Cracks in the skin of the hands

Sometimes cracks appear on the fingers for no apparent reason. Cracks in the skin of the hands can appear on the palms, wrists, pads, in folds on the inside, interdigital folds. They look unattractive and cause discomfort, interfere with manual work. First of all, you need to identify the cause of this phenomenon, and only then move on to treatment methods that will help you get rid of this kind of problem quickly and without complications. We will deal with all this in this article.

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Causes of Hand Cracks

To solve this problem, you need to understand why it arose. Cracks in the skin are a very common problem, but if it is not very pronounced, then they do not pay attention to it.

Household chemicals

The skin of the hands is overdried with the daily use of soap, detergents and cleaning products, as well as frequent washing with antiseptics or aggressive detergents:

• Hand wash with powders.
• Washing dishes using products that contain a high concentration of surfactants.
• Processing bathrooms.

With all this, the elasticity of the skin falls, in the places of greatest tension it bursts.

Hand care

Cracks in the skin can form from exposure to cold air and wind, when exposed to ice, cold water and antifreeze.

Important! Most often, the flexion surface of the fingers is affected. Such cracks can be either single or multiple, with different depths.

Vitamin deficiency

The lack of vitamins A, C, P in the body is accompanied by dry skin, peeling and slight cracking. Most often, cracks in the skin of the hands appear during vitamin deficiency:

• B1 - thinned skin crack easily.
• PP - against the background of starvation. The skin is not only peeling and cracking, but also peeling off layers.

Contact dermatitis

It may appear due to such factors:

• Exposure to chemicals with hand skin. The disease is acute and chronic. The skin thickens, easily crackes and becomes tuberous in the chronic form of contact dermatitis.
• Allergens for washing powder, glue, varnish, paint. Most often, this disease is associated with a profession.
• Radiation or radiation damage to the skin of the hands.

Important! During the development of contact dermatitis, contact with the allergen occurs first, with repeated contact, inflammation, itching, redness, blisters appear, resulting in cracks.

Fungal diseases

The most common fungal skin lesions on the hands are candidiasis and dermatophytosis. Their development occurs with infection by fungi, weakened immunity, frequent use of antibiotics.

Candidiasis is a lesion of the skin of the hands with fungi from the genus Candida. Most often affects the space between the fingers. Most often appears in housewives and people who work on harmful production with their hands. Symptoms are redness, cracks with a white coating, diaper rash, severe itching.

Dermatophytosis can affect only one arm. Mushrooms of epidermophytosis and trichophytosis cause it. The person is worried about itching and painful cracks, rashes on the skin of the hands, nodules, peeling and tightening of the palmar folds.

Important! May be present on the skin from several weeks to several years.

Atopic dermatitis

It often appears in children. During this type of dermatitis, redness, peeling, and itching appear on the skin of the hands on the back and palms of the hands.When combing, the skin cracks.

Important! It can turn into a chronic form and can be painful.

Eczema

Cracks in the skin of the hands can also occur with dry eczema. Foci of thickening of the skin, peeling and peel appear. They occur with symptoms of severe pain in the cracks and itching. In the chronic course of the disease, they may not heal on the fingertips for a long time.

Psoriasis

With psoriasis, dense, reddened, dry skin appears on the palms of the hands, on the back of the hands or between the fingers. The skin is cracking in the focal area. The cracks are small, but there are a large number of them. The plaques look like corns and are surrounded by a rim; in their center there are many nodules that are deepened into the skin. They can both merge with each other, and are located separately. When a plaque is punctured, drops of blood appear on the surface. This is a hallmark of psoriasis from other diseases.

Also, with psoriasis, the skin between the fingers can coarsen, peel and crack. Hands look unaesthetic, cracks cause discomfort.

Reuters Syndrome

Most often, this disease is caused by chlamydia, but it can also be the result of infection with salmonella, yersinia, shigella, manifested against intestinal inflammation.

Skin symptoms:

• Red spots or tubercles on the palms.
• Thickening and keratinization of areas on the palms.
• Cracking and dryness of these areas.

Ichthyosis

This disease is hereditary. The skin is keratinized and resembles a fish scale. Skin crackles easily on any part of the body.

Diabetes

In diabetes mellitus, the blood supply is disturbed, as a result - the nutrition of the hands. Rashes on the skin are provided not only by ulcers, but also by cracked skin and increased dryness.

Sjogren's syndrome

This is a very rare disease, with it the work of the salivary, lacrimal, sweat glands is reduced. With improper functioning of the sweat glands, dry hands and cracking of the skin appear.

Impaired thyroid function

With a persistent lack of thyroid hormones, metabolic processes and skin nutrition are disturbed - it becomes dry, swollen, thickened, can crack on the fingers and palms, but most often there are changes in the elbows and knees.

