Does anyone here have a form of psoriasis? I've been diagnosed with guttate psoriasis and have been treating it with a tar-based shampoo/bodywash and an anti-itch cream...All I'm really wondering is if anyone here has dealt with it, and if so how it went for you and if it ever cleared up. Support, I guess you'd say, because I'm scared sh*tless by the thought I could have this horrible itchy rash type thing for the left of my life (and at only 16, that'd be a pretty long time). So, if anyone's dealt with it, please tell me about how you did with it.

I've had it since I was like 6 and now I'm 27. I have all over my entire body. Tar based products don't work, they just stink. Tanning helps, but then you risk skin cancer. Creams you can only use for a limited time before your skin thins....So right now I have been using Aquaphor which keeps it from flaking and stuff, but it is still embarassing. I'll be going back to a derma when I can afford it, but yes you will have it the rest of your life, just the flare ups with differ. I wear long sleeves year round no matter how hot and am constantly covering up my knees-hence the fact I don't won any shorts or skirts that don't go above my knee. I know this probably didn't help you very much. I can tell you to join a support group, maybe contact The National Psorasis Foundation. PM me if you need too.

I don´t suffer from psosiasis, but I have to treat patients with psoriasis because some of them also suffer from psoriatic arthritis. One way of treating the skin lesions are salt baths followed by sun baths. This is a known therapy at the Death Sea in Israel. A vegan diet is beneficial, too.

I'd read that diet has no impact, but I've read over and over that sun exposure does help. I think the tar is working, or atleast I'm hoping that it is, but I can't be positive because it's only been 2 days. I've also read that moisturizing can help, and with guttate psoriasis the patches can go away and flare up again at another time, which I'm hoping will be the case- if they go away for 75% of the time, or even 60% of the time, I'll be much more able to deal with them the part of the time they're there. I'm already a self-conscious teenage girl, I really don't need a flaking itchy mass of spots to make it worse...

I have heard that daily doses (1000 mg or more) of flax oil can help over time.

Does anyone here have a form of psoriasis? I've been diagnosed with guttate psoriasis and have been treating it with a tar-based shampoo/bodywash and an anti-itch cream...All I'm really wondering is if anyone here has dealt with it, and if so how it went for you and if it ever cleared up. Support, I guess you'd say, because I'm scared sh*tless by the thought I could have this horrible itchy rash type thing for the left of my life (and at only 16, that'd be a pretty long time). So, if anyone's dealt with it, please tell me about how you did with it.


my husband has had it for years, and having tried everything on the market, he returned to his diet.

he cut out dairy, the milk products seem to cause problems. He increased his essential fatty acid intake with udo's perfect blend oils.

now, no breakouts at all.

my husband has had it for years, and having tried everything on the market, he returned to his diet.

he cut out dairy, the milk products seem to cause problems. He increased his essential fatty acid intake with udo's perfect blend oils.

now, no breakouts at all.

Really? I've been eating more dairy than usual (cream cheese, sliced processed cheese and ice cream) and I am mildly lactose intolerant (so it's not a bright move on my part anyhow), you think going vegan might help (or, more likely, much stricter vegetarian)?

Where does one get Udo's Perfect Blend Oils? Are they expensive? (we're uber poor, but I'd rather we shell out for something natural an only $20 bucks or less than spend hundreds on some stupid dermatologist).

If you suspect an allergy is involved in the skin condition, I would query if it's psoriasis, or rather if it's just psioriasis. I have eczema, which looks (and feels!) similar, but it's caused and treated differently, so have vaugue understanding of what's going on.

If the sun lamp helps the skin, than I wouldn't hold back [0]. Anything that reduces the itch is always welcome. On the point of skin cancer, well, it's a risk, not a certinty, and with close monitoring, the vast majority of skin cancers are easily treatable, if caught early. And if your not ensuring a close eye on your skin, you might want to think about it.

So weighing an immediate benefit against a risk of a condition that is normally easily treatable seems quite clear. In fact, one of the worst side effects I've heard of from psiriasis sufferers social in nature - the well tanned look is somewhat out of fashion, and leads to comments about holidays in the sun, and fake tan lotions!

