The skin is the largest and most important organ of the body. This is because it offers protection to the body which would rather be very delicate in the case that the skin was not there. Even though it offers protection, this does not mean that it cannot suffer infection itself. The skin suffers some of the worst diseases known to man. One of such diseases is jock itch. This name is not often heard and you may ask the question, what is jock itch?
It is just a popular name given to an itchy rash in the groin. It usually involves the inner thighs and adjacent skin which includes the scrotum in males. I know�ouch! Jock itch is an infection that is associated with sweating, friction, occlusive clothing, and rubbing skin on skin directly. Apart from affecting the groin, jock itch may affect the over lapping areas of the skin which can include the anus. It may also affect the skin folds of obese people. Mostly, it affects men but women are also susceptible to it.
Like other diseases, it has risk factors and the major ones include heat, humidity, tight clothing and damp skin folds which regularly occur among the obese or may be caused by excessive sweating. There is a myriad of organisms that have been associated with causing the rash but many cases are not infectious and are usually accelerated by physical and environmental factors that irritate the skin.
Again, like other diseases, there are diseases that mimic or if you like, copy jock itch. These diseases are such as psoriasis, allergic contact dermatitis, dandruff and hidradenitis suppurativa. When you have such diseases do not think that you have jock itch. Just go for a check up and see what exactly your infection is.
Jock itch usually infects more men than women because of the presence of male genitalia which leads to increase friction. A woman may endure the disease under her breasts. As I said it is usually caused by friction, humidity and heat. However these are not the only cause. Another cause is when a person with a weakened immune system takes broad spectrum antibiotics. Even people suffering from diabetes are at risk. A funny cause is wearing tight clothes. These clothes usually aggravate the problem or can even cause it to a person who is not infected. This is for obvious reasons like friction and heat. If you want to wear such clothes, you can prevent its infection by applying a lot of lubricants like petroleum jelly to areas that you think might be affected easily
Another cause is having intimate contact or contact with objects that have fungus. When the fungus comes into contact with the spores, it spreads and may survive on dead skin cells or objects for a long time. If you have done biology, you know how often cells die. To see if you have this condition, there is usually an itchy area of redness in a skin fold. This may enlarge in an unorganized pattern. The rash has sharp borders which exhibit tiny pimples.
