Psoriasis

brevity

I was at a talk recently and asked the question about diet. There where a few doctors and dermatologists in the front row and the basically said its unconfirmed when it comes to diet. One said that wheat can be a aggravator but again its not a catch all.

I know for me that when I gave up sugar for about a month or two the itching stopped. That's what I want the most. In the new year I'll give it another shot, focus a bit more on the wheat side of things as well.

My dermatologist is great so I'd have no problems going back (apart from the 120€ bill)...the light treatment I went on cleared it up completely. Since I've started a new job I wont be able to pop out at lunch for 60-90 minutes so im going to see if there is anything else on offer..

A combination of the diet and dermatologist will hopefully fix it.

Feelgood

Mountainsandh wrote: »

The only spectacular difference I have recently come across, the best clearing I have had in relation to diet, is that I have been juicing plain old bog standard fruit for the last while, and it has cleared my hands to a relatively good extent.

When you say juicing, are you juice fasting / replacing a meal with juice or just adding some juice to your normal diet?. Could it possibly be fasting that is giving you some relief?. Maybe switch juice with water and see what happens?.

I am very open to possible explanations of what causes psoriasis, ie candida, Crohn's, IBS, ... but to believe any of them, I need confirmation by doctors/specialists other than "healthy diet" proponents.

This is the problem mate, doctors and specialists don't have any information about food and diet and its relation to auto immune diseases. They will still refer you to the good old archaic food pyramid from the 1950s which at this stage has been proven obsolete and wrong on so many levels. You will never get confirmation from a doctor/specialist.

I started listening to people like me, people with psoriasis who know what its like to wake up every morning with this condition. From these people I found a simple method to control my condition. This method is working for a lot of people not just myself, which is why I took it on board.

Like I said I am just relaying on information in the hope that it might help some fellow psoriasis sufferers. I'm one of you guys.

Mountainsandh

No fasting Feelgood, eating same as ever, with fruit juice at first every day, now every second day or so added to my normal diet.

I drink a lot of water every day regardless.

No change whatsoever in quantity or quality of food I have other than the addition of the juice.

Juice taken usually in the afternoon, sometimes before meal, sometimes during, sometimes after.

Mountainsandh

Feelgood wrote: »

This is the problem mate, doctors and specialists don't have any information about food and diet and its relation to auto immune diseases. They will still refer you to the good old archaic food pyramid from the 1950s which at this stage has been proven obsolete and wrong on so many levels. You will never get confirmation from a doctor/specialist.

No I don't agree with that.
If doctors and specialists find (or are relayed the information via researchers) that a specific acid/vitamin/compound/whatever component that is available in fresh fruit for example is effective in modifying the immune reaction that is causing psoriasis, they will, imo, relay that to patients.

I see no reason why they would not relay that information, and I don't think there is a conspiracy to hide whatever type of information.

If it is proven that avoiding or adding a type of food from/to a patient's diet will alter or cure disease, they will be sure to let us know.

Just like cholesterol is widely and openly controlled with changes in diet, with advice from medical practitioners.

There simply isn't any data/research proving that so far.

Of course since it is not really life threatening, there isn't much time or money dedicated to research into psoriasis I would guess, so things go slow.

I have a great GP, and I could well imagine his delight if only he could tell me simply : "eat avocados and you will be cured", or "fast 2/7 days and you will be cured", and I trust that he would tell me.

Mountainsandh

For those interested, this research sounds promising : it looks at how cells die, and how the manner in which they are "instructed" to die may be key in fighting psoriasis.
All related to inflammation.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141202103554.htm

Feelgood

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Just like cholesterol is widely and openly controlled with changes in diet, with advice from medical practitioners.

Oh come on mate, are you kidding me?. If medical practitioners are advocating healthy diets to control cholesterol with their patients, why is lipitor the best selling drug of all time!?.

I have a great GP, and I could well imagine his delight if only he could tell me simply : "eat avocados and you will be cured", or "fast 2/7 days and you will be cured", and I trust that he would tell me.

