The article was prepared by a specialist for informational purposes only. We urge you not to self-medicate. When the first symptoms appear, consult a doctor.
Legs can itch with varying intensity. Sometimes the itching is very mild, and sometimes it is quite pronounced. Severe scratching can even become inflamed and painful. The reasons why your feet itch can be very diverse. To get rid of itching, you need to find out its cause.
How to get rid of itching after a shower?
What to do after a shower for itchy feet
? Dry your skin with a towel. Rubbing your skin with a towel after showering can strip your skin of moisture.
how to get rid of itchy feet
- Moisturize your skin while it's still damp. Applying a moisturizer while your skin is still wet will help retain moisture in the skin barrier. Choose a hypoallergenic, fragrance-free moisturizer. If you have acne-prone skin, it is advisable not to use any additional oils unless recommended by your doctor. For added benefit, store your moisturizer in the refrigerator before using it. Creams and ointments containing lactic acid can be used to soothe and moisturize the skin.
- Change your shower products. If you experience intermittent itching without a rash after showering, it may be time to switch to soap. Look for soaps with mild, hypoallergenic ingredients. A moisturizing soap will have a positive effect on reducing the symptoms of dry skin.
- Change your water routine. If you take long, hot showers, you may well burn your skin. Take a warm shower and not too long, then it will be healthy and less itchy.
- Try a coolant after your shower. You can use menthol or calamine lotion on the itching area.
- Essential oils can also be used. Sweet almond or jojoba oils, mint, chamomile, tea tree, geranium and rose are excellent.
- Drink more water. Dehydration can lead to dry skin. Make sure you drink your daily amount of water throughout the day.
- A diet rich in fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grains helps prevent dry skin.
Causes of itchy feet
Most often, it happens that in addition to itching in the legs, a person is bothered by other symptoms. If you try to put them together, you can find the cause of the violation and get rid of it. First you need to think about the body's allergic reaction. Perhaps the person recently ate something unusual or stale. An abundance of sweet foods in the diet can provoke itching in the legs. In addition, allergies often occur to items of clothing - tights or knee socks.
Sometimes your feet may itch due to lack of moisture in the skin, or due to a deficiency of vitamins. Another cause of itching of the lower extremities is shaving or waxing the legs. Even dry and hard water can dry out the skin of the lower extremities and cause itching.
Diseases that can cause itchy feet:
- Diabetes.
- Liver pathologies.
- Diseases of the endocrine glands.
- Varicose veins.
Also, the fungal nature of the itching cannot be ruled out. Although sometimes it is triggered by ordinary fatigue of the lower extremities.
Finally, the obvious cause of itchy feet is insect bites - mosquitoes and midges.
Phlebeurysm
If a person suffers from varicose veins for a long time, he may develop eczema and itchy skin. Unpleasant sensations occur regardless of the time of day. With varicose veins, changes in the skin are observed. In those places where diseased veins pass, the skin becomes thinner, and constant scratching provokes the appearance of non-healing wounds.
To reduce discomfort, you can use the following recommendations:
- Wear stockings and shapewear.
- Take long walks.
- Apply hormonal creams and ointments to the affected areas.
If the itching bothers you greatly, then to eliminate it you can use a mixture of Lidocaine and vodka in a ratio of 4 ampoules to 50 ml. Application of the composition allows you to relieve itching for several hours.
It is not recommended to use alkaline soap to wash your feet, as its use will increase the itching. To normalize the acid-base balance of the skin, you can treat it with diluted boric acid or lemon juice.
More details:
Varicose veins - causes, symptoms and complications
Diabetes
If a person develops diabetes, the whole body will suffer, but the disease can manifest itself in itching of a certain part of the body. Therefore, it is often the legs that itch when blood sugar levels are high.
To make the itching less intense, you can clean the blood, or use the following recipes:
- Mix 200 ml of warm water with 2 Diphenhydramine tablets and a teaspoon of baking soda. This composition should be used to treat the skin of the feet. This will relieve the itching for a while.
- You can wipe the dermis with apple or cucumber juice.
- In the morning, on an empty stomach, you can drink a tablespoon of vegetable oil. You can also take it before bed, a few hours after your last meal.
- In the evening, it is recommended to take baths with potato starch or nettle infusion.
