Psoriasis Blues

Please can anyone help me out there.I have suffered from this distressing skin condition on both my elbows for over 25 years.I DREAD summer as I have to wear long sleeves to cover it up.As a female I am very self concious about it and to be honest sometimes it gets me very,very down.No creams from the doctor have had any effect and to show you how desperate I've become I even tried PEEING ON IT as a tv show suggested once!!It did'nt work needless to say.It seems the cause of psoriasis is a bit of a mystery still,I know it,s to do with my cells multiplying at an accelarated rate.HELP ME PLEASE --------I will try anything.

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[edit on 8 Feb 09 by Gools]

I'm sorry to hear about this -- although I don't know anyone with it, from what I've read, this can be completely devastating.

It doesn't sound like you've gotten hooked up with some of the national groups, though, but are getting your info from "cure promise" sites on the internet. A lot of them, frankly, are scams that put money in the site owner's pocket while giving you nothing.

I do have friends with severe health problems, and the BEST information comes from national associations for these conditions.

National Psoriasis foundation (if you haven't tried them) has the latest news... I see that they have educational podcasts and have just announced a new drug regime for certain types of psoriasis.

Check it out: www.psoriasis.org...

And here's a list of many different support groups (in the US) by region:
support.psoriasis.org...

Here's a group you can join where people are discussing treatments and who's done what. This can be pretty useful for you:
dailystrength.org...

Sadly, it's a condition that only 2% of the population has, so it's not one of the "sexy diseases" that gets a lot of money and attention.

Anyway... start with those resources and get involved with an email or discussion board for people with the condition. You'll get far better advice than from the ol' "google for help."

Since psoriasis is a metabolic disease, a cleansing juice fast for about seven days is always desirable in the beginning of the treatment. Carrots, beats, cucumbers and grapes may be used for juices. Juices of citrus fruits should be avoided. The warm water enema should be used daily to cleanse the bowels during the fast. After the juice fast, the patient should adopt the diet of three basic food groups, namely (i) seeds, nuts and grains, (ii) vegetables and (iii) fruits, with emphasis on raw seeds and nuts, especially seasame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and plenty of organically grown raw vegetables and fruits.

All animal fats, including milk, butter and eggs should be avoided. Refined or processed foods and foods containing hydrogenated fats or white sugar, all condiments, tea and coffee, should also be avoided. After noticeable improvement, goat’s milk, yogurt and home made cottage cheese may be added to the diet. Juice fasts may be repeated after four weeks on diet.Vitamin E therapy has been found effective in the treatment of psoriasis. The patient should use this vitamin in therapeutic doses from 200 to 800 I.U. a day. It will help reduce itching and scabs. Lecithin is considered a remarkable remedy for psoriasis. The patient may take six to nine lecithin capsules a day - two or three capsules before or after each meal. In the form of granules, it may be taken four tablespoonfuls daily for two months. It may thereafter be reduced to two tablespoonfuls.

Too frequent baths should be avoided. Soap should not be used. Regular sea water baths and application of sea water externally over the affected parts once a day are beneficial. The hot Epsom salts bath has proved valuable in psoriasis. Three full baths should be taken weekly until the trouble begins to subside. The number of baths thereafter may be reduced to two weekly and finally to one. The affected areas should also be bathed twice in hot water containing Epsom salt. After the bath a little olive oil may be applied. The skin should be kept absolutely clean by daily dry friction or sponge.

In many cases, psoriasis responds well to sunlight. The affected parts should be frequently exposed to the sun. The daily use of a sunlamp or ultra-violet light are also beneficial. Cabbage leaves have been successfully used in the form of compresses in the treatment of psoriasis. The thickest and greenest outer leaves are most effective for use as compresses. They should be thoroughly washed in warm water and dried with a towel. The leaves should be made flat, soft and smooth by rolling them with a rolling pin after removing the thick veins. They should be warmed and then applied smoothly to the affected part in an overlapping manner. A pad of soft wooden cloth should be put over it. The whole compress should then be secured with an elastic bandage.

The use of mud packs in the treatment of psoriasis has also been found highly beneficial. The packs are made by mixing the clay with a little water and applying to the affected areas. After the clay has dried, it is removed and fresh pack applied. Mud packs are eliminative in their action. They absorb and remove the toxins from the deceased areas. The patient should undertake plenty of regular exercise in fresh air, especially exposing the affected parts, and deep breathing exercises. He should avoid all nervous tension and should have adequate rest.


I'm into all natural cures so I hope this helps you out.

I've read online pau d'arco oil applied topically can help. I've also read online a woman who dips in the ocean every morning said she was cured.

