Psoriasis

[VLCos]

Anyone have any tips apart from steroid cream . I have had it all over the body but this time it's more in the creases . Thanks in advance

If you smoke, knock that on the head. Nicotine seems to feed psoriasis.

Start taking a large daily dose of Vitamin D (5000 iu)

Are you seeing your GP? To be honest the creams only ever helped me partially... I had light therapy treatment which really solved it. I still have it on my scalp and patches on torso but not as bad as it was. I also find a holiday in the sun (with appropriate sun protection) can put it to sleep for a year or so.... So in the absence of sun then I can see the Vit D working (but haven't ever tried it)

it is a pain OP

If you haven't already been referred, get a referral to a dermatologist. Are you using prescription stuff for washing ? I got proper advice from a dermatologist about the correct way to use steroids without a flare as soon as you stop.
Use emollients all the time, even when its not visible.

Use emollients for washing, never soap or shower Gell.

Use emollients, let them soak in for at least 5 mins then put steroid on last. Do this 4 times a day for a week, reduce to 3 the following week, then to twice daily and finally to once a day. don't stop, go alternate days and keep that up for a couple of weeks (that's the reduction in steroid). If you stop the steroid as soon as the flare dies down, the flare will return.
A dermatologist would explain this more clearly than I have, but at the point I was given this advice, I was being treated three times a week by specialist nurses. It worked.

Hope you don't go on to have psoriasis friend, psoriatic arthritis.

I feel your pain OP.

When my Psoriasis first appeared a couple of years ago, I was prescribed bottle after bottle of emollient creams and told to moisturise endlessly but I found it just had no effect. Then I happened to read about ‘Child’s Farm Baby Moisturiser’ helping people with Psoriasis (and allegedly ‘curing’ it in some cases) and now I just use that instead as my moisturiser and find it definitely helps improve the redness, soreness and itchiness. I eventually had UVB light treatment as I had it on every part of my body and that got rid of it completely until the treatment ended and 3 weeks later it started to come back. Was about to embark on a course of UVA treatment when I went on holiday abroad and it just disappeared for 6 months! 😊 I felt fantastic and thought I might have seen the back of it but unfortunately I had a major operation just before Christmas, the trauma of which seems to have now set it off again 😕

The only other thing I have found that works for me is ‘Philips BlueControl Advance’. It’s an LED blue light which your place on your Psoriasis patches for 15 minutes a day and it slows down the growth of your skin cells. It’s very pricey unfortunately (£300+) but I was so desperate last year that I bought one and thankfully it works for me - I use it on my elbows and knees mainly and sometime other areas as needed. I should add that spending £300+ wasn’t an easy decision for me to make but I only took the risk in the end because they give you a 90 day money back guarantee if it doesn’t work for you.

So basically my daily Psoriasis routine is moisturising with Child’s Farm, blue lighting my worst patches and then applying Dovobet. I’m hoping this time around I can control it before it gets as bad as before as I really don’t want another course of UV treatment if I can avoid it.

It’s all about finding what works for you - it’s a long road unfortunately. I really hope that a cure can be found in the not so distant future as it’s such a horrible thing to have - makes me feel so ugly when I am not confident in myself anyway. Hope you find something that works for you 😊

I second the large doses of vitamin d

I also found cutting out yeast, alcohol and chilli helped.

I hate using steroid creams and never found an emoliant that helped me. I tend to use coconut oil, avene akerat cream or la roche-posay lipikar baume. The last two aren't cheap but worked wonders.

I hope you find something that suits you op

ooh - I may look at the Philips light but it is a lot of money.

A story to hopefully make you smile...

When I started light therapy I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. But what happened was called into procedure room, then sent to take clothes off/put on dressing gown (can't remember if I was entirely naked or kept my knickers on). Disrobed for examination then popped into a circular light pod.

Had to stand with legs apart and with hands in straps above my head for the grand total of about 3 seconds.

I had light therapy twice a week (can't remember how long the treatment was for) and each appointment my time in the pod increased every so slightly)

After a few weeks they noticed my face (I had some psoriasis round my hairline and occasionally it encroached onto my forehead/cheekbones) which at the time was psoriasis free was getting tanned. Now I'd noticed this previously but was quite happy with my NHS tan and so kept quite.

They decided in their medical wisdom that my face now needed protection and said I'd have to wear a mask.

Said mask was produced. I don't know what I envisaged but the mask looked to me like a plastic/see through welders mask. Ah but the medical staff hadn't stopped there. A quick twist and turn like the balloon shape maker at a kids party turned my welders mask into basically a human mouse mask with a long pointy nose.

So from that day forward I had to step into the pod, naked, wearing my plastic mouse mask, legs akimbo, hands in straps above my head. I did at that point wonder whether this was an elaborate money earning sideline for the NHS and I was actually on some sort of pay per view channel..

.... on the upside psoriasis went - huzzah! So my advice if you end up with light therapy is disguise any tanning of your face!!

Thanks all . I am vitamin D deficient this is ongoing and I do take large does.

My GP doesn't seem to think it's a massive issue even when it's covering every part of my body !

Child's farm I use that on my son for his excema so definitely worth a go !

Philips blue control I have seen that might have another look!

Has anyone had success with coal tar products ?

myrtle Your light therapy experience sounds very similar to mine! Lol 😂 I didn’t have to wear a welders mask thankfully but I did see others having to!

@myrtleWilson

VLCos

I was prescribed a coal tar shampoo as I get it particularly bad on my scalp but I didn’t find it helped unfortunately 😕 I’ve tried all sorts of shampoo’s and still haven’t found one that helps. I have to apply a steroid lotion daily to my scalp but I find it doesn’t have much effect these days 🙁

Body shop ginger anti dandruff works wonders for scalp psoriasis. I've tried every lotion and potion going but that seems to keep it at bay.

Totally agree that alcohol doesn't help and UV treatment can get rid for 6-12 months. I always have a holiday in the sun every year!

I'm on anti TNF meds' now as I also have psoriatic arthritis, which have been great at keeping flare ups down.

I'm off to look at the Phillips light thing, DH also has it so we could go half's!

...and I have a hatred for coal tar. The smell takes me back to my teenage years when it first got bad. I refuse to use it as the smell makes me feel terrible and stress is never good for psoriasis. I was once hospitalised with psoriasis and a nurse smuggled me in some proper nice shampoo for me to use to make me feel better.

You can treat on the surface, with lights and emollients - but this will always only treat the symptoms. The cause is more complex, but a deeper form of treatment is diet: cut out/down on alcohol, sugar, spicy foods, opiate painkillers (if you use them). Then you're tackling it from the inside-out as well.

(I have ongoing forms of inflammation.)

I totally agree with that AfistfulOfDolores1 - it's an external manifestation of an autoimmune response, and if you can figure out what your trigger is you can speed up recovery and limit outbreaks.

I've been using a range by sorian. You can get on amaozn. All natural ingredients. Works really well.

If you haven't seen a specialist then insist on a referral, if psoriasis develops into psoriatic arthritis then it's bloody serious and the more your immune system is struggling then the more likely that is to happen.

at your GP!

With DD the dermatologist said it was trial and error and gave us lots of smaller samples to try.

Well said that RandomMess. Psoriatic skin problems often go hand in hand with other auto immune conditions, especially psoriatic inflammatory arthritis. Early diagnosis and treatment help a lot.