Skin is mirror of one’s entire health: Dr.Uzma
—Says dark circles are mostly inherited
—Terms use of anti-bacterial soaps, skin whitening creams and dieting as foes of skin
—Says sexual abuse is more common in male kids than females
By Uzma Zafar


As skin-related diseases and allergic ailments are much stigmatized in our society and as the hellish spell of Monsoon is sweeping us all, in it’s allergic mist, so The Daily Mail found it permanent to invite an expert at it’s offices and hold an exclusive interview with Dr.Uzma Ali, M.B.B.S. and FCPS in Dermatology, specialist in skin and laser treatment. It is pertinent to mention here that she is one of the two doctors, the other being Dr.Afaq, Assistant Professor at PIMS (Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences), who has completed the 5-year degree program of FCPS(Dermatology), in Pakistan. 34 year old, a mother of 2 and a Cancerian, Dr.Uzma Ali juggles her day through patients of skin diseases.
Terming skin as mirror to one’s entire health, Dr. Uzma Ali, while talking to this correspondent, said, “Skin is the mirror to one’s entire health. Thus, skin should be protected from various diseases. Speaking of Monsoon related diseases common around these days, she held, “In the Monsoon season like the current, insect bites and even crawling on the skin of spiders and various other insects, could cause infections, fungal diseases or further, lead to insect bites.” The most common kinds of allergies in Islamabad, she said, were Pollen, grass and mold allergies, the latter resulting in fungal infections as well. “The green emerging on walls and leather objects is fungus”, she explained. “Moreover, Paper Mulberry is not a local tree and has been imported from China. As it is not local and results in allergy, thus CDA’s stance on chopping off Paper Mulberry trees is justified”, she held.
Disregarding the commoner’s belief that birthmarks are normally present on the body of every baby, the dermatologist expressed, “Birthmarks appear on the skin of the baby in the pre-natal environment, as the reaction to abnormal behaviour of cells. However, pigmented birthmarks, vascular, tattoo removal, fine or coarse hair removal, skin rejuvenation, broken veins, especially that of legs and feet, can now be fixed through laser treatment.” Warning of side effects, the doctor maintained that laser treatment should be avoided during pregnancy, where there’s a history of sunburn, photosensitivity or medicines related to the latter or kidney diseases.
“It might comes as a news to many but the truth is that dark circles are mostly inherited and mark the shape of one’s eyes. If not hereditary, they are caused by nutritional deficiency, anemia, iron deficiency, and now fast emerging cause is sitting in front of the computer for 10-12 hours a day. But in 60% cases the dark circles are inherited”, she disclosed. She stressed on ladies to avoid usage of over the counter medicines that has become the latest craze around, or else, the homemade scrubs often having negative side effects. “When ladies of all ages use fairness creams or a mixture formula of various creams containing steroids, 20-25% become victims to excessive increase in facial hair and pigmentation, leading to redness of skin in face of exposure to the sun and related diseases”, she held.
Terming anti-bacterial soaps as foes of skin, Dr.Uzma Ali maintained, “The Capital’s water is such that it already drains off all the moisture from our skin. And all the anti-bacterial soaps do is dry off the hands which is harmful for the skin. Thus, soft, emollient or handwashes which leave the skin smooth, should be used while anti-bacterial soaps which are much advertised these days and fragrant ones should be avoided.” She said that dieting could only reduce the body weight temporarily but it in turn adversely affected the skin glow, leading to pigmentation, dark circles and excessive hair fall. But this all can be avoided with a balanced diet, not going out in early morning or at sunset as these are the times when pollens are spread out the most and close contact with animals or pets. About excessive hair fall, she said, “Women should take up proteins and vegetable diet and calcium supplements should be taken up every once or twice a year while a balanced, nutritious diet should be maintained to avoid iron deficiency and overcome successive pregnancies while the reason for baldness in males is usually related to the family history.”
About the testing followed by a vaccination procedure adopted by NIH (National Institute of Health), she said that it played a minimal role in allergy testing and control and thus the dermatologists like her, did not recommend it. However, she said, “Though there is no absolute remedy for allergy but a specialized test known as the Patch Test is done to detect and further treat allergy patients. Talking of the common skin diseases within the society, she held, “Skin diseases can be genetically, predisposed or developed later on. Allergies can be that of skin and nasal, relating to asthma even. The skin diseases are coupled with family history and it’s symptoms like excessively dry skin, rashes, food allergies like milk or fish allergies, redness or itchiness, appear at childhood. These allergies in turn trigger other systems like nasal, food and even chest.”
Talking of domestic violence cases, she said, “There are not many cases of domestic violence which come to surface, let that be of child or women abuse, despite the fact that we live in our society where domestic violence is prevalent. Nevertheless, those which are reported, their history does not match with the examination of the bruises.” She expressed that women often report of falling off the stairs when their scars and bruises tell a totally different story. “In children and especially male children by the way, sexual abuse is more common and victims are often brought in by educated parents, with rashes and bruises at the pre-genital and pre-anal areas, with Warts and Mollscum lesions.
In most of the cases, domestic servants are the main culprits.” “In women, however”, she said, “it is seen that parents of the woman bring in their parents with often cigarette and iron burns. The spouse never brings his mate and those of the relatives who even bring in their daughter for a medical examination, often have harassed the woman and it is only when they step out of the room that the woman starts weeping and disclosing her torturous tale.” When asked that with advanced skin coating techniques, could skin diseases be treated, Dr. Uzma explained, “Where light burn marks can be treated, there deep iron, cigarette marks and acid burns, as they cause permanent disfigurement, cannot be permanently be removed but could be improved to a large extent. About Vitiligo/Leukoderma, she said that patients have responded at early stages of ailment but if not treated, the same could lead to Diabetes and Thyroid.