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What Does Ringworm Look Like?

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Ringworm, unknown to many is not a worm or a parasite; it is instead a contagious fungal skin infection. Read on to know more about what does ringworm look like and what are its symptoms and available treatments are.
What Is Ringworm?
Ringworm is a microscopic fungus that infects only the outer layer of the skin. Ringworm does not go deep into the body as it cannot live on mucous membranes in the vagina or the mouth.

Ringworm thrives on moist and hot parts of the skin and more so into those areas that remain hidden from direct light. To know what does ringworm look like you can log on to the various sites that show pictures of patients of people affected with this skin infection.

Here is a brief insight into what does ringworm looks like:

■ Ringworm occurs as round or oval red scaly patches on the skin. The color of the patches can vary from being pink to deep red.
■ The patches have a scaly border and are less red and scaly in the middle. They at times also have a healed look in the middle.
■ The edge of the ring is lifted due to the fungus. This part is the reddest and most scaly part of the patch.
■ This part also contains the pus and the fluid. It besides being moist can also be dry, crusted and scaly.
■ The lesion starts to heal from the center to outwards. At times the person would also experience another ring arise inside the previous one.
■ The fungus comes up as a coin-sized ring that is about one and a half to one inch in diameter.
■ People who have been hit hard by the skin infection often complain of extreme itchiness and irritation.
■ Once a person gets attacked by the fungus he would soon notice several patches of ringworm on his skin all in one go.

Cure For Ringworm
One who is inflicted with the infection must ensure that he does not scratch the lesions because if he does so then the infection would spread at an even faster pace. The condition can easily be treated with over-the-counter anti-fungal creams. Another common treatment is using tea tree oil which is a natural anti-fungal antiseptic on the patches. Ringworm on the scalp and the face would require anti-fungal shampoos and even oral medication.

You can always understand the symptoms better by seeing some pictures of patients who are afflicted by this condition. This would help you know exactly what does ringworm look like.

What does Head Lice Look Like

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It is important to know what Head lice looks like as head lice can cause us a lot of trouble. Lice are small insects which have tiny claws at the end of each leg. They are parasites which feed on human blood. The most common part which can get infested with lice is hair. Their claws help to keep them fixed to the base of the hair and scalp.

View more pictures of headlice

Head Lice Can Spread From One Person To Another
Female lice are bigger than male lice. They lay eggs on the hair which are called nits. Lice cannot fly. Still they can spread from one person’s head to another’s. Therefore one should know what does lice look like. When someone comes in contact with a person with lice infested hair, the lice can spread to his head. Lice can also spread when people use common head wear like caps, helmets, combs etc. Common symptoms which indicate the presence of lice are itchy scalp which can lead to sores, white dot like structures on the base of the hair which mean lice eggs, and a feeling of something constantly crawling on the head which causes the itchiness. The presence of lice in the head is very unhealthy as they feed on our blood. Also the feeling of having something crawling on your head is very irritating. Most will agree that it is also a very unpleasant sight especially if you have to scratch your head vigorously in public.

Treatment For Eliminating Head Lice
It is important to know what does lice look like as one should take steps to eliminate them as urgently as possible. Lice are very tiny insects that are dark grey or black in color. Generally school going children have a tendency to get lice. This is because in school their heads come in contact during games and other activities. Lice should be urgently killed and removed as otherwise it can spread to other family members. It is especially important to know what does head lice look like so that the necessary treatment can be done when you spot them in your child’s hair. Usually girls have a greater tendency to get lice than boys. There are different medicines which can kill lice and nits when you apply them on the hair. Such treatments are very convenient and can be done at home. They also give effective results and immediately put a stop to the irritating itchy sensation. It is advisable to treat small children’s heads for lice once in awhile so that lice are kept are bay.
Since many people have school going children it is important to know what does lice look so that they can be instantly spotted and eliminated.