On the topic of sun lamps, note that it's the UVB that helps psoiarsis. Many commercial sun beds are mix UVA/UVB or UVA only. The best way to treat it is through a hospital with carefully controled UVB exposure (will also monitor the skin for side effects too). You will need to speak to a doctor about that. This can be a reliable treatment - 6 monthly or so exposures, and it's pretty much gone, in many sufferers. There's also PUVA treatement, but don't get confused - that's a specialist mojo mixture of drugs and UV light.

On the essential oils, it's really just omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that are at risk of defincency. Flax seed (linseeds) have both, from memory, and are cheap, although not too easy to blend into food. Ground up, however, they do make excellent egg replacers in cakes, giving the cake a wonderfully subtly flavour (my (omni) family scoffed most of my last batch when I wasn't looking).

808veggie mentioned skin thining - that's a side effect of steroid creams. Mositiurising stuff won't have that effect (but only offer very short term relief - steroids will make the flare up go away). [1]

On the itch - ah well, how long have I got?

I was diagnosed with eczema at age 12 or so. It got progressivly worse, and at 16 my neck and face were red and itchy all the time. Hit the worst point at 20 or so, before I worked out what was causing it. Now, well, it was all over my neck arms and face, so you can see it's mostly gone. It does flare up from time to time, however, for apparently no reason. Many aspects of the itch are similar between eczema and psoriasis - but some are different, so be prepared to take any advice and experiment a bit.

The best way of learning to live with the itch I found was to keep the hands busy. This takes a variety of approches, from always having something to fidgit with, to the teddy bear at nights. Actually, the teddy bear really helped reduce the damage from night time scratching - I found that one that was about a foot and a half in height to be the best size, although I now have collection... Note that if you do develop contact allergies, bears (and bedclothes, sheets etc) can end up harbouring allergens, so they do need monitoring.

Kitting and crochet were common reccomendations, notably because they keep the hands busy while the mind does other things (school work, n-dimensional physics problems or watch TV, as the case may be). Learning to touch type is also a good stratagy - it's in the same vein of keeping the hands working, and letting the mind move on.

On swiming - I used to swim a lot too, but ended up giving it up for reasons unconnected with skin. What moisturiser do you use after swiming? If you don't then I'd advise starting to use one - the swiming pool water and showers can dry the skin something chronic. I ended up with emulsifying ointment. It's cheap (couple of quid for a tub that lasts me month or so), and it's in the British Pharmeacopiary (sp!) so avilable from practically any pharmacist over here. I don't know about it's avialability over in the states, but ask your pharmacist. Mix it with a little warm water, and use in the same vein as soap.

I'll echo 808veggie, and reccomend you get in contact with a support group I found out a lot to assist me from an eczema group. Unfortunatly, I don't have contact details for any US ones to hand, only UK. Can't be hard to find though, I wouldn't imagine.

Much of the actual skin damage involves scratching - either directly, or in a cycle where it prolongs the skin irritation. I trained all my friends to point out to me when I was scratching. Just having attention drawn to it was enough to stop me.

If your into meditation and martial arts style things, then meditative techniques can assist, helping you ignore the itch. Once you get used to ignoring it, the itch fades away of it's own accord. Did for me, at any rate.

If you must scratch (and there comes a point for us all when we fel we must), then get in the habit of scratching with the back of the nail. That is - placeing the nails onver the patch of itchy skin, and then moving the hand in the direction the back is pointing in. It doesn't feel the same as 'proper' scratching, but doesn't end up with blood everywhere, and thus feels a lot better later on. If you have someone else (sibling, parent or significant other) who can gently massage a little oil or moisturiser into the itchy area, that's much better than scratching it.

One piece of anti-advice: do not try to stop yourself from scratching by binding your hands. (This goes double for parents with a child who suffers from such a condition). It makes the desire to scratch much stronger, and doesn't help anyone in the long term. It's much more important to be able to do things when the itch is present, than to prevent even a little scratching.

