The first thing that happened was that she found out that she had a few purple-red, apricot-nut sized hard lumps on her thighs or buttocks, along with mild itching. As a result, after a week of being “beautifully frozen”, Xiao Li found several hard lumps the size of apricot kernels on her thighs or buttocks, accompanied by mild pain and itching. She was so frightened that she rushed to the Department of Dermatology at the Fifth Hospital.
The main reason is that the clothes are too little, the skin is stimulated by the cold air caused by contraction, resulting in poor epidermal blood flow, coupled with the fragile fat cells, the subcutaneous fat layer stimulated by cold inflammation. Xiao Li listened, really regretted not listening to his parents.
Dr. Liu Dongmei said that cold lipofuscinosis is mainly manifested by the appearance of purple-red nodules in the cold area, which can be single or multiple nodules. The epidermis is purple-red and hard to the touch. It may be accompanied by mild itching and pain, or in severe cases, ulceration. It is more likely to occur in areas that are less warm, such as the thighs and buttocks, where the subcutaneous fat layer is thicker.
Many fashionable women wear short skirts and stockings in the cold winter months in order to pursue fashionable dressing, which can easily cause cold seborrhea in the thighs and buttocks, thus causing cold seborrhea, so the disease is mostly seen in young women who dress less in cold weather. It is also seen in girls who often wear tight underwear, and girls who do not like to exercise, especially girls who are fat and prone to this disease.
So how to prevent the occurrence of the disease? Dr. Liu said that the main thing is to do the following: First, do not sit and stand for a long time, keep appropriate exercise to promote blood circulation. Second, pay attention to warmth, loose clothing, fat people better not wear jeans and other tight clothing. The third is to go to a regular hospital to ask a dermatologist for treatment when symptoms appear.
Dr. Liu said that the cold can cause “cold seborrhea” in addition to other skin diseases, there is a group of skin diseases caused by the cold: such as frostbite, cold urticaria, cold erythema multiforme, etc. In order to protect the public from these diseases in the cold winter, Dr. Liu has explained this specifically.
A. Frostbite is an abnormal reaction of the skin to cold
Frostbite is a common disease in winter. It is a limited inflammatory damage to the skin caused by cold, which is slow to heal itself when the climate warms up and is prone to recurrence. The common damage is a limited bruised dark purplish-red raised edematous erythema with indistinct boundaries and bright red edges, a tense and shiny surface, and a soft texture. Local pressure can be discolored, and the red color gradually returns after pressure is removed. The itchiness is obvious and intensifies after heat. If frozen for a long time, local tissue hypoxia and cell damage is serious, the damage surface may blister, rupture to form erosion or ulcers, leaving pigmentation or atrophic scars after healing.
Liu Dongmei, deputy chief physician, said that in order not to grow frostbite, the key is to do a good job of prevention: 1.
1, strengthen physical exercise, promote blood circulation, pay attention to nutrition, improve the body’s adaptability to the cold, such as the appropriate to eat some gum and other tonic;
2, after winter, pay attention to the whole body and local warmth and dryness;
3, shoes and socks should not be too tight, frozen parts should not be immediately baked and soaked in hot water;
4, treatment of chronic anemia and other wasting diseases, etc.;
5, can go to the hospital some time before winter to irradiate the parts previously suffering from frostbite with infrared light, once every 10-20 days.
Second, the combination of Chinese and Western medicine is the best way to treat cold urticaria
Dr. Liu Dongmei said, winter and spring, some people encounter a cold wind or contact with cold water, the whole body will appear itchy and windy symptoms, medically known as “cold urticaria”. It is a kind of acquired urticaria, mostly seen in children or adolescents, but also seen in various other ages. It is characterized by a sudden itching of the skin after encountering cold air, cold water or cold objects, followed by the appearance of wind clusters of varying sizes, isolated and not in pieces. After scratching, the skin may show obvious scratches and flashes of red, which may last for 30-60 minutes and may recur after fading.