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Crack prevention

Cracks in the skin of the hands - it is better to prevent than to heal. It is more difficult to prevent chronic skin diseases, but to reduce or even avoid the impact of elementary adverse factors is possible for everyone, namely:

• Wash your hands with warm water and soap or gel without containing harmful ingredients.

Important! Do not use antibacterial agents - they dry the skin of the hands and wash off not only harmful bacteria, but also the protective layer.

• Use rubber gloves when handling water, detergents, and detergent.

Important! Be sure to wear mittens or gloves in the cold season to prevent frostbite on your hands.

• Use greasy hand creams in the cold season, and in summer use sunscreen products.
• Make nourishing hand masks for the night.
• Do not starve - the amount of vitamins and hormones synthesized by it depends on your diet.

Important! Hand skin care should be a daily routine.

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Folk remedies for treatment and recovery

To get rid of cracks in the skin of fingers and palms, you can resort to the use of folk remedies, which have been popular for many years. There are various methods of therapy - the use of masks, baths or other products that can be made at home. Consider the most popular.

Using masks

The best way to restore hand skin are masks. They can be used in the initial stages of the appearance of problems and in the treatment of complex manifestations. The most popular and effective are:

• Bread mask. To prepare it, you need to soak the crumb of rye bread in milk, attach to your hands, wrap with cellophane for 30 minutes.
• Potato mask - boil, mash 2-3 potatoes with 2-3 tablespoons of milk. Put the mixture on the problem areas, wrap a towel around your hands, hold the mask for about 20 minutes.
• Oil masks. Put almond or peach or olive oil on a cotton pad, treat it with all the problem areas.

Use of baths

To heal cracks in the skin of the hands and soften the skin, use the following bath recipes:

• Oatmeal. Boil very thin porridge in milk, add 1 tsp. honey and 1 tbsp. l of olive oil. Then immerse your hands in this composition for 15 minutes. After - rinse, apply therapeutic ointment.
• From starch. Pour 1 tsp. starch with a glass of boiling water, wait until the mixture thickens. Dissolve 0.5 l of warm water, dip your hands in the bath for 15 minutes. After this procedure, wash your hands, apply nourishing, moisturizing agents.

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Medical treatment

In case of damage to the skin of the hands associated with the activity of infections and bacteria, it is necessary to use medical devices. They can also be used to accelerate regenerative processes when cracks occur as a result of temperature changes.

Important! Remember that all medications should be used after consulting a doctor.

Healing ointments:

• Bepanten, Panthenol - accelerate regenerative processes.
• Vulnuzan - improves regeneration processes, has an anti-inflammatory effect.
• Levomekol - with a skin lesion by a bacterial infection.
• Ointments, which include propolis.
• Oils of chamomile, jojoba, almond, calendula.
• Extracts of plantain, propolis, chamomile, avocado, coltsfoot.

Important! When painful deep cracks appear, dermatologists recommend the use of BF-6 medical glue.

Means for the treatment of fungal infections

The doctor diagnoses and prescribes drugs for the treatment of fungal diseases of the hands. If this treatment is local, then the use of ointments, creams, sprays is prescribed, but most often the cause needs to be treated from the inside, then the medication is prescribed inside.

All drugs designed to combat fungi, depending on the active substance that is used in it, are divided into 5 groups:

• ketoconazole;
• fluconazole;
• itraconazole;
• terbinafine;
• griseofulvin.

Treatment of allergic, atopic diseases:

• Antihistamines: Terfenadine, Astemizole, Loratadine, Cetirizine.
• Antipruritic local remedies: Fenistil, Psilo Balm, Gistan.
• Hormonal drugs prescribed by a doctor.

Psoriasis treatment

It is best to use non-hormonal ointments or creams, as well as these types of drugs:

• Salicylic acid.
• Dithranol
• Tar preparations.
• Solidol based ointments.
• Aloe leaves.

Diabetes

With hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, it is necessary to treat the underlying disease and properly care for the skin of the hands.

Vitamins

Dryness and cracks in the skin of the hands may appear due to a lack of vitamins in the human body. Useful for dry integuments are:

• Vitamin A - prevents a decrease in tissue elasticity, peeling.
• Biotin - contains sulfur, normalizes skin functions.
• B vitamins - participate in tissue regenerative processes.
• Vitamin E - accelerates the healing of tissues.
• Vitamin C - with a lack of this vitamin, integuments become very susceptible to external factors, look painful.

Cracks in the skin of the hands appear due to various reasons. The main thing is to identify the cause of their occurrence in time, most often without a detailed examination by a specialist it is impossible, start treatment in a timely manner and properly care for the skin of the hands.