I think you are looking at it from the wrong angle here. Let me put this back into context so you can see where I am coming from. I am not offering a magic pill here.

This study was published on a renowned medical/biomedical website, pubmed. This study was performed not by an asshole like me, but by scientists who know exactly what they are talking about using proper scientific methods and controls.

Incidence of Candida in psoriasis

Candida was detected in 78% of the saliva samples of the psoriatics but in only 50% of the controls, and in the faeces samples in 72% of the psoriatics, but in only 46% of the controls.

What I took from this is study is that psoriatics have a ****load of candida. I said what the hell is candida and then I researched candida. I found out that candida is a yeast which feds on sugar. I also found out that periodic fasting is helpful for killing candida overgrowth. I stopped eating sugar and I started fasting periodically. Psoriasis more or less gone in a few weeks.

So it looks like the study on candida was right, so I basically came here to tell you guys this fabulous news and you are giving me a hard time :P

Anyway, thats all I wanted to say. Don't focus on my weird diet, focus on the fact that you might have candida overgrowth and then investigate how to control it.

Edit: Also worth noting that you can get tested for Candida in Ireland. My bloods tested positive for Candida. Would be interesting to see if other if other people here test positive also. http://touchstone.ie/food-intolerance/candida

wonga77

I think most standard gp's are very uneducated when it comes to psoriasis. Most will suggest the dovenex or dovobet and the normal shampoo's etc on the market. Unless of course you are lucky enough to have a gp with an interest in the problem and one who is well up to date on the subject

Mountainsandh

Feelgood wrote: »

Oh come on mate, are you kidding me?. If medical practitioners are advocating healthy diets to control cholesterol with their patients, why is lipitor the best selling drug of all time!?.

Because patients cannot always be trusted to follow a specific diet as they should, and because at times the starting point is such that it warrants immediate correction with medication. Are you trying to say that doctors tell their patients to go on eating their morning fry up while all powerful lipitor will perform its miracle, paying them nicely in the meantime ?

I think you are looking at it from the wrong angle here. Let me put this back into context so you can see where I am coming from. I am not offering a magic pill here.

What wrong angle ? I trust medicine more than other health approaches. I am not ruling out potential benefits of other approaches such as diet, herbal medicine, acupuncture and the likes... But I am trusting scientific medicine first and foremost.
Studies from biomedical websites may be helpful at times. In the case of candida, to be very honest with you, it is so common, that I'm not sure telling me I probably have candida would be very helpful.

Candida may well be a consequence of psoriasis, no ? what with the pressure it puts on one's immune system.

I'm not trying to give you a hard time.
As I said, I would be open to a lot of things, diet included.

I don't think an over enthusiastic and drastic approach to diet changes is a good thing either.

All it will do is introduce an element of guilt or stress for some people who might find it hard to follow the diet. I think we might agree that is not something psoriasis sufferers need, right ?

Feelgood

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Are you trying to say that doctors tell their patients to go on eating their morning fry up while all powerful lipitor will perform its miracle, paying them nicely in the meantime ?

This is actually a perfect example of what I am talking about. Correct, if you have high cholesterol, you doctor will give you the spiel on not eating fry ups and animal fats. I got the same spiel and was prescribed lipitor.

In the last 10 years there have been numerous studies linking SUGAR to high cholesterol, not saturated fat. So why don't doctors tell their patients to stop eating sugar?. I'm not suggesting they are bad doctors, I am suggesting that their presumptions are based on archaic and obsolete information. The information they have related to diet is simply not accurate. This is why you will never get diet related suggestions for your psoriasis from a doctor. They
simply don't have the information available to them.

I still eat a lot of animal fats and at least 12 eggs per week. What I don't eat is a lot of sugar. My LDL rating was 6.7, its now down to 4.8 without touching Lipitor.

I don't think an over enthusiastic and drastic approach to diet changes is a good thing either.