The diagnosis of cold urticaria is very simple, as long as an ice cube placed on the forearm, 2 minutes after the whole body itching, the production of wind or flushing phenomenon can be confirmed, this test is called the cold skin irritation test.
Lighter cold urticaria does not require special treatment, most of which will subside on its own with exposure to cold air or cold water; however, if the symptoms are obvious and recurrent, affecting the patient’s daily life, active treatment is required. Dr. Liu Dongmei, deputy chief physician, said that if you simply give anti-allergy medication, the effect is not obvious, it is best to take Chinese medicine at the same time to regulate. Because traditional Chinese medicine believes that cold urticaria is mainly caused by the deficiency of Wei Yang, if you use Chinese medicine to treat the symptoms by benefiting Qi and fixing the surface, invigorating blood and dispelling wind to relieve itching, you may achieve satisfactory results for more than 4 weeks.
The cause of cold urticaria is very clear, so prevention has become very simple, the key is to do a good job of keeping warm, windproof work; usually drink more hot water, avoid contact with cold water; reduce going out or wear masks, gloves, scarves, ear muffs when going out.
1. Do not treat cold erythema multiforme as frostbite
Dr. Liu Dongmei said that the symptoms of cold erythema multiforme are somewhat similar to frostbite, but it is an allergic skin disease related to cold factors, with a high incidence in winter. It usually presents as edematous papules and edematous erythema with blisters in the center on the cheeks, ears, ends of the limbs, and both sides of the buttocks, or it may present as mild hemorrhagic erythema, iris-like erythema with blisters in the center, and in severe cases, vesicles may occur. Patients feel burning and painful on their own, and feel itchy when hot. Some patients are accompanied by frostbite.
Cold is the main trigger. Infection, drugs, and food can also trigger or worsen the symptoms. It is mostly seen in women and children and those with peripheral circulation disorders, slightly more in women than in men. The damage lasts 14 to 20 d and subsides spontaneously, but often ebbs and flows with the cold spell until it disappears in the spring. It tends to recur during the cold season. The disease can coexist with general frostbite damage, but general frostbite can remain after the rash of this disease disappears.
The onset of cold erythema multiforme is closely related to cold, mainly because cold can cause peripheral blood circulation disorders; in addition, it is also related to allergic reactions, and some patients have increased IgG and circulating immune complexes in blood, thus suggesting that the disease is an immune reactive disorder.
Dr. Liu Dongmei believes that cold erythema multiforme is important for prevention. The specific method is to pay attention to local warmth from the beginning of winter. In cold weather, masks, gloves, warm ear muffs and scarves should be used as early as possible when going out; shoes should be worn warmly, but not too tightly, and kept clean and dry. The most important thing is to strengthen physical exercise and exercise more to enhance the blood circulation of the skin. If once you find the rash, you should go to the hospital for treatment as early as possible, and at the same time avoid misdiagnosis and mistreatment, because if you mistakenly treat cold erythema multiforme as frostbite and apply frostbite cream, you will rub more and more.
2.Recipes for food therapy
Dr. Liu Dongmei said that because the above-mentioned diseases are related to poor local blood circulation caused by cold, the principle of activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis must be followed in the treatment. Then if you can also choose some food with blood circulation and blood stasis effect in the diet, not only can achieve the purpose of disease prevention, but also can play a synergistic role in the treatment. For this reason, Dr. Liu specially proposed several dietary treatments. She suggested that people prone to such diseases can eat more warm food in the cold winter, such as hot pot, beef, mutton and dog meat, ginger, etc. to achieve the purpose of expanding capillaries and promoting blood circulation.
If people can add cinnamon, dulcimer, dry ginger and other warming Yang things when making food, the effect will be better; at the same time, Dr. Liu also suggested that patients go to the hospital to let the doctor according to their tongue, pulse configuration with some warm meridians, blood, cold Chinese medicine formula, dipped into the wine, a week after taking a cup every day. The method is especially suitable for patients who can drink alcohol. Dr. Liu has a number of patients who insist on using this method for several years and have achieved good clinical results.