I have a chronic rash which requires ongoing treatment with a corticosteroid cream. These creams are potentially harmful if overused, and so I thought wouldn’t it be better to use a natural remedy?

In reading about tea tree oil I learned that this naturally occurring oil has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties which might work in treating my rash. There was only one way to find out - I started applying tea tree oil to the left portion of the affected area, while continuing to use the corticosteroid cream on the right side for comparison.

At first, the tea tree oil appeared to be just as effective as the cream in controlling the rash. After about two weeks, however, the rash on the left side flared up in a big way. Either the tea tree oil was not really effective, or else would it was causing a reaction of its own.

I turned to Google. Much reading led me to believe that I’m one of the special 1-2% who suffer allergic contact dermatitis in response to tea tree oil. A new deodorant I had been testing also contained small amounts of tea tree oil, and a mild rash was also developing under my armpits. Instead of treating a rash, this natural substance had caused a whole new rash of its own, an example of a when a natural remedy is clearly not better.

The question remains - on non-allergic people, can tea tree oil treat a chronic rash as well as a corticosteroid cream? As I am unable to test this, perhaps somebody else would like to try it out.