The Aesthetics Advisor

Randomized, double-blind, controlled trials suggest that excluding certain foods, such as eggs and chicken, can significantly improve atopic dermatitis. Infants of mothers randomized to cut out eggs, milk, and fish were significantly less likely to have eczema even years later. Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. In fact, it’s the leading cause of healthy years of life lost due to common skin diseases because it’s just so common—affecting about one-fifth of us. And it’s not just an itchy rash; it’s associated with other diseases, too. Yes, it can be itchy, exhausting, and embarrassing, but in kids, it may increase the risk for ADHD—though that may just be from sleep deprivation. In adults, it may increase the risk of major depression. Image via www.merckmanuals.com And it’s on the rise. There are drugs for it; of course, there are always drugs. Steroids are the first-line therapy, but then there are immunosuppressants as w...

Insomnia and melatonin supplements are not words one would often associate with children. But recent survey findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics (2023) suggest that melatonin consumption in U.S. children and adolescents is “exceedingly common.” Around one-fifth of American children use melatonin for sleep and some parents begin administering it to their children at the early age of 1, the authors wrote. The United States has seen a rapid rise in pediatric melatonin use due to sleep problems. Some clinicians attribute these sleep problems to an increase in mental illness and screen use.  According to the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) survey findings, between 2017 and 2018 , around 1 percent of children and adolescents under the age of 19 consumed melatonin in the past 30 days. The JAMA Pediatrics study authors compared this finding to their own research results, reporting that the current data indicate a rise in use of abou...