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Scaly Skin Patches

Scaly skin patches are irritating to the skin and cause serious discomfort. Read on to know what are the causes, symptoms, and treatment for such a skin condition.
Mukta Gaikwad
With age, the largest organ of our body also ages. As skin ages, it gets drier, gets wrinkled, and grows spots. It gets susceptible to various disorders, scaly skin patches being one of them. Not only do these patches ruin the beauty of your skin, but also can turn out to be dangerous.
Patches in visible places such as face can be embarrassing and humiliating. For a few people, these scaly patches can vehemently sabotage confidence levels.

Causes

Skin rashes are the most common causes for patches to form. These rashes are a result of fungal and bacterial infection spawning on the skin. It becomes very difficult to diagnose fungal infections as they are very visible on the skin. Similar to fungi, yeasts can also cause scaly patches, giving you itchy skin all over.
Against the common misconception that fungal infections are a result of unhygienic living, they can also be caused by taking steroids, diabetes, recent course of antibiotics, being overweight, poor nutrition, sarcoidosis, infections such as leprosy, skin cancer, and weak immune system.
They usually affect the skin folds such as breast and groin region. Atopic dermatitis, eczema, ringworm, Athlete's foot, nail infections, candida, and jock itch are some of the types of fungal infection.

Symptoms

The symptoms of bacterial and fungi infections are dependent on the type of organisms causing it. For instance, if it is ringworm, the infection occurs and grows in a round shape. To generalize the symptoms of such rashes, they make the affected area red, scaly, and itchy.
These infections can manifest on the face, legs, scalp, or hands. Annular lesions, pustules, rash, and onycholysis are a few more symptoms of fungal infections.

Treatment

Firstly, you need to find out what is causing the skin problem. A visit to a good dermatologist will help you establish the reasons for it. Sometimes, scaly patches can be caused due to loss of moisture. If that is the reason, you need to rehydrate your skin by drinking lots of water. With regular and strict skin care you can get your flawless skin back.
To get rid of the dryness, use cocoa butter or shea butter products. Scaly skin and fungal infections, often leave a layer of dead cells on the skin surface. Thus, you need to exfoliate your skin at least once a week. Exfoliation helps in generation of new cells too, which helps in restoring the skin to its original condition.
A brilliant home remedy for getting rid of dry skin is rubbing a bit of olive oil. Rubbing some hydro-cortisone cream onto your skin on daily basis, can also help in soothing skin irritations. Lastly, always remember to wear a sunscreen before you step out in the sun. Do not sunbathe deliberately, as it will worsen the condition of your skin.
If the remedies do not work, do see a dermatologist. Follow the prescribed course of action given by the skin specialist to see improvement in your skin condition. Your skin is the reflection of your internal system. Thus, looking after your internal system will help you achieve the lost flawless condition.