All it will do is introduce an element of guilt or stress for some people who might find it hard to follow the diet. I think we might agree that is not something psoriasis sufferers need, right ?

I think this is where we differ, 20 years is a long time to have psoriasis. I am sure over the years you have heard so many snake oil treatments and what not. I completely understand your reluctance to jump on the latest psoriasis cure craze. I get it.

For me, I woke up every morning severely depressed, feeling like there was something wrong me, getting looks from people and trying to explain that its just a skin condition and its not contagious. If there was a small chance of something working to get rid of it, I would do it.

I think its good to be over enthusiastic and to believe that you can heal. The diet might sound drastic, but actually there are millions of people worldwide following it and getting rid of obesity and a whole host of other health problems. All I am saying is check the information, it might help you out.

At the very least, maybe check out the documentary on the 5:2 fast diet.
Michael Mosley is a doctor and all the information in there comes from other doctors, so its inline with your beliefs in the medical community.

Gael23

wonga77 wrote: »

I think most standard gp's are very uneducated when it comes to psoriasis. Most will suggest the dovenex or dovobet and the normal shampoo's etc on the market. Unless of course you are lucky enough to have a gp with an interest in the problem and one who is well up to date on the subject

That is often the course of action followed, my main issue was my face where dovobet can't be used. But evan if a GP has an interest in the area they will often refer.

Mountainsandh

Feelgood wrote: »

This is actually a perfect example of what I am talking about. Correct, if you have high cholesterol, you doctor will give you the spiel on not eating fry ups and animal fats. I got the same spiel and was prescribed lipitor.

In the last 10 years there have been numerous studies linking SUGAR to high cholesterol, not saturated fat. So why don't doctors tell their patients to stop eating sugar?. I'm not suggesting they are bad doctors, I am suggesting that their presumptions are based on archaic and obsolete information. The information they have related to diet is simply not accurate. This is why you will never get diet related suggestions for your psoriasis from a doctor. They
simply don't have the information available to them.

I still eat a lot of animal fats and at least 12 eggs per week. What I don't eat is a lot of sugar. My LDL rating was 6.7, its now down to 4.8 without touching Lipitor.



I think this is where we differ, 20 years is a long time to have psoriasis. I am sure over the years you have heard so many snake oil treatments and what not. I completely understand your reluctance to jump on the latest psoriasis cure craze. I get it.

For me, I woke up every morning severely depressed, feeling like there was something wrong me, getting looks from people and trying to explain that its just a skin condition and its not contagious. If there was a small chance of something working to get rid of it, I would do it.

I think its good to be over enthusiastic and to believe that you can heal. The diet might sound drastic, but actually there are millions of people worldwide following it and getting rid of obesity and a whole host of other health problems. All I am saying is check the information, it might help you out.

At the very least, maybe check out the documentary on the 5:2 fast diet.
Michael Mosley is a doctor and all the information in there comes from other doctors, so its inline with your beliefs in the medical community.

Hmm...
Maybe some day I'll give it a go, you never know.

I'm very very happy with my juicing for now. It's easy, it suits the family lifestyle (i have them all on it), it's cheap.

rubadub

ryanf1 wrote: »

Do you really think any good Doctor would withhold curative treatment form a patient to make money? Absolutely not.

He never said "good" doctor, unless you think they are all beyond reproach.

rubadub wrote: »

The cynic in me still believes some unscrupulous dermatologists will have no bother prescribing steroids as it can mean a customer for life, who has to get prescriptions and suffer rebounds. esp. when I read about one dermatologist who allegedly claimed not to have heard of UVB treatment.

ryanf1 wrote: »

Im still to be convinced in relation to diet, some fairly mixed opinions out there.

Do you drink alcohol, if so have you never had flare ups that you thought were due to it?

Call Me Jimmy

alcohol definitely has an impact on mine. Usually only when it's too much, like I had 1 or 2 cans the other day and there was little effect but any time I actually drink properly it usually messes my whole thing up.

