Eczema, also known as dermatitis, is an equal opportunity disease that afflicts approximately 30% of the world's population, including in the United States. Young and old, alike, suffer from the irritating, itchy, often embarrassing disease of which experts have identified nine common types.

Common Types of Eczema

People of every race, color, creed, and religion suffer often daily from the effects of this skin disease that as of April 2010 is still incurable. The nine common types of eczema are listed alphabetically:

Atopic Eczema: The most common type, atopic eczema usually develops before five years of age. The disease tends to run in families whose members suffer from eczema, asthma, or hay fever. This condition is not contagious.

Contact Eczema: Contact eczema or contact dermatitis results from an allergic reaction to external sources, such as clothing, detergent, jewelry, foods, and even the sun. Properly treated, symptoms disappear, but experts recommend limiting or avoiding future contact with those items.

Dyshidrotic Eczema: Also called (one type of) Hand Eczema, Pompholyx, Vesticular palmoplantar eczema, or Vesticular Eczema, this condition affects only the palms of hands, sides of fingers, and soles of feet. Generally appearing in people 20 to 40 years of age, it can develop, though rarely, in young children, as well. As yet, no one definitively knows what causes this disease.

Hand Eczema: Separately noted due to multiple types of eczema that affect the hands. Because it has unique causes often relating to job functions, special treatments are tailored to specific type and cause.

Neurodermatitis: Caused by nerve endings activity. The itching is often intense. Unfortunately, the condition is aggravated and escalated by scratching. Causes most commonly include stress and anxiety. Symptoms intensify when resting or relaxing.

Nummular Eczmea: Approximately 0.2% of the population suffers from this disease, which can last from days to months. Men tend to develop the disease most from 55 to 65 years old; women who develop it usually do so between 15 and 25 years of age.

Occupational Eczema: Like hand eczema, many causes contribute to this disease, and all are job-related. Estimates indicate that approximately 10% of women and 5% of men develop this disease. Treatments vary by cause, jobs, and location.

Seborrheic Eczema: Though primarily located on the scalp, seborrheic eczema can spread to the face and appears most commonly as oily, waxy patches. Other names include dandruff, seborrhea, cradle cap, and seborrheic dermatitis.

Stasis Eczema: Developing overwhelmingly in the lower legs, statis eczema is caused by poor blood circulation and effects upwards of 15 to 20 million people in the US alone. The disease rarely develops in people younger than 40 years old, and generally, women get stasis eczema more often than men do.

Regardless of type or name, all eczemas tend to worsen during winter when internal air is often hot and dry.