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Is Your Jewelry Making Your Sick? |
When you get a rash that doesn’t seem to have any real cause, it is both troubling and confusing. It is natural to get a rash from poison ivy or other obvious causes. Allergy rashes are one of the primary explanations we can come up with when a rash suddenly appears in some part of your body. The problem is that the number of things that could set off a skin rash are diverse. You could be reacting to a fabric in your clothing, to the detergent or fabric softener that was used to wash your clothing, to your make up or deodorant or to something you brushed up against or that was carried in the air.
If the rash clears up and does not come back, that means that it was probably caused by something uncommon so you don't have to worry about a reoccurring allergy rash. But if it just keeps coming back in the same area of your skin, that means the allergen you are reacting to may be something that you use all the time.
That means it is time to get to the bottom of what is causing your allergy rash. While you are reviewing your clothing and cleaning habits, don't overlook the jewelry you wear all the time. If you determine that your jewelry is the reason you are developing an allergy rash, that isn't a crisis. Allergic reactions to jewelry can be handled easily so you can get rid of that troublesome rash without giving up looking good.
An allergy rash that is caused by jewelry will often manifest itself in a rash that itches, swells and even burns around the area where the jewelry touches your skin. The location is your biggest clue that it is your jewelry that is setting off the allergy rash. An easy way to determine if you are allergic to your jewelry is to simply not wear those items for a week or two. If the allergy rash clears up and then comes back when you wear that jewelry again, your skin may be reacting to the nickel content in the jewelry you wear.
You may not have know there was nickel in your jewelry but it is a common metal to include even in fine jewelry because it is inexpensive, durable and it blends in well so you can't really tell that some of your jewelry pieces include nickel. Don't feel strange if you discover you have an allergy to nickel because about 15% of the population shares this allergy problem.
When you get a new piercing, an allergic rash to the nickel in the jewelry you put in that piercing can be particularly uncomfortable. Even if you buy earrings or other types of piercing jewelry that are made with white gold, nickel is also used in many of those jewelry pieces. And when it causes an allergy rash in a fresh piercing where the skin is sensitive, that can make the process of healing much more difficult.
The actual medical term for a skin rash like a jewelry based allergic reaction is "contact dermatitis". It can be a painful and hard to get over type of rash because if the rash is quite itchy, it can spread and keep you from performing your job or other duties you need to attend to. And as much as you love your jewelry, no ornament is worth that kind of suffering and the risk of a big interruption to your life.
It is possible to get your doctor or an allergist to give you a skin patch test to confirm that the allergy is result of nickel content in your jewelry. Of course, if the rash always appears around the area where the jewelry touches your skin and it goes away when you don't wear jewelry there, that is a pretty convincing proof without going through a lot of tests.
There are two solutions that are pretty obvious. The first is to simply not wear jewelry that causes you to break out with an allergic rash. But you can also find hypoallergenic jewelry that is made without nickel content in it. The costs are not that much higher than regular jewelry. This is a nice solution so you can continue to enjoy looking good and using your piercings without going through the misery of an allergic rash.
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