Gael23

=rubadub;93434472

Do you drink alcohol, if so have you never had flare ups that you thought were due to it?

Not regularly, some people say excess sugar can do it but I don't really know.

Im having a small problem. I got my wisdom teeth taken out a few days ago and my face is still quite sore so I can't apply the Protopic to that area.

brevity

Wine drives my skin nuts and I really love wine

Feelgood

brevity wrote: »

Wine drives my skin nuts and I really love wine

Ditto to that, pain in the bum this time of year too :-(

Cider seems to be alright for me though in small doses. Maybe 3-4 pints.

Gael23

Feelgood wrote: »

Ditto to that, pain in the bum this time of year too :-(

Cider seems to be alright for me though in small doses. Maybe 3-4 pints.

Large does of cider will give you a pain in the bum quite literally. Always a good natural laxative😊

Mountainsandh

Same here with the wine, it's a killer. Talk about feeling inflamed the next morning ! I pay for it inside and out, it's like my body's ringing alarm bells.
Lager is not as bad.

I think the reaction to alcohol is not directly to something in the wine/beer/cider.
Imo an excess of alcohol simply stirs the body into a state of alarm.
It is that state of alarm that triggers the flares, imo.
Not so much the actual food/drink ingested.

Feelgood

ryanf1 wrote: »

Large does of cider will give you a pain in the bum quite literally. Always a good natural laxative😊

Lol, especially Magners pear cider. Its strange, magners pear seems to be more popular in Australia than the apple one.

How is everyone getting on with their psoriasis anyway?. I didn't flare too bad in Ireland during the winter, but I know for some people winter is a nightmare. I thought when I moved to Australia that the climate and sun would help me out a bit, but it didn't change a thing for me.

phater phagan

Feelgood wrote: »

Lol, especially Magners pear cider. Its strange, magners pear seems to be more popular in Australia than the apple one.

How is everyone getting on with their psoriasis anyway?. I didn't flare too bad in Ireland during the winter, but I know for some people winter is a nightmare. I thought when I moved to Australia that the climate and sun would help me out a bit, but it didn't change a thing for me.

Feelgood, the sun helps about 85 percent of people with psoriasis - unfortunately it doesn't work for the other 15 percent, and may even exacerbate it. Or so my doctor tells me. Sun used to work for me but doesn't any more. I use dovobet ointment sparingly and that does it for me. I also only drink alcohol occasionally to discourage flare-ups, and I find that Vaseline helps also. Apparently Irish people have a high preponderance for the disease according to a recent medical report I saw on RTE news.

Inspector Dhar

I am absolutely murdered with my psoriasis atm. I estimate that 75-80% of my body is covered, and I've recently been diagnosed with tendonitis, courtesy of my p. The fact that I am under enormous stress doesn't help matters. I hope other flaky boardsies are doing better....

Call Me Jimmy

I feel for you inspector, that sounds so bad. It's such a horrible illness. Most illnesses have a lifetime or at least a definitive treatment.

Mine is on my face and although it's not at it's worst, the indecision about what to do each day about it just wears me down. Do I try x today? Have I given y long enough? Do I remember improvement when I did z?

I've a big family get together at the weekend and I know it'll be all I think about

Inspector Dhar

Agreed, Jimmy. And the vicious circle thing of it.... The stress of having it (particularly on your face, or any other visible bit of you), causes more stress, which causes more flare-ups etc. Its a hateful condition. It has devastated my love life as well....:-(

Call Me Jimmy

What's your current 'regime'? Mine have gone to mad and back. I'm taking things internally which do seem to be having an effect because I haven't had a flaky flair up, but the redness won't go away. I also tried frozen yogurt on it yesterday which has made it feel better, it doesn't look perfect but I don't have that disconcerting feeling like something wrong is going on on my face.