Basically the immune system messes up with your skin. Maybe you can try to make it busy? Avoid using anything with antibacterial properties in it (soaps, lotions, alcohol, air purifiers, kitchen disinfectants, etc.) Don't use antibiotics unless it's an emergency or the doctor tells you to. The immune system should have something to do otherwise it will start attacking anything. This is the reason why there has been an increase in asthma cases due to our modern lifestyle.

Googling I found this www.psoriasis.org...

Never give up. Google has lot of secrets that might help you.

Tattoos could help, If your into that kinda thing.

They also make sport style elbow braces, you could use some of these, and say you've got joint/cartilidge problems.

tea tree oil. your problem is solved.

Apply a thin Hydrocortizone treatment twice a day on only the effected areas. Get lots of sun (no matter how embarrassing). Exercise, daily. Stop eating all genetically modified produce, and any meat, eggs, or diary from steroid-injected livestock. Get lots of rest and relaxation. And, if you have time, use meditative healing techniques.

Hi there,

I feel for you my friend, i really do

I am just about to walk out the door so please excuse my ignorance for this being a short post, though i will [ " Promise " ] to give a more detailed opinion later.

For now though, i have been a sufferer of Psoriasis for coming on 18 years now. At times it gets tottaly out of control and spreads like wild fire and other times it shows signs of clearing up.

The thing is, it will never clear fully. Unfortantly people who suffer Psoriasis will have it all there lives. Yes, we can control it to a point of feeling confident however it will always come back, unfortunalty!

But hey, your not alone and there is certainly help and advice out there that can help you control this condition thus resulting in your confidence being restored.

On my return i will present links, information that has GREATLY helped me, and indeed a few pics of my legs both before and after my treatment.

Until then, i hope others can relate to this and can offer there advice on which has helped them.

I have flagged this thread as i feel its very important.

Be strong my friend,

IP

My brother has this and has had it reduced 90 percent or more by using a product salve and spray called champoori. I'm a member posting from my phone so u2u me at atzmaz if you have any questions.

I find it interesting that several people have proposed vegetarian diets as solutions to psoriasis.

Do you really think that being a vegetarian is the solution to these sorts of things, or is this part of the vegetarian anti-meat-eater conspiracy too?

Some of those who mentioned Salt-Water therapy have obviously done at least a modicum of research.

A good place to start.

Hello uk today,
I understand exactly where you are coming from as my wife suffers from this condition, patches all over her body so creams do help but so many patches takes too long to apply the steroid cream, she is currently undergoing light treatment at the local hospital. It has just about cleared it completely up in the space of 8 weeks.

Ask your doctor about it its called UVB light treatment.

Good Luck,

The Hoff

I'm sorry to hear that you suffer from this condition, I too have suffered from it since aged 18. luckily for me its not too bad as the calcipotriol cream I use tends to keep it under control unless I'm really stressed.
Have you heard about Doctorfish ? Check this link out
doctorfish

If you don't fancy travelling to turkey there is a place in Ireland that also has these fish.
more doctorfish

It's not cheap and it's not permanent (it being a genetic disorder, without some form of gene therapy nothing will be) but if you can afford it it may give you some peace from it.

reply to post by uk today


I suffered from psoriasis for years then read a tip in a magazine that the inside of a banana skin rubbed on the affected areas would clear this up..
So i tried it for a few months and it relieved the itching then cleared up eventually.
Hope this helps and good luck !

I was going to mention the doctor fish like the post above mine because that's about the only thing I hadn't seen mentioned that I would suggest.

I've been prescribed the oral steroids for years and years and the long term effects have not been a great success. Then experimental drugs that had nothing to do with psoriasis (side note: don't let your doctor 'try something on you'). Now after years of being on a waiting list I've gotten a UVB light that I use daily; It hasn't gotten worse. But it hasn't gotten better either. So I honestly don't know of any effective long term solution that doesn't have any negative effects. Next on the list is cutting down on my processed food consumption dramatically and replace it with the raw seeds and veggies. But I'm sure that'll have as much effect as a long sleeve shirt.

In the end I'm not sure if there is a solution, I wish I could tell you otherwise. Though there was a time I heard that the stomach slime of a salt water catfish would work I wouldn't recommend putting for that much effort.

As a teenager I developed a very bad case of psoriasis which fortunately only developed on my fingers. It peaked in my mid-20s and an endless line of doctors and treatments had no affect on it whatsoever, some actually made it even worse as they gave me stuff to paint on it in an attempt to actually burn it off :O

I was ultimately recommended to a naturopath by a colleague (these were regarded as witchdoctors in those days) and he had it fixed totally in about a month - it never came back either and that was almost 40 years ago. The treatment involved a soothing oily preparation he supplied in a bottle with an applicator (his secret formulation) along with a course of vitamin A & D tablets.

[edit on 8/2/2009 by Pilgrum]

reply to post by uk today


I suffered from a pretty bad case of it a few years back on my nose and brow. Psoriasis creams actually caused the condition to flare up and spread.