- Tea with leaves of black currant, string and tricolor violet is good for health. For two parts of currant leaves, take one part of string and violets.
You need to understand that none of the listed recipes will get rid of diabetes. All of them are aimed only at eliminating skin itching. Treatment of the disease comes down to controlling blood glucose levels. To do this, first of all you need to work on your diet. It is useful to eat fresh berries (rowan, cranberry, gooseberry), celery, sorrel. Such products not only heal the body as a whole, but also improve the quality of the blood.
More details:
Causes, signs and symptoms of diabetes
Pregnancy
Skin itching in the lower extremities begins to bother some women, starting in the second half of pregnancy. Although this symptom does not occur often. Sometimes the skin on those parts of the legs where it itches most intensely becomes yellowish in color. The itching intensifies mainly at night.
During pregnancy, the level of estrogen in a pregnant woman's body increases. This leads to stagnation of bile. The accumulation of bile acids provokes skin itching. If at such a period of her life a woman takes a blood test, the results of the study will show a noticeable increase in the level of bilirubin and ALT.
To make your feet less itchy during pregnancy, you should use the following recommendations:
- You need to shower at least 2 times a day and even more often.
- After the bath, you should treat your skin with cosmetic oils or body milk.
- You need to take activated charcoal once a day. For every 10 kg of weight, take 1 tablet of the drug.
- To reduce skin itching, you can ask the pharmacy to sell a special mash.
- After consulting with a doctor, you can take a course of medications. It could be No-shpa or Karsil. These drugs help normalize liver function.
- To combat dry skin, you can use products containing cocoa butter or aloe.
- When taking a bath, you can add products to the water to soften it.
- Do not use skin care products that contain alcohol.
Most often, after the baby is born, the itchy skin goes away. No drug should be taken without prior medical advice.
Sometimes during pregnancy, itchy skin is caused by allergies. To eliminate its manifestations, it is necessary to follow a diet and avoid contact with potential allergens.
You have some kind of disease - perhaps not yet diagnosed
Often itching is the first symptom of quite serious illnesses. It may indicate:
- liver diseases - for example, viral hepatitis or cirrhosis,
- kidney disease,
- problems with the thyroid gland - hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism,
- some types of cancer (for example, Hodgkin's lymphoma or skin cancer may manifest themselves as itching).
Itchy feet after a shower: reasons
Causes of varicose dermatitis
Our leg vessels have a muscular system and valves for the proper movement of blood in the body. Causes of varicose dermatitis, when the vessels stop doing their job correctly:
- excess weight,
- static work,
- long walks,
- lower limb injuries,
- heart diseases.
As a result, the walls of blood vessels become thin. The process of blood movement worsens. Venous congestion occurs. As the blood becomes more viscous, the body expends a lot of effort to normalize blood flow. This further thins the vessel wall and releases blood plasma under the skin. Swelling occurs. The appearance of edema provides “fertile ground” for the development of varicose dermatitis.
When do you need to see a doctor urgently?
Here are some clear indications that you should consult a therapist as soon as possible.
- Your feet itch for longer than two weeks, despite the fact that you take care of hygiene, moisturize your skin and limit contact with possible allergens as much as possible.
- The itching is so severe that it keeps you awake at night or distracts you from work and personal life during the day.
- A strong desire to scratch occurs regularly and for no apparent reason.
- The itching gradually spreads to the entire body.
- “Scabies” is accompanied by a feeling of constant fatigue or fever.
Any of the following symptoms when the skin is very itchy after a shower
, indicates that you may have a serious illness. It needs to be diagnosed and treated.
How to stop itching
The difficulty is to break the vicious circle of itching/scratching, and this is not at all as easy as it seems.
Cold showers, baths, and ice packs can help numb the itching.
Moisturizing should be the first step to getting rid of eczema, as moisture can help block the spaces between skin cells where allergens multiply. You can also use one of the over-the-counter medications to treat your symptoms.
If the itching continues to haunt you, it is recommended to consult a doctor.
Possible consequences and complications
If you delay diagnosing the reason why your feet itch, swell, or peel, you can start the disease and end up with:
- trophic ulcer;
- infection and spread throughout the body;
- gangrene if the patient has diabetes.
If itching occurs as a result of an allergic reaction, bronchospasm and anaphylactic shock may occur.