Gael23

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

What's your current 'regime'? Mine have gone to mad and back. I'm taking things internally which do seem to be having an effect because I haven't had a flaky flair up, but the redness won't go away. I also tried frozen yogurt on it yesterday which has made it feel better, it doesn't look perfect but I don't have that disconcerting feeling like something wrong is going on on my face.

Go to your GP if you think there's something going wrong Jimmy. I'll post my regime later, on my phone now.

Mountainsandh

Inspector and Call Me Jimmy sending lots of support your way.

I only get tiny drops around the eyes on my face once in a while, and my ears, but I feel I have an idea of the distress, and pain.

You know, I do think a lot more people are familiar with psoriasis nowadays, so don't be too harsh on yourselves.

In my job, i can't hide my hands, but I'm in a position to explain what it is when people notice. Most of the people I speak with have a relative with psoriasis.

Inspector any woman worth her salt will look past the psoriasis.

I'm female, and I married someone who didn't mind a bride with zombie hands on wedding photos. 😊

NEDDURC

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

What's your current 'regime'? Mine have gone to mad and back. I'm taking things internally which do seem to be having an effect because I haven't had a flaky flair up, but the redness won't go away. I also tried frozen yogurt on it yesterday which has made it feel better, it doesn't look perfect but I don't have that disconcerting feeling like something wrong is going on on my face.

Hey Call Me Jimmy, sounds fimilar to me too. Don't mind it on my body so much as it's not visible it really only bothers me on my face too.

I'm the same in terms of trying lots of things with varying success but then not really knowning if the improvement relted to one thing or another.

What are you taking internally?

These probiotics are supposedly meant to be very good and have been proven to have some success for inflamatory conditiions - http://alflorexbiotics.com/. Made in Cork too.

I've started using some of these products - http://www.moogoo.ie/psoriasis/ Not sure how good they are yet but a mild on the skin so aren't any harm anyway.

Call Me Jimmy

ryanf1 wrote: »

Go to your GP if you think there's something going wrong Jimmy. I'll post my regime later, on my phone now.

Oh no I just meant the itching and odd sensations you can get from it. As if there's noticeable chemical reactions happening on the area. Nothing different to what people usually might notice especially if they investigate the sensations deeply rather than just categorizing it as 'itchy'.

Thanks for the probiotics shout above, I have just been googling looking for the stuff today and yesterday exactly along those lines.

What I'm 'taking' at the moment is olive leaf extract, olive oil (spoonful a day based on some youtube people who had great success), I now have fruit in my diet through smoothies, maca (which apparently gets hormonal system functioning healthy (a side effect of that is a feel a lot of virility)). I do get small bit of frozen yogurt in there as well. Looking to increase probiotic/yogurt intake.

Also it's hard to tell exactly when foodstuffs make a difference because I've tried so many different external regimes since I started adding internal stuff. But it's been about a month and a half since adding the food and I feel like there is an improvement, also to my overall health.

Gael23

My regime currently: Cocois Coal Tar ointment on my body. Protopic (amazing stuff) on my face and Daktacort on genitals.
That would be daily except for Daktacort. I usually give that a few days off every so often because its not needed.

I cant say the coal tar is helping me enormously but the coal tar works a treat as does the Daktacort. Having it there bothers me a lot because it gets intensely itchy and its hard to keep the area clean enough to avoid fungal infections.

NEDDURC

ryanf1 wrote: »

My regime currently: Cocois Coal Tar ointment on my body. Protopic (amazing stuff) on my face and Daktacort on genitals.
That would be daily except for Daktacort. I usually give that a few days off every so often because its not needed.

I cant say the coal tar is helping me enormously but the coal tar works a treat as does the Daktacort. Having it there bothers me a lot because it gets intensely itchy and its hard to keep the area clean enough to avoid fungal infections.

Thanks for the update ryanf1 - I try to avoid using steriods or coal tar as much as possible. So end up using them when things start getting bad.

I suppose that's why I've been exploring all sorts of other options. Simple answer is there is no simple answer and most likely everyone is different so just need to find what works best for you.