Top tips on how to manage skin conditions

Modern life means that skin, the body's largest organ, needs attention. You should moisturise after you shower, which will hydrate from the outside in and is something you need to do as well as drinking water, says Selene Daly, who has worked as a dermatology nurse special adviser at Sligo University Hospital for the past 17 years. She also contributes to The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk on a monthly basis and is an adviser for skincare brand Relife.

With her experience she has first-hand experience of most conditions. If you have a skin condition, such as psoriasis, eczema, acne, she says, your first port of call should be your GP or pharmacist.

“If the pharmacist thinks you need to see a GP, it is he or she that will refer you to a hospital-based consultant dermatologist. Call your GP to make an appointment. You could spend €1,000 on facials and cleansers for acne, for example, when the condition is really only treatable by a GP. If you’re referred to a consultant you will spend less money and that money will be better directed.”

She also recommends you write down or journal how your condition makes you feel and how it may be affecting your work attendance and/or your relationships. “If you’re hands are broken, with a bacterial infection and fever, for example, you may be off work,” she explains. “Children with eczema miss one to two days per term as a result of their condition. If you have psoriasis all over your body you’re not going to want to go to school. In adults it may also affect relationships.”

She says most skin conditions are not flared by food, even though some of her patients have written out a whole food group, vegans, for example. “One patient only ate green vegetables. He was miserable and hungry.”

For those who are referred to a consultant, she explains that the GP system doesn’t talk to the hospital system, which means you may have to repeat a lot of the information. You may have to answer the same questions again. She also counsels you to bring a list of medications that you’re on with you to any consultation too or take photos of the blister packs so the consultant can be across what you’re taking.

For everyday concerns she recommends Italian brand Relife, which is available over the counter in select pharmacies, calling out its U-Life range, a series of urea-based products, as “fantastic for hydration”. Its U-Life 50 is the most intense formulation and has urea crystals that, if you apply to hard and thickened skin on heels and wear fresh cotton socks to bed, will help alleviate that condition, she says. She recommends the least strong version, U-Life 5, for facial hydration. Anyone too impatient to wait for body moisturiser to dry-in the U-Life eco-foam spreads easily and is really fast-drying.

Natural skincare brands are the “bread and butter” of Nourish, says Sarah Kelly of her family business, which set up shop on Marlborough Street, Dublin 1, back in the 1980s by her father Derek Kelly, selling tofu and chick peas. Now the second-generation firm has 18 physical shops, also sells online and is run by her and her sibling, Odhran. She says the most common ailments they get at counters is redness, acne and premature ageing.

For the former and latter she suggests Weleda Skin Food, which can be used all over, for dry skin on feet, hand and cuticle cream, lip balm, dry elbows and even as an overnight treatments or Trilogy's rosehip oil. Another multi-purpose product, she says, a few drops under your moisturiser and foundation will add lustre to skin.

Irish skincare brand sales are up 30 per cent year-on-year at Nourish. These include Kinvara, whose rosehip serum is one of its hero products, Dublin Herbalists, a firm that has collaborated with the group on its own Nourish skincare range, and Seavite, one of the early Irish adaptors of the use of seaweed. It was set up in the 1980s by marine scientist Patrick Mulrooney in a bid to manage his daughters eczema.

The Irish Skin Foundation offers free advice via its Ask a Nurse helpline which is manned by dermatology nurses who can advise on skin conditions, where to go to get help relevant to the part of the country you live in and the necessary contact details.

Do not Google your condition, Daly counsels. “You will only hit on someone trying to sell you something. Nor should you take advice from well-meaning social media channels, use home-made treatments or buy products online – you don’t know what’s in them.”

Selene’s advice

Psoriasis or eczema
Write down all the questions and queries you have in advance of a GP or consultant visit so you don't forget to ask all relevant questions. Better still, bring a friend or family member with you and have them take notes. Two heads are always better than one. Don't be afraid to say, "I didn't understand what you said could you repeat it please."

Acne
How do you know how severe your acne is? You're the best judge of how your condition is impacting your life. If you find it is affecting your happiness, go see your GP about it. The diagnosis may require high-tech medications. Acne scarring is another consideration.

Skin cancer
Have someone else check the areas of your body you can't see, like the top of your head, your back and the bottom of your feet. Any new lesion or existing lesion that starts bleeding should be looked at. Most are benign. Take a picture of it, monitor it and make an appointment. Don't spend three months thinking about it. Speed is the essence.

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