Q When I apply the steroid ointment from the dermatologist, the itching subsides for a while, but once I stop I scratch again and it gets even thicker. What's different about Korean medicine?
A Steroids quickly suppress itching and inflammation, but the internal environment that causes the itch and the scratching cycle itself remain unchanged, so it tends to recur once stopped. Korean medicine addresses the dryness and heat at the root of the itch, aiming for a state that relies less on medication.
Detailed Answer
Topical steroids rapidly reduce itching and inflammation and can help soften thickened skin, but they do not change the underlying basis of the itch (the dryness of the skin, the sensitized nerves) or the unconscious scratching habit. As a result, the skin improves only while applying it and reverts to scratching and thickening once stopped, and prolonged use on thick skin can also carry the burden of thinning the skin.
Korean Medicine Clinic Perspective
At Dongjedang, we begin with a stage that calms the upward-floating heat and the itching, then replenish body fluids and blood into the parched skin (nourishing blood and moistening dryness, bohyeol-yunjo), and stabilize the oversensitized immunity and mind so that the itch itself diminishes. Because this is an internal-medicine approach that addresses the body's root such as blood deficiency and Heart-fire (simhwa) that created the itch — not merely blocking the scratching — rather than abruptly stopping your ointment, we adjust it together so it is gradually tapered as the itching subsides.
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