What does poison ivy look like

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poison ivy is a rash that comes when you touch the poison ivy plant. I am sure you’ve had the experience before, probably as a kid, when you played with your kids outside. The poison ivy plant is green and has big, thick hairy leaves. I mean, they are not huge like those of a water lilly but they are not tiny either.

I described the plant, just so that you can identify it in your mind, but we’ll not talk about the plant very much anymore. Instead we’ll focus on the rash that I’ve mentioned before, which, incidentally, has the exact same name.



So, what does poison ivy look like?
In most cases, when you have the rash, you’ll not notice any swelling or raising at all. Your skin will get a little red where the contact with the plant was made and that’s about it. In some, rare cases, you’ll notice little bubbles forming with a bit of a discharge, which, even though they look a little scarry are pretty harmless.

When you first touch poison ivy, it burns a lot, although it’s not unbearable. Then your skin gets a little red and then it itches for some time. You don’t want to scratch that, obviously, but unless you’re allergic to it, nothing serious will happen.

How to treat poison ivy?The first thing you have to do is make sure you don’t scratch it, as I mentioned above. That’s the very first step. Then, a good idea is to take some rubbing alcohol and clean your skin off before the substance that causes the rash, which is called urushiol, by the way, gets into your skin. You have approximately ten minutes to do that.

Then, rinse the skin off well, remembering to use cold water for this instead of hot. If you use hot water, you’ll make it a little easier for urushiol to enter your skin pores as warm water opens them up.

Washing the clothes is the very next step to take. See, when you get in contact with poison ivy, that nasty urushiol will stay on your clothes and even if you get back home, you can still get new rashes because of that. Just toss your clothes in the wash and you’ll be fine.

Seeing a doctor would also be useful just to make sure that what looks like a normal ivy rash is not anything serious. If it is just poison ivy, then the last thing you could try is waiting it out. It will pass pretty soon.

Poison ivy can be really annoying. It burns and itches, but if you follow the tips above, you’ll be ok.

What do blisters look like

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Everyone has had blisters at one time or another. You can probably remember what they look like, but let’s talk about that in case you don’t.

The area where blisters usually form is usually red and raised. Then a small bubble forms which is usually filled with liquid. After some time, that liquid is going to discharge and the blister is going to scab. Usually, after the scab is gone, you’ll see no scars or anything that will remind you of the blister.

Now, of course, different blisters look a little differently. For instance, when you have a cold sore, it may seem that you get one big blister, but in fact, that big bump that usually burns and itches is formed by lots of tiny little bubbles packed close to each other.

Again, if you have a blister that comes from getting burnt, you’ll see that it’s a little bigger, more white and a lot firmer than a regular blister. All of the blisters usually have some kind of a watery looking substance inside them that will sooner or later discharge, unless it gets absorbed.

Most of the small blisters don’t leave scars, but obviously, if you mess with it too much and try to pop it or pick it, you might end up with a little scarry souvenir that will not go away on it’s own.

Most scars that come from blisters do pale away, but they never actually disappear. The reason you don’t see them after a few months is that they absorb a little pigment and look a lot like your skin.

How do you treat blisters?
Well, again, it depends on the blister itself. Some of them you can treat with toothpaste (the cold sore blisters) and other blisters will require professional care (for instance the ones you get after you spill water on yourself).

It’s generally a good idea not to cover your blisters with anything. The more air they get, the easier they will heal. Some of the less dangerous ones you can treat with mixtures that are readily available at a local drug store or with band aids that will help them to heal.

Whatever you do, if your blister looks a bit more scarry than what you usually see (like when it’s super big for some reason) make sure that someone takes a serious look at it.

Again, if you don’t take care of your blisters properly, you’ll get scars and you’ll have to deal with them for the rest of your life. Not worth it, if you ask me.

Blisters are not very fun to deal with. Generally speaking, if you wait them out, you’ll be just fine, but if you pop them, then you can expect scars. Use the tips from this article to learn how to spot and treat a blister.