It’s estimated that around 30 million people in the United States suffer from some form of Eczema, which means it’s fairly common.
But even though it’s common, there’s still some shame around the chronic skin disease, at least according to ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch‘ star, Melissa Joan Hart.
The 48-year-old actress shares three sons with her husband, Mark Wilkerson. And at least one of her sons has been battling the skin condition for years now. Hart told PEOPLE that the disease can be difficult to diagnose because there are so many other things that look like it…
It took us a little while to figure out what it was exactly, especially when you have sons like I do and you’re trying to figure out, ‘Is this poison ivy? Is this a rash?’ We worked with our family doctor and found out this is eczema.
For those who don’t know, Eczema is a chronic skin disease that causes dry, itchy and inflamed skin. When you have a flare-up, you can have dry, cracked skin, rashes, and even oozing from the skin. It can be a really painful and even embarrassing condition.
This is why Hart is trying to change the narrative around it by teaming up with AbbVie to host the Science of Skin panel to help educate the public.
I have a lot of friends that I see trying to cover up psoriasis or eczema. They’re constantly kind of pulling at their clothes to try to hide this thing, and that thing — and we all do it with different things — but especially around chronic skin disease, there seems to be the shame.
You can read some of her tips and tricks for soothing the disease here.
