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DermaSterol®
The skin – the largest organ in the body
Just like the heart, liver or kidneys, the skin is an organ with vital functions such as regulation of body temperature, perception of sensory stimuli and protection against the penetration of foreign substances. The fur also insulates against heat and cold.
Healthy skin also has the ability to heal quickly when injured; Depending on the degree of damage, an intact skin surface can be restored in just a few days.
The importance of the skin barrier
The outermost layer of skin is particularly important as an “epidermal barrier”. It consists of dead horny cells arranged like bricks, which are embedded in fats layered on top of each other. It prevents the skin from drying out and allergy-causing substances and pathogens from entering the body.
Why does the animal scratch, rub and lick itself?
Disturbances of the skin barrier lead to itching and dermatoses. Cells in the upper layers of the skin react to such disorders with inflammation and produce messenger substances that trigger itching. The itching leads to scratching, rubbing, licking and gnawing, which in turn causes small injuries. These small injuries are ideal entry points for pathogens and secondary infections often occur, which lead to a further deterioration of the clinical picture.
The causes can be diverse:
- Parasites such as fleas, mites or lice
- Allergies, such as the frequently occurring atopic dermatitis, but also the flea bite allergy to flea saliva, food allergies or contact allergies, e.g. B. against care products, detergents or pollen
- Metabolic diseases and hormonal disorders such as diabetes or thyroid dysfunction
- Infectious diseases
- Tumors
- Diseases that are associated with disorders of the immune system
- mental disorders
Skin diseases should be treated
Don’t take skin changes and itching lightly – they are not trivial issues.
On the one hand, the animal can suffer so much from the itching and pain that occurs with damaged skin that it can even lead to behavioral changes. On the other hand, skin diseases tend to get worse quickly if left untreated.
Not only does the animal's constant scratching and licking play a role, but also the fact that bacteria or fungi can easily settle on the damaged areas of skin and worsen the clinical picture.
Finding the cause of the itching
Since skin diseases are often complex in nature and can have many causes, but are very similar in appearance, it is often not easy for your veterinarian to make an accurate diagnosis immediately. He therefore depends on your cooperation: the more precise your information is, the easier it is for the veterinarian to find out the cause of the illness.
Fight the causes
Basically, it is of course important that the cause of the itching is clarified and your animal is treated accordingly. This is relatively easy, for example, in the case of a flea or mite infestation: If the animal is treated with an effective antiparasitic, the skin's appearance usually improves very quickly.
The case becomes more difficult, for example, if there is a food allergy: Here you first have to find out which food ingredients your animal is allergic to and then these must be avoided - which means a lifelong special diet for the animal in question.
You should be prepared for these questions:
- General information: age, weight, gender and race?
- Description of complaints: What changes? Where? How long have these changes existed?
- Changes in symptoms over the course of the disease?
- Pre-existing illness?
- What food does your animal get? Feeding changes?
- Is your animal already receiving medication?
- Housing conditions?
- Change in husbandry conditions?
- Do people or other animals in the household have complaints?
- Are related animals also affected?
Treatment options
Real healing is not always possible
However, the cause of the allergy often cannot be determined or the factors that trigger the allergy (allergens) cannot be avoided. Then there is nothing left but to treat the symptoms that arise in order to enable your animal to live a largely symptom-free life.
But even with all other causes of illness, your veterinarian will strive to reduce the itching in order to save your animal suffering and to break the vicious circle of itching, scratching and worsening of the disease.
What medications can be used to control itching?
Janus kinase inhibitors
Janus kinase inhibitors are now the drug of choice for combating itching. They prevent the release of signaling substances that promote itching and thereby bring about a rapid improvement in the itching. In addition, there are hardly any side effects.
Glucocorticoids
Glucocorticoids such as cortisone usually have a very good anti-itching and anti-inflammatory effect, which initially provides rapid improvement - but they also have numerous side effects that increase with increasing duration of use.
Antihistamines
Antihistamines inhibit the release of histamine, a messenger substance that is involved in the development of allergies and itching. Although they have fewer side effects than cortisone preparations, their itch-relieving effect alone is often not sufficient. For many animal patients, better results can be achieved by combining it with essential fatty acids.
