Psoriasis ‘cures’ anyone??

[DeathByMascara]

Please help! It’s growing from my hair to my face and ears - it’s noticeable. Stress is causing it, but I can’t do anything about the stressful situation, so does anyone have any remedies that work??

Nothing except getting a dermatologist referral in my experience I'm afraid. GPs can only do so much, if it's bad you really need proper help. For my hair/scalp I find pine tar shampoo helps it to not get worse iykwim but doesn't actually cure it.

And however tempted you are, try to avoid steroids on your face, psoriasis is awful but perioral dermatitis (which is often triggered by steroids) is equally horrible

My Mum cured hers with Aloe Vera. She rubbed on the 100% pure gel (yes, it was from Forever Living) and she drank the juice, too, but I think it was applying it that did it.

I've gone back to using tar products like Exorex - they don't smell any more once applied, such a change from in my youth.

I've also got my thyroid and hormone levels controlled. (I'm 50s.) I'm pretty clear atm.

And yy to a dermatology referral.

When I was younger and without dependants, I'd save madly every year and spend my four weeks annual leave at the Dead Sea. It was amazingly effective for me, at a time when I needed a break from it.

Now the aloe Vera is one thing I haven’t tried! I have a few plants in the kitchen (anyone want one come spring?? I need to split them!) so might give that a go.

I haven’t tried steroids on my face, I have on my scalp and my arms & legs but the face is new.

It’s horrible. I know it’s not debilitating in the same way chronic pain is, but the constant snow showers are humiliating.

Turmeric. I watched the Food Hospital and it really helped a wee boy with terrible psoriasis. Good for swollen joints too. Madhur Jaffrey recommends it for all sorts of antiseptic and anti inflammatory usages.

Kefir and the exclusion diet I get mine from chuckling goat just as I’m always trying to feel less tired but they have a lot of testimonials from people with skin conditions on how much it has helped them.

Hemp from body shop worth trying too, it's trial and error tbh. I would try and deal with your stress too...

And I sympathise, it’s a horrible confidence sapping thing. If you email the chuckling goat people and ask them I’m sure they would tell you whether they thought it worth a try.

I have it on the back of my head and found that having warm baths with a bag - not a handful as per instructions- and soaking my head in it for around 1/2 hour once a week helps control it. Now I can't do this - no bath, it's definitely worse.

Dead Sea bath salts -pressed post too soon

Sympathies op, psoriasis is the reason I've not bared my arms or legs for over a decade....

I reckon a dermatology referral too. Steroids never did much for me but I'm not prepared to go to the next level and immunosuppressants just yet. Light therapy might be an option under your ccg.

Mine cleared up completely during pregnancy but came back with vengeance so I'm currently experimenting with 'natural' cures.

I'm taking folic acid, b12 (which are apparently natural immunosuppressants), fish oil and odourless garlic. I stumbled on a moisturiser too called inecto hmm coconut hydration which has coconut and sunflower oil in it. It's slow going but there are some signs of improvememt

Dermatologist all the way. I have a splendid old school hand typed letter on my file which has psoriasis underlined in pen three times (the GP had diagnosed eczema and then wondered why it got worse...).

I was given an amazing coal tar preparation that got it under control and now use Dovobet if it starts to flare (about once every six weeks for a couple of days). It’s still there in the background but it’s no longer upsetting.

A couple of things work for me in the short term though it does come back

1. SK organic cream from www.camomilehouse
2. Take flax seed oil capsules and zinc tablets for a few weeks

Failing that and after weighing up risks vs benefits, hire a sunbed or psoriasis bed.

It's bloody hard, isn't it? If I can, I apply coconut oil to my hair and leave it on as long as possible. It will give me a couple of days relieve. I find cold weather and alcohol a trigger. The sun is good for me, but that comes with its risks, and obviously isn't easy to expose my body to at the moment!

My skin is really itchy and sore at the moment, and my scalp is so flaky, so I completely understand how upsetting this is.

My friend suffered for years and tried all sorts. One of her neighbours suggested trying to find a dietary trigger, so she did an exclusion diet thing and found it cleared up once she was gluten free. She can always tell if she's eaten something with even a small amount of gluten.

My 13 year old son has it. Mostly on scalp and face but also some other areas of the body. We have private health insurance so saw a dermatologist. But I do not want to use steroids on him (thought that was what was prescribed). So, to keep it under control so he uses pure Emu oil (very expensive sadly and shipped from the US) on his skin twice a day. He uses coal tar shampoo on his head. Neither of these things cure it but they prevent it getting to the point of needing drugs. We did a 6 month exclusion diet for dairy and gluten as I was convinced that was the trigger but it made no difference at all. My personal opinion (as someone with my own skin problems) is that if he ate a "pure" exclusion diet as I do (so not replacing the gluten and dairy with substitutes), it would improve. He won't do it though (and I understand why) so we have agreed that so long as he keeps it under control and no need for steroids, he can eat as he wants.

The only thing that ever made any difference for me when I've had bad flare ups is a huge steroid injection (Kenalog) I had to be given for another condition in A&E. It was miraculous and cleared every bit of my terrible psoriasis up and it didn't return at all for months. You can't really rock up in A&E demanding steroid injections though, sadly!

Mine cleared up totally in pregnancy too, but I’m not about to go through that again, much as I’d love a cure!

Some good ideas here, thank you all so much! What’s this chuckling goat thing?? I may give the exclusion diet a go.

Sadly the stress can’t be avoided RandomMess unless you’ve any ideas to cure my dad’s leukaemia?! (Lighthearted!) I wish it could be avoided, am having counselling etc but just have to accept that there isn’t a happy ending to this current situation. So my itches & flakes are likely to get worse before they are better!

I had it all over my ears, scalp and forehead for years. Awful, I constantly felt people looking at it. Then I got pregnant and it disappeared. Now I've had my baby it's coming back.

Sorry k567 but in my experience it returns! Mine was back after both full term pregnancies within about 8 weeks.

Now I think about it, it stayed away while I breastfed as well.

I had steroid cream and it word wonders

It’s an auto immune disease. Your immune system changes when pregnant and in your case your psoriasis disappeared. Do not bother with home remedies, potions, diets etc, get to a good dermatologist and get it properly treated. Light therapy or drugs can give miraculous results.

Laser treatment at a dermatologists.

www.chucklinggoat.co.uk/

But email the nice lady who runs it before shelling out - Lidl do kefir too as a big deal in Eastern Europe. I reckon the exclusion diet is as important as the kefir, she’s all about the microbiome.

Do not bother with home remedies, potions, diets etc, get to a good dermatologist and get it properly treated. Light therapy or drugs can give miraculous results.

This ^ ^

I know it's not much help but try to remember that it's a common condition and that if anyone does notice they wouldn't think anything of it.