That's the bad news, I'm afraid. You might be one of the lucky ones, and work out some way to shift the condition, but the chances are that you will have to deal with the occasional flare up as you get older.

I don't know much about the condition, but if they symptoms get you down, feel free to PM me. Having been there, I might be able to help.

Stuey!

[0] Me, I'm allergic to sunlight, so you wouldn't catch me near the things. One man's poison and all that.

[1] Although, it's all individual. I'm actually allergic to the most common emulsifiers used to make creams, and thus allergic to creams en mass. I use ointments instead :)

[2] There is no such thing as a typical sufferer. Plus, I'm only vaugly familer with psoriasis, so your milage may vary a lot.

my son was just diagnosed with eczema syntax...he had an entire layer of skin peel off of his hands and feet? I am just curious of the things you tried to make it go away.. his keeps flaring up and the doctor just tells us to use this steroid creme til it goes away... but that seems to make him rash worse sometimes....

Where does one get Udo's Perfect Blend Oils?
Try to get the book Fats that kill, Fats that heal by Udo Erasmus, he explains how you blend this oil and why. The reason to do so is to get an optimum ration of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids. As we usually lack omega-3s, flax seeds might help, as missleigh already pointed out.

my son was just diagnosed with eczema

See other thread here (http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/showthread.php?p=281291). Eczema and psoriasis are distinct, so I'm spliting that off from here.

thanks for splitting the thread syntax. that will make things more clear! :)

shethatisnau:

my husband greatly increased his dairy intake for a time and had MASSIVE breakouts of Psor. MASSIVE. they overed most of his body, most of the time. It was horrible for him.

He went off dairy products (although still consumed eggs and meat products, as he's generally an omnivore). When he read Udo's book, he began to consume the fats as Udo suggests. You can buy the blended oil at a HFS, though i don't know what the cost is. We consider the high cost of food to be our health care investment--i'd rather give the money there than to pharm. co.s!

Good luck!

Here's the email newsletter I receive- I hope it helps!
newsletter@psoriasis.org

I've taken most dairy out of my diet (all visible/obvious stuff- the only real dairy I have is stuff like a small amount of whey in bread or uncontrolable stuff like whatever may be in a cinnamon apple donut from Krispy cream and some yogurt sauce at the mall food court), it seems to have had a positive effect. My spots have gotten lighter, and the more recent ones that had appeared on my lower back that were darker and more noticably scaly have gotten much better. That combined with my using a tar based body wash (and exfoliating daily) has helped immensely! I hardly ever itch now and the spots are fading! The worst of the bunch, the ones on my inner thighs, are still fairly noticable due to the large cluster of them, but they're not flaky/scaly in the least. Needless to say, I'm not only happy about this, I'm amazed at how much impact such a little thing has had. It's only been since this weekend that I've stopped eating dairy so much, and I couldn't be happier.

I'm so happy now! :yes: It's such a turn around...a month ago the act of wearing tight pants would make me cry because they just hurt so badly, and I wouldn't have been the least surprised to find blood on the tiolet seat from the spots on the back of my thighs (I expected them to tear at any moment and they were painful enough I sometimes thought they had already torn), I can't help but appreciate this relief. Even though I still have visible psoriasis, it's not nearly as horrible as it once was.

:vebo:

:bobo:

That's great news! Glad to here your feeling better.

Much! At first, I was really depressed about the whole thing. I mean, it got to the point where I felt like I simply couldn't deal with it if this was going to be a lifelong issue, but if I can get it under control and make it go away, even if it's only for half of the year, then I can live with it. I would love nothing more than to have smooth, perfect skin again, unblemished and everything. I can still hope for that, I'd like to think? Even if it's only for a few months of the year (like, I don't know, the three months of summer? ;) ), I could deal with it for the rest of the time if I had that to look forward to.

I still consume a few of the things that are bad for me (artificial sugars, caffiene, etc.) and I'm thinking that maybe if I let my body detox from these things I might clear up even more? I will not be doing any of the colonics I keep reading about, but maybe getting rid of all the junk I load up on, my body might be able to chill out and stop creating more skin than it knows what to do with?

