I suffered quite badly with excema until my mid twenties and found Chinese herbalism was the only thing that gave me any relief when it was bad. I was living in London at the time and not earning very much but scraped together enough money for 2 weeks treatment during which time my skin healed beautifully. Treatment consisted of a foul foul brew made from boiling herbs for 45 mins and a menthol smelling cream. Suggest to your friend that they hunt out a good herbalist.