issues, defined with the blanket term of ‘heat rash’.
Similar to sunburn, a ‘prickly heat’ or miliaria, rash causes skin to redden and flare. Additionally, heat rashes tend to be itchy, filled with pus, and can even occur on skin areas unexposed to the sun. Heat rashes are caused from sudden rise in temperature that the body finds hard to acclimate to. Owing to increased sweating and friction in the summertime, rashes flare up in skin folds surrounding hair follicles and sweat glands – covering areas like the underarms, groin, and back, where clothing causes friction.
While, to the untrained eye, most rashes look alike and seem treatable with antihistamines or hydrocortisone creams, but, consulting a dermatologist in Bangalore will help you get better insights on your skin rashes and their expert opinion on the condition can change the course of treatment.
Here are some signs of summer rashes, detecting when you should go for a skin rash treatment –
A Quickly Spreading Rash
A spreading rash is most definitely a bad rash, be it festering on your face, exposed parts of neck, arms, or back. See red flags for any reddening, swelling, or irritability of skin that spreads beyond 10% of your skin circumference. For a rough estimation, look out for a palm full of skin area where reddening might be spreading.
In specially concerning conditions, rashes might be accompanied by mild fever, joint aches, deep tissue irritability and muscle pain, as well as difficulty in breathing and swallowing. The main cause in common occurrences could very possibly be a viral rash.
Dermatitis involves skin flare ups in response to allergens or irritants. Three common types of dermatitis are atopic dermatitis or eczema, seborrheic dermatitis, and contact dermatitis. Though the condition cannot be contagious at any extent, affected skin is likely to cause considerable discomfort and self-consciousness. While a homely routine of deep moisturization does help keep symptoms at bay, it is advisable to check with a dermatologist at the earliest to avail of medicated ointments, creams, and shampoos.
Paining and Stinging Skin rash
Not all rashes are accompanied with soreness and a constant itch. If your usual summer skin rash starts to throb and smart like a burn or an insect bite, you would need a little more than a homespun remedy to treat it. A painful rash is one of the prominent symptoms of Shingles or herpes zoster, caused by the varicella zoster virus – the very same that causes chickenpox.
While people who have suffered from chicken pox once in their lifetimes are not likely to have a recurrence, let’s note that the virus may often remain dormant in the nerve tissues – and a phase of emotional stress may trigger an outburst of painful rashes as a result of a weakened immune system. This happens due to the reactivation and spreading of the dormant virus to the nerve fibres of specific skin areas, especially to the back and along the neckline.
In many cases, if a slowly spreading painful rash is not attended to in time, it develops further into blisters that eventually burst, followed by crusting over more of the skin area.
Itchy Painful Hives
Skin hives are the result of allergic reactions to elements encountered physically, swallowed, or touched. In case of allergic reactions, the body begins to emit histamines into the blood. This group of chemicals are produced to defend the body against infection from a range of intrusive allergens and pathogens. Allergens triggering hives can involve a long list of specific elements, from pollen, medications, food, animal dander,and insect bites.
With allergies being identified as a cause for skin hives, it is also important to note that there could be other circumstances besides allergies, including – disproportionate stress levels, tight clothing, unchecked exercise, and illnesses and even heavy sun exposure.
Swelling and Pus Accumulation
Rashes are inflammatory responses that cause skin texture to change, giving rise to redness, itching, and blistering along with scaly or raised skin patches. Lymph nodes, responsible for filtering body fluids and churning it through the blood circulation system for toxin disposal, cannot be typically felt but swells when the body is having an auto-immune response. When rashes and lymph node swelling occur together, skin outburst looking much like a rash, can swell and accumulate pus.
Check with your dermatologist and look for skin allergy treatment in Bangalore without delay when your summer skin rash flares out of size, for a diagnosis in time can save skin!
Dr.Tina Ramachander is one of the best dermatologist in Bangalore and Medical Director at Dr.Tina’s Skin Solutionz, a skin care clinic in Bangalore. She completed her master’s in dermatology from the well acclaimed JJM Medical college in Karnataka and is now a practicising dermatosurgeon and Medical Cosmetologist in Bangalore.