I'm rambling, sorry. I'm just very optimistic about this whole thing... :yes:

that's awesome!

i often find it easier to cut one thing at a time, then work into others as they come. sometimes, just by reducing something, you'll do a lot to help yourself. For instance, cutting down on sugar--which is tough--may be easier by increasing fruit a bit, and decreasing sugary foods (such as those great krispy kremes)--but not necessarily giving them all up together. :)

I wish you all the best and i'm so happy to hear that juts cutting the dairy is already working for you!

Clobex and Elecon are topical steroids. You're right to looks for something that can be used in the long run.
Natural ways take longer time and much patience. But I have no other information than listed above, sorry!

Neem is said to be a great for treating skin problems, including psoriasis.
There is a lot of informaton about it online. This is just one site:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kathymcmahon/psoriasisneem.htm
And yes, a vegan diet is also said to help.
Best of luck.

I have psoriasis. A dermo diagnosed me about two years ago. The prescription for triamcinolone ran out, and I've been meaning to go to a dermo again because I still have the scaly patches on my elbows, knees and ankles. However, I moved to a county that has no dermos that I know of. I should call the dermo I saw awhile back and see who she might know.

Research on diet is scarce: one German study (2001) saw an improvement while on a vegan diet on psoritic sacroiliitis, a Scandinavian study (1983) also saw an improvement: "During the vegan diet, both signs and symptoms returned in most patients, with the exception of some patients with psoriasis who experienced an improvement. The concentrations of lactoferrin in serum reflect the turnover and activity of neutrophil leukocytes. When this protein was initially increased it fell to normal values in most cases. The improvement or impairment of signs and symptoms was related to the lactoferrin levels in serum." The interesting point is the lactoferrin, meaning going lacto-(ovo-)vegetarian is most probably not doing the trick, but going vegan might improve the psoriativ placques.

To anyone who has Psoriasis...

It is diet caused and you do not have to live with this disease.

Dr. Fuhrman has had hundreds of patients rid themselves of Psoriasis via nutritional care - no drugs.

Here is just one of many many stories. http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/success-stories-one-patients-story-battling-asthma-allergies-psoriasis-and-headaches.html

I took something called "armadillo counter poison pill" for my guttate psoriasis (the kind that covers your entire body). I dont know if it is vegetarian (I dont think its really made from armadillos but it could be, I have no clue). I wasnt vegetarian when I took it, during the last major flare I had maybe 2 summers ago.

Its a chinese medicine, I got it from a healer, who took one look at me and handed me the bottle. This was after a full YEAR of suffering under the "care" of a dermatologist who did aboslutely nothing for my psoriasis except telling me I needed to slather by body in harmful steroid creams which thinned my skin and left my condition even worse.

Psoriasis is an internal condition..flares are usually caused by an extreme stress on the body of some sort..my first bad flare came on after years of toxic stress put on my body from a variety of "medications" given to me for depression. My second came out about a month after I suffered from a severe gum infection which spread throughout my body and gave me blood poisoning. So overal health and preventative medicine really helps prevent these flares.

Some of you guys probably wouldnt want to try this medicine since it might have animal products in it, but it is AMAZING stuff. I was completely clear within a month of taking it. Its supposed to purify the blood and get "poisons" that are being created by your own out of control immune system out of the body. It puts you back into balance. Even if its not vegetarian I would take it again if I have another flare, there was nothing else I tried that helped the way that this stuff did.

For anyone interested, here is a link. It last a list of ingrediants, and I dont see anything animal related, I think those are all chinese herbs but I dont know what all those words mean. Maybe some of you guys would know.

http://www.eastearthtrade.com/catalog.php?category=10&product=792

I took something called "armadillo counter poison pill" for my guttate psoriasis (the kind that covers your entire body). ....

http://www.eastearthtrade.com/catalog.php?category=10&product=792

It contains an ingredient derived of a snake.

Oh I figured it might. Well I know a lot of you guys wouldnt want to take it then, but if you are willing to try, it works. Having psoriasis is a nightmare Id do almost anything to get rid of.