From my research so far, I've found there are three ingredients that supposedly help cool down warm skin: Aloe, Menthol and Arnica. Are there more than that? Which one works best? Which product containing any of these works best for cooling down skin? I'm looking for something that is preferably fragrance-free and natural. I'd also prefer something that absorbs well does not leave the skin sticky. Here are the different products I'm considering at this point:
Most don’t get relief from topically allied creams. The reason for that is likely because the heat mechanism in EM is not believed to be the skin. Erythromelalgia is neurovascular. Specifically, the heat is thought to be caused by hyperemic blood vessels. An analog would be a skillet on a stove burner. The skin is the skillet and the blood vessels are the heating coil beneath. As long as the burner remains on, cooling the skillet above will be difficult.
In short, more than just the skin is being heated in Erythromelalgia. When I had an MRI of my EM affected knee, the radiologist who interpreted the scan said I had synovitis, an inflammation of the synovial capsule surrounding the knee. This caused my rheumatologist to diagnosis me with a “seronegative arthritis.” But I didn’t have synovitis. The synovium only appeared inflamed because of the heat being generated by the Erythromelalgia. My outer skin was also quite red.
Lidocaine patches wrapped around my feet at night…all night. I found something called BioFreeze. Its a spray. It works immediately to take the pain away, but my normal body temp is only 96.8-97.1 so it chilled the rest of my body too and made me too cold.