# Bleaching away the eczema?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleaching-away-the-eczema/494749>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 29, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleaching-away-the-eczema/494749 "2009-04-29T18:28:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleaching-away-the-eczema/494749/1 "2009-04-29T18:28:53Z")

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I was stunned to read an article in the Washington Post the other day, suggesting that regular bathing in a tubful of water + a bit of Clorox seems to help eczema.

More googling suggests there _is_ strong evidence of it.

> **[The Washington Post - Breaking news and latest headlines, U.S. news, world...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/)**
>
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[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/health/01case.html?ref=science](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/health/01case.html?ref=science)

Anyone else ever heard of this?

My 12 year old daughter suffers from chronic eczema - her torso is covered in it, and medication and lotion barely keep it in check. I’m planning on bringing this up with her doctors.

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**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleaching-away-the-eczema/494749/2 "2009-04-29T19:46:00Z")

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Sounds reasonable. A doctor perscribed me a topical antibiotic a few years back when I had a bad outbreak and it gave me the best ever results. I’ve not actually had a bad case since IIRC. His reasoning was that a bad flare up can easily get infected, and it was pointless to apply steroids and the like onto infected eczema.

So the bacterial component of eczema is an important one - tackling it with a bit of bleach sounds like an interesting approach. Whilst my eczema is not bad nowadays, our baby son gets it badly at times - thanks for posting the link, something to watch develop.

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**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleaching-away-the-eczema/494749/3 "2009-04-29T19:46:44Z")

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It seems to me that I remember this from many, many years ago. I’ve had eczema all my life, and I’m doing well right now, but I feel her pain.

Me? I’d try it.

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**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleaching-away-the-eczema/494749/4 "2009-04-29T21:40:56Z")

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I read about the study on [healthday.com](http://healthday.com). It sounds like the results were quite good. They suggest a half cup of bleach in a full tub of water. Five to ten minute soaks twice a week.