Eczema can be defined as an ailment that is related to the epidermis of the skin. Eczema has been known to cause irritation, agitation and inflammation of the skin. Appearing in its most popular form as atopic dermatitis, eczema is a disease that also causes normal skin to turn dry, scaly, ill-colored where scratching can induce a painful morbid itch-scratch cycle. Eczema in its atopic form has been seen to be accompanied by hay fever and/or asthma. Why this is often the case we will see later. The word eczema [ig-zee-muh] is derived from Greek language and means “to boil”, supposedly because people in the earlier times identified this disease with hot bumps on the skin.