What alternative methods are there?
Alternative healing methods such as phytosterols, omega-3 fatty acids or phytotherapeutics can usually be combined very well with conventional medical treatments. They are another way to help affected animals, as an improvement in the clinical picture and/or, for example, a reduction in the dose of cortisone can often be achieved. There is no risk of side effects if the product is selected correctly and used as intended.
Phytosterols, which are obtained from vegetable oils such as soy, corn germ or rapeseed oil, accumulate in the upper layer of skin and can be detected in the lipid film. They thus improve the barrier properties of the skin, which prevents excessive water loss and increases tolerance to allergy-causing substances. In addition, phytosterols reduce the production of messenger substances that cause itching and have an anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effect similar to cortisone. However, since the effects can be attributed to completely different mechanisms of action, there are no side effects - even with long-term administration.
There are also no known interactions with medications, so products containing phytosterols can also be given together with anti-itch medications. The drug dose can often even be reduced as a result. Phytosterols can be combined particularly well with other substances that gently support skin function. In particular, these are essential fatty acids, herbal ingredients, vitamins, trace elements and minerals.
Many of the vital unsaturated fatty acids cannot be produced by the body itself and must therefore be supplied with food - they are essential. The most important of these fatty acid families are:
- Omega 3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA], docosahexaenoic acid [DHA])
- Omega-6 fatty acids (linoleic acid, gamma-linolenic acid, arachidonic acid)
They are essential components of the cell membranes and are important for normal skin function: a deficiency leads to an impairment of the skin's barrier function.
The omega-3 fatty acids also play a role in inflammatory reactions, in which they are released from the cell membranes and influence the course of the inflammatory reaction. Feeding oils high in omega-3 fatty acids can influence the fatty acid composition in cell membranes. During an inflammatory phase, these fatty acids are then released in the correspondingly changed ratio and the inflammatory reaction is milder.
However, a distinction must be made between the plant-based omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid and the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which are obtained from fish. The sources of α-alpha-linolenic acid are primarily vegetable oils such as hemp oil, walnut oil or linseed oil. EPA and DHA, on the other hand, are predominantly obtained from fatty cold-water fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel or tuna.
All three omega fatty acids have important functions in the body, but only EPA and DHA are able to positively influence an inflammatory reaction. Although alpha-linolenic acid can be converted into EPA and DHA after absorption into the body, this only happens to a very small extent. It therefore makes sense to use a fish oil-based preparation for inflammatory skin diseases because the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA they contain can reduce inflammatory reactions to a much greater extent than is possible with alpha-linolenic acid from plant products.
Tocopherols act as antioxidants: They detoxify harmful radicals and peroxides, which are increasingly produced in the organism during inflammatory reactions.
The bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) is a medicinal plant that is mainly found in damp places.
The dried stems of the perennial plant are used medicinally. They are called bittersweet stems and contain steroid alkaloids, steroid saponins and tannins. Bittersweet stem has an anti-inflammatory and itching effect and is particularly used as a supportive therapy for chronic eczema and itching.
In contrast to our garden pansy, which is not suitable for medicinal purposes, the wild pansy (Viola tricolor) is often used in natural medicine. In our latitudes it occurs in meadows, fields and fallow land and is traditionally used for skin diseases.
The above-ground plant parts cut during the flowering period, the so-called “pansy herb”, are used medicinally. It contains numerous secondary plant substances, including flavonoids, mucilage, salicylic acid derivatives, caffeic acids and glycosides. It is used internally, for example, for children's cradle cap, but also for other skin diseases such as eczema and acne.
The trace element zinc is important for healthy skin and hair. A zinc deficiency leads to shaggy hair, dandruff and pigmentation disorders.
Biotin is one of the most important vitamins for skin and hair metabolism. It is necessary for healthy hair and claw growth.
The fear that feeding certain oils such as fish oil, soybean oil or corn oil could trigger additional allergies in sensitive animals is unfounded, as the oils contain almost no allergy-causing substances (proteins). Only for animals that have been shown to have a very strong allergy to soy, for example, can it make sense to avoid products containing soy oil as a precaution. As a rule, even a soy allergy sufferer has no problem with soy oil.
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