If itching occurs, it is important to endure the moment and not scratch, otherwise skin inflammation, sores, scabs on the legs, scars, scars will appear, which will be very difficult to get rid of, plus you can get an infection. You should not self-medicate, as an incorrectly selected medication can provoke a number of new symptoms.
How to get rid of itching below the knees using traditional methods
In addition to the main treatment, you can make home remedies using traditional recipes.
- Mix St. John's wort, chamomile and mint in equal quantities, steam with boiling water and add to the bath. Carry out the procedure daily.
- Lubricate the affected area with castor or sea buckthorn oil
- Make apple cider vinegar lotions 3 times a day.
- Boil the dill seeds. After cooling, take the decoction 3 times a day, half a glass.
It is important to first establish why your legs below the knees itch, and then decide how to cure the disease. You cannot prescribe medications on your own.
Diagnostics
As a result of instrumental and laboratory studies, it is possible to obtain information about the state of a person’s health, about all the processes occurring in his body.
According to the clinical situation, the following tests must be performed:
- allergy tests;
- urine analysis according to Zimnitsky and Nichiporenko;
- general blood and urine analysis;
- scraping;
- blood biochemistry;
- perform an ultrasound of the kidneys and liver.
How to treat varicose dermatitis
Each stage of development of varicose dermatitis has an individual approach to treatment. In order to get rid of varicose dermatitis, systemic treatment is necessary:
- Gets rid of foci of inflammation;
- Relieve swelling of the legs;
- Increase blood flow speed;
- Constant hydration of thickened areas of the skin;
- Prevention of purulent inflammation.
The first stage of treatment of varicose dermatitis
At this stage, medications are taken that increase the muscle activity of blood vessels. Along with medications, treatment includes wearing compression garments. It improves the functioning of vascular walls. Lingerie helps relieve swelling and fatigue in the legs. Antihistamines are used to relieve itching. To prevent skin cracking, moisturizers are used.
If you are faced with the task of choosing compression underwear for yourself, a loved one or relative, we recommend reading the article “Compression stockings: how to choose, compression class, sizes.”
The second stage of treatment of varicose dermatitis
Treatment is the same as in stage 1. To reduce itching, antihistamine and hormonal ointments are used simultaneously. Antiseptic creams are applied to areas with suppuration.
In addition, valerian or motherwort are used to increase calmness of the whole body. Be careful when using such tinctures; they should be used only after being prescribed by your doctor.
The third stage of treatment of varicose dermatitis
In this case, surgery is required. Since recovery is possible only after restoration of vascular changes. Initially, it is necessary to eliminate the acute manifestation of inflammation, this is achieved by:
- Raise the affected leg to a height of 25-35 degrees for blood outflow;
- Washing of emerging ulcers;
- Administration of injections that increase the permeability of blood through the vessels;
- Using elastic bandages to increase pressure on the surface of the leg;
- The use of antihistamines intravenously.
Itchy feet below the knees in winter
Sometimes the pathology is seasonal, and the legs below the knees itch only in winter. To understand what to do, you need to identify why this is happening.
- Allergy to the material from which winter clothing is made. Warm clothes that keep you warm in cold weather are mostly synthetic. Your feet may not be cold, but still get irritated from contact. Or there may be a double reaction: itching from hypothermia and friction with synthetics.
- Cold dermatitis. An inflammatory reaction to cold, which is expressed by red itchy spots and cracks in the skin. It appears in most cases on open areas of the body, as well as on the knees and below.
- Allergy to cold. In the cold, histamine is released, causing the calves to itch.
- Exacerbation of chronic dermatological diseases. In winter, chronic diseases can worsen, and other than the usual course of treatment, no measures will help.
Which doctor should I contact?
If you have itchy skin from the feet to the knees, you should contact:
- pediatrician - if the child has itching for no apparent reason;
- therapist, for initial diagnosis;
- an allergist, in the presence of severe allergic reactions;
- a dermatologist - if there is a suspicion of skin diseases;
- psychotherapist - to correct the emotional sphere;
- to a vascular surgeon – in the presence of varicose veins;
- gastroenterologist - to exclude stomach diseases.
If such reactions occur, especially during pregnancy, it is recommended to visit a therapist; perhaps during the examination, he will refer you to a more specialized specialist.