I have been taking multivitamins and washing with a natural soap and the psoriasis has been minimal if not nonexistent for years (it was very bad before). I have read that vitamin deficiency seems to irritate the condition.

I recommend a good multivitamin, if you aren't already taking one. If it doesn't help, you'll still have extra nutrients in your body.

By the way, I still get very minor irritation during cold, dry weather, but it is hardly noticeable compared to before.

Good luck.

I have had it for a couple decades mostly on my knees to shins but it can flare up on my face but my beard covers it or it is just on the side of my nose. Sunlight is cheapest and most effective treatment I have found although I think tea tree oil works as I used to use that for my scalp but that isn't so bad these days.
Eating healthy and reducing stress seems to help. I do eat a lot of vegetables, fruits and nuts and eat fish a couple times a week. I also eat local meats and eggs that I get from local farmers but that is a once every week or two kind of thing usually. Sea water does help but I don't swim in the ocean much these days. Sea water would clean up my acne too.

reply to post by Pilgrum


Funny you should mention Vitamin D. My best friend suffers from Psoriasis on her elbows and other parts of her body. She always had part time jobs indoors, and after starting college, she got a co-op that was all outdoor work.

She spent all summer in the sun, and her psoriasis all but disappeared. She had tried everything before this, but it just went away and that was what she attributed it to.

Then, back to school and coop finished, it returned again, same places as before. She actually said it is worse because of the long harsh winter, she can't wait for summer. Stupid groundhog better be wrong, for her sake

reply to post by helpmefindtheway


Bingo, I suffer from it mainly in the winter here because when summer comes I get a dose of sun (UV) every day and mine disappears over night.

Hi,

My mother has had psoriasis (bad) since I was little. She now is 100% covered and looks like a fresh 3rd degree burn victim. She also is now crippled due to psoriatic arthritis which accompanies this dreadful disorder.

I have inherited it. It began very slowly several years back and has gradually grown worse each year. Last year it became bad enough I started serious treatment.

For those who are suggesting topicals, this condition cannot be helped in the long-run by topicals. They can give temporary relief, and some times have remarkable short-term effects, but they always fall through and eventually become ineffective.

Psoriasis is a genetic disorder in which the T cells attack the skin cells as if they are unwanted. This causes an overproduction of both more T cells and more skin cells. It is this overproduction of cells that cause the "plaques".

One of the most effective treatments so far is called PUVA. Like the one poster mentioned about a friend who suffers from psoriasis having a remission after spending the summer in the sun, sunlight helps psoriasis go into remission. In PUVA treatments psoralen as either an oral, or a topical or a combination of both is combined with UVA treatment. The Psoralen helps the body become photosensitive to the UVA and make it more effective.

Psoralen can be found in celery, but the most prolific source of psoralen is fig leaves. Studies have shown that "damaged" celery stalks contain much more psoralen than undamaged stalks - as if the psoralen is being manufactured to heal the damage on the celery. I, myself, have planted a fig tree and hope to harvest leaves and make a tincture for my treatment.

I bit the bullet and got my tanning bed last March and began eating celery and drinking V-8 on a daily basis while doing my UV treatments 3 times per week. My psoriasis was in full remission by the end of June (without any outside sun). I was able to go until January before my plaques had returned. I will begin my treatment again soon. Since tanning beds have UVA and UVB and no UVC they are much less likely to cause skin cancer. UVC is the big culprit for skin cancers.

The treatment is as follows:

Intake of psoralen about 1 hour before tanning, or apply psoralen topical just prior to tanning. You should aim for a tan time that creates a slight "pink" that will last until the next day, but not for more than 1 day (if you are still pink on the second day after a treatment you got too much). You should do three treatments per week.

What I like about this treatment plan is that:

1. You don't have to have your own bed, you can just buy time at the local tanning salon.
2. It is healthy (eating celery never hurt anyone).
3. It appears to have about a 6 month affect, so you're not having to tan year round.
4. You get a good tan! lmao

Just wanted to pass on my knowledge of this. I've watched my mother battle, unsuccessfully, her psoriasis (and she is the worst case I have ever seen in real life), by using every snake oil that came down the pike. For the past 15 years they have been alternating her off and on methotrexate which is believed to assist...nothing has helped her. She has to now wear clothing under her blouses or she will bleed on to her clothes, and she wants to die. She feels like a leper, and now she is losing her independence to the arthritis this causes.

It's a serious disorder that needs to be treated with a consistent regimen - whatever that regimen is that works for the particular sufferer. If you can smear tar on and it goes away, then good for you. But I've never met anyone that has CHRONIC psoriasis that got lasting effects from topicals.

[edit on 2-8-2009 by Valhall]