Ayurvedic Treatment for Eczema & Dermatitis in Karnataka: Natural Skin Healing

Eczema is the itch that wakes you at two in the morning. It is the hands that crack every time you wash vessels, the patch on the shin that never quite heals, the child scratching in their sleep. It is also one of the commonest reasons people see a dermatologist. At a tertiary hospital dermatology department in Garhwal, Uttarakhand, dermatitis and eczema made up 18.8% of 47,465 new patient episodes between 2009 and 2014, more than acne (Dimri, Reddy and Singh, Dermatology Research and Practice, 2016). At Chithrakoota Ayurveda in Kundapura, Udupi district, eczema treatment works on two fronts at once: calming the skin you can see, and correcting the digestion and blood that keep re-inflaming it.

Key Takeaways

• Ayurveda describes chronic eczema as Vicharchika (itchy, dark eruptions with discharge) and the cracked, painful type on palms and soles as Vipadika. Both sit under Kshudra Kushtha, the minor skin diseases.
• The most important practical distinction is wet versus dry. Weeping eczema needs drying treatment; thick, dry eczema needs oil. Applying oil to oozing skin usually makes it worse.
• Two small sequential studies from Jamnagar reported complete remission in 22.6% of 31 patients given oral herbs and a paste, and in 81.3% of 32 patients who completed a later course that added Virechana first (Ayu, 2010; Ayu, 2012). They were not randomised, so the difference cannot be credited to Virechana alone.
• Core therapies are Virechana, Kashayadhara, Lepanam, medicated ghee and oils, and Raktamokshana for stubborn local patches.
• Results last longer when triggers are found and removed: detergents, wet work, hair dye, certain metals, and specific foods.

Is Eczema the Same as Dermatitis?

Broadly, yes. Dermatologists use the two words almost interchangeably for inflamed, itchy skin, and then name the type. Atopic dermatitis runs in families with asthma or hay fever and often starts in childhood. Contact dermatitis is caused by something touching the skin, either an irritant such as detergent or cement, or an allergen such as nickel or the PPD in hair dye. Hand eczema is common in anyone whose hands are wet for hours a day. Seborrhoeic dermatitis affects the scalp, eyebrows and sides of the nose. Stasis eczema appears on the lower legs of people with varicose veins.

Ayurveda arrives at a similar map from a different direction. Charaka describes Vicharchika as itchy eruptions, dark in colour, with profuse discharge, which fits chronic and weeping eczema well. Vipadika is cracking of the palms and soles with severe pain, which fits hand and foot eczema. Charaka classes Vicharchika as Kapha-dominant and Vipadika as Vata and Kapha; in practice Pitta often joins in wherever the skin is hot, red and burning.

Why Does Eczema Keep Coming Back?

Often because a trigger is still there, and in atopic eczema because the skin barrier itself stays fragile. In Ayurvedic terms, weak digestion produces ama, the partly digested residue that disturbs Kapha and Pitta and settles in the blood and skin. Incompatible food combinations, heavy fermented and sour food eaten every day, and eating before the last meal is digested all feed this cycle. Stress and poor sleep keep the itch-scratch cycle running, and scratching itself thickens the skin.

Then there are the external triggers, which in Karnataka have a recognisable pattern. Homemakers with hand eczema from dishwashing soap and constant wet work. Construction and cement workers. People reacting to hair dye who keep dyeing their hair. Imitation jewellery and watch buckles. Coastal humidity and sweat trapped under synthetic clothing. No internal treatment will hold if the hands go back into detergent water for three hours a day without protection. Part of every consultation is detective work on exactly these exposures.

Which Ayurvedic Therapies Are Used for Eczema and Dermatitis?

Virechana (therapeutic purgation)

For chronic, recurring eczema in an adult who is strong enough for it, Virechana is usually the centre of treatment. It is not done in pregnancy, in frail patients, or with significant heart, kidney or active bowel disease. It follows several days of internal medicated ghee (Snehapana), oil massage and steam, and is followed by a graded recovery diet. Its purpose is to clear the Pitta and Kapha burden from the blood so that external treatment is not fighting a constant supply of new inflammation.

Kashayadhara and Parisheka for weeping skin

Pouring of lukewarm or cool herbal decoctions over the affected skin. For oozing, crusted eczema this is the external treatment of choice, because decoctions of astringent, bitter herbs clean the lesions and help them dry without adding oil. It is one of the clearest examples of treatment changing with the stage of the disease.

Lepanam (herbal paste)

Freshly ground herbal pastes are applied to dry, itchy, inflamed patches once any oozing has settled, and removed before they dry. In a 2018 trial, paste plus a daily mild purgative did better than paste alone (Talekar et al., Ayu, 2018). Our guide to Lepanam therapy for skin disease covers the procedure in detail.

Medicated ghee and oils for dry, thickened skin

Once the skin is dry, thick and cracked, the logic reverses. Oils and medicated ghee, applied externally and sometimes taken internally, soften lichenified patches and close the painful fissures of Vipadika.

Raktamokshana and Takradhara

Leech therapy (Jalaukavacharana), a form of Raktamokshana, is used for a few thick, chronic, localised patches, after checking haemoglobin and circulation. It is not suitable if you take blood thinners or antiplatelet medicines, have a bleeding disorder, poorly controlled diabetes, a leg ulcer or a weakened immune system, and skin over varicose veins needs a vein assessment first because it heals slowly. Takradhara, medicated buttermilk poured over the forehead, is added when itch and stress are destroying sleep.