Skin Peeling

WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR

* You also have a rash.

* Your skin begins to peel soon after you begin to take a new medication.

What Your Symptom Is Telling You

Your nose is peeling, your arms are peeling, your back is peeling. It's all so . . . unappealing.

"In general, peeling skin in and of itself is not a big problem and no harm comes of it," says Guy F. Webster, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of dermatology and director of the Center for Cutaneous Pharmacology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Besides sunburn, common skin peelers are dryness, irritation by household chemicals and solvents, and overuse of products like Retin-A, a prescription acne and wrinkle medication that decreases the number of surface skin cells. Skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis can also make the skin peel.

"Occasionally, severe and potentially dangerous peeling of large areas is caused by a condition called TEN, or toxic epidermal necrolysis, which means toxic skin death," says Jerold Z. Kaplan, M.D., medical director of the Alta Bates Burn Center in Berkeley, California. TEN is an extremely uncommon allergic reaction to relatively common drugs, such as sulfa drugs, gout medications or penicillin, and requires hospitalization.

Symptom Relief

When you look like a chameleon in full molt, here are a couple of things you can try.

Stop picking on you. You may hate the look of peeling skin, but you should probably resist the temptation to pick at it, Dr. Webster says. Broken skin is an invitation to infections. "And if you have a skin disease like eczema or psoriasis, peeling the skin back can damage tissue and worsen the underlying skin problem."

Get out the scissors. "If skin is hanging, the best thing is to snip it off with fine scissors so you don't pull areas that are still adherent," says Diana Bihova, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at New York University School of Medicine in New York City and coauthor of Beauty from the Inside Out.

Moisturize. Soothe dry, peeling skin by moisturizing it with any good moisturizing cream or lotion, suggests Dr. Kaplan. (For the lowdown on dealing with eczema and psoriasis, see Rashes on page 436.)

Take a bath. Take a cool bath or shower, suggests Dr. Webster. It will help soak away any lose flakes. For all-over peeling, a soak in an Aveeno oatmeal bath is helpful, says Dr. Bihova.

See also Skin Flaking