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Skin Continuously Exploding
Zach Baer wrote: Lol, the OP hardly has “skin damage”. As a climber don’t expect to have baby soft hands for her pleasure ever again. Besides anti biotic cream to stop infection for open cuts DONT put product on your hands, it interrupts the process of going from muggle hands to climbing hands. |
Tradiban wrote: I can't tell if you're doubling down on the troll act, or you're genuinely a complete moron. I've been climbing seriously for 10 years and I'm a nurse. I don't need an aggressively mediocre climber like you to tell me what my normal skin is like. This isn't normal. So like Zach said, If all you can say is moronic bullshit... |
Where's Walden wrote: Calm down. Skin flare ups happen from time to time, just work though it and avoid putting on lotions and crap. In the long run your hands will harden up. Trim down calluses with a finger nail clipper so they don’t flapper and cut off/out dead skin. Triple anti raw skin and tape over for climbing, take off after climbing to dry it out. |
Where's Walden wrote: ^ Good information. I can understand your frustration with Tradiban’s response!!! Thanks for the update to your OP. I hope you find a solution for your issue and let us know what it is. |
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Rhino Dry spray to keep the sweat away combo'd with Climb On Lotion Bar. The same thing used to happen to me super bad, especially if the humidity or temps changed quickly. Its frustrating because your skin cant actually build like everyone says it should and toughen up because it is constantly falling off from how moist it is. The rhino spray helps reduce excess sweating and actually gives you the ability to maintain your skin instead of just hoping it stays on. Took a few weeks to figure out how often to use it (you can over do it and get suuuuper glassy). Then use the lotion bar to help balance out the dryness of your skin and maintain the pliability you need for friction. I have a little bar at my desk that I will use every time after washing my hands. |
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You might also want to experiment with diet modifications. I had a chronic skin condition very much like like this that interfered with my climbing, appearing for the first time in my 20s. I tolerated it for years until I did a whole30 diet challenge with some gym friends. It made a major difference in my skin health. Going back to normal diet, symptoms returned. Through trial and error, I narrowed the problem down to gluten. Try something like the autoimmune protocol diet for a month and see if anything changes. |
Where's Walden wrote: Ok, let me try and explain this a different way. Your body reacts to stress in different ways but attempts to adapt, it’s baked into our DNA. You need to let the body adapt to these reactions you are experiencing. The creams and whatnot interrupt a natural process. The treatment is to help the body adapt of getting rid of the dead skin etc in your hands, the debris if you will. Namaste. |
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WW, I get this predicably, with considerable itchiness, when I climb less after climbing a lot. Basically what JCM said, and not far from what Tradi said. In your OP, you said you had only climbed 2 days in the last two weeks, so I bet that's the reason. I say Climb On! |
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I used to think this was contact dermatitis from aluminium, with a delayed onset. A buddy who is a doctor has suggested it's my body ramping up to grow skin fast, then I stop climbing but my body doesn't notice for a bit, so I grow all this thick skin fast and it sloughs off. |
John Pitcairn wrote: That's a more succinct way of describing what I've experienced. Solution is to sand your skin during breaks from climbing, to keep wearing that skin off. |
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Go to a dermatologist. Thread over. But seriously, if you’re this concerned, a specialist is the best bet. I have eczema, which flares up from time to time, but often on my hands and ankles. It was especially worse when I was a route setter. Climbing holds and all the gunk that gets rubbed off on it can really exacerbate a skin problem, or unearth one. I was prescribed certain creams and used them when I slept, with a clean sock over my hands. Looked super silly, but it worked. |
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Walden, I’ve been following this with interest because I have a pharma background and enjoy medical mysteries. This must be frustrating. Certainly your hand sweating and what sounds like humid summer conditions must be a part of it. I climb year round, either outside or in a gym, and I moisturize my hands probably three times a day because our climate has very low humidity. Sometimes if my fingertips are getting a bit catchy with dry skin, I’ll use a product called Pretty Feet and Hands to deliberately smooth them out - just taking off that surface crap. This does NOT make my tips fragile or sensitive. There is still plenty of tough skin. The idea that you have to have rough skin to climb without getting blistering is silly. The only times I’ve experienced significant exfoliation/shedding was after shoulder surgeries when I had enforced layoffs from climbing, or when travel caused a couple weeks layoff. What is going on with your hands does look like like something outside the range of a normal process, the blistering especially. Come visit us in southern California for a few months! If it goes away, you’ll know it was all the moisture. If it were me, I’d go see my dermatologist because she would do a little on the spot histology and say if it was bacterial or fungal Anyway, good luck. |
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I’ve also had good luck with probiotics helping to clear unhealthy skin symptoms like the ones OP has. I used a supplement called Ther-Biotic Complete for a couple months last time I had a flare-up. It took a month or two to fully clear and I think the probiotic helped. (Tightening up my diet helped too). It was way more effective than prescription creams I got from a dermatologist (which managed symptoms but didn’t resolve the underlying issue). There’s other products that might be worth checking out. “Skinesa” probiotic looks similar (but I haven’t personally tried it). Worth an experiment I’d say. |
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Any updates on dealing with this? I've also been struggling with a similar issue for about 6 years now, would love to know if you've found anything that helps alleviate? |
Davyd Tennis wrote: I went to a dermatologist. He at first suspected a form of dermatitis and wanted to blame harsh products (soaps, hand sanitizer, climbing chalks) but I have changed/eliminated those things and the problem happens regardless. He ended up saying I was probably right about exfoliative keratolysis (after I brought it up). He couldnt give me great recommendations on prevention but did think treating the hyperhidrosis would be a good possibility so he prescribed drysol to see if that would help. It may have helped but I stopped climbing and the weather changed around that same time so the trial was non-scientific. I'll don't expect to struggle with this problem again until next year because I've never ever dealt with it before when the temps are below 75ish. Hm |
