The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

dough and dermatitis

lovethewayyoulye's picture
lovethewayyoulye

dough and dermatitis

hi, all. i've been baking for six months now (not sure how that happened). i've read a lot about how working with dough has hurt people's hands/skin, but for me, i noticed it helped a LOT with my existing issues with eczema/dyshidrosis.

prior to baking, i often worked the line, which meant i had to wear gloves a lot. they always stuck to the sweat on my hands and caused a lot of chafing and allergy-like reactions. now i never wear gloves, and my hands are regularly coated in dough residue from rolling out pretzels all day. and my skin has been an absolute joy to inhabit.

i was wondering if anyone else had a similar experience, or a working theory on why that should be?

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven
DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

How do you inow all this stuff? Gosh!

Whatever, I'm glad you do!

 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Trying not hard enough to not steal a thread.

I just turned 60 and one acquires "stuff" over the years.  Curiosity and being observant perhaps.  Not sure why but sometimes the bits and pieces come in handy.  

 Like just the other day my husband was breaking out the wall around the hot and cold water pipes in the cellar bathroom. (Renovating a 50yr old bathroom.)  Later when we went to use water in the kitchen the cold and hot ran brown. Yuck.  Must have knocked a lot of debris off the inside of the pipes and it was starting to clog up the pipes. Yikes!  The hot hardly ran and one might call it dripping.  Not good.  We shoved a bucket under the tap.  Ran down to the cellar and put another bucket under the taps down there to remove as much gunk until the water ran clear but still the hot water pipe was clogged upstairs.   We were in the process of putting in new pipes but didn't expect to do it so soon, maybe next week.   :(    Now what?  Time to stand back and think.

I have often observed than when a hand held shower sprayer was turned off at the "head" but the hot and cold water lines were still open due to a one arm type mixer left in the "on" position, hot water often leaked into the cold line and vise-versa. (A running discussion between us about the negative effects of leaving such taps open after use.) Ok, what would happen if I turned off the main hot water supply, leave the bathroom hot water tap open and turn the one armed kitchen tap half way between hot and cold?  

Theoretically the cold water should force itself into the hot water pipe, fill the void and force the gunk plugging the line backwards out the tap into the bucket in the bathroom.  Right?  Let's hope it works.  Tried to explain it to my tired and hungry husband (difficult) so I volunteered him back to the kitchen. He agreed to try out my backwashing theory.  

I turned off the main hot water line coming from the boiler.  Went to the bath and opened the hot tap until the line seemed empty and left it open.  Then asked hubby to turn on the tap halfway between hot and cold and better yet plug or hold his hand over the end of tap.  Sure enough, the bucket in the bathroom started to drip hot clear water and then shoot hot muddy water >yuck< getting colder (yes, it's working!) and clearer within a short time.  :)

 Hubby turned off the kitchen tap, came back down and we ran the hot water and flushed all cold and hot lines until clear.  If you can still keep up with all this stair climbing, tap turning, and bucket emptying, congratulations!  When we went back up to the kitchen the hot water was running beautifully.  Ran more water to remove any grit before cleaning/putting the sieves back on.   What a relief!  

We changed our clothes and plundered an "all you can eat" buffet up the street.  The result of another observation... don't let a hungry man wait for his food!  He was happy to pay and we got our money's worth.

DesigningWoman's picture
DesigningWoman

constantly amazed at how much you know -- and your ability to call up the knowledge when you need it (very tidily organized hard drive, no fragmentation!)

And kudos to you for your persistence and to your husband for his patience throughout what must have been an ordeal. I don't think that scenario would have played in this house!

End of hijack!

Cheers,

Carole

pmccool's picture
pmccool

you may have developed a latex sensitivity.  

Or, it might just be that the trapped moisture kept them chapped all the time.

Good to hear that they are better now. 

Paul

gillpugh's picture
gillpugh

A lot of facials and creams use acids to take off the top skin layers - so yes I think it will work. I’ll try tonight.