Light treatment for Psoriasis

Pabmac

Having light treatment for my psoriasis tomorrow. Can anyone let me know what this involves please? Thanks

byhookorbycrook

Do you know which type you are getting?

https://www.psoriasis.org/about-psoriasis/treatments/phototherapy

Pabmac

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Do you know which type you are getting?

https://www.psoriasis.org/about-psoriasis/treatments/phototherapy

No I don't know. Just wondering iif you go into something like a stand up sunbed type thing.

rubadub

Pabmac wrote: »

No I don't know. Just wondering iif you go into something like a stand up sunbed type thing.

yes, the normal one is to go into a standup sunbed. You will have goggles and if male have your privates masked off.

They will usually only have you in for seconds to make sure you do not get too bad a sunburn. They aim for a very slight reddening. The next time they increase the time if you did not burn the last time. It can go up in time to several minutes.

I have a small light at home, the max time I use on an area is 6mins, this was built up from an initial time of 30seconds. If it is in an area that is usually exposed to sun I might start at 45sec to 1min.

There is a psoriasis thread here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055355875

Gremlinertia

Pabmac wrote: »

Having light treatment for my psoriasis tomorrow. Can anyone let me know what this involves please? Thanks

How did you get on?.

Pabmac

Gremlinertia wrote: »

How did you get on?.

Hi, I got my wires crossed. Didn't actually have the treatment. Met the Consultant who went through everything with me and confirmed that I was a good candidate for the treatment. Treatment due to start in few weeks.:)

Pabmac

Thanks so much rubadub. Great help :-) Was just a little apprehensive as I didn't know what to expect.

Clampdown

Hi OP. I've suffered from psoriasis all my life and while UV treatment is effective for reducing the plaques, they can often back when the treatment is stopped, so just be aware of that.

The only thing that keeps psoriasis under control for me is 1) avoiding stress and 2) following a special diet that is described in Doctor Pagano's book Healing Psoriasis which is an excellent resource for psoriasis sufferers. It's difficult to follow: all fried foods, red meat, alcohol, tobacco, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, all sweets and processed sugar, cakes/pastries, processed meats (ham, sausage, bacon, pepperoni, etc) need to be cut out. I highly recommend that book to all psoriasis sufferers, it is very thorough.

Pabmac

Wow the only thing on the list that I don't partake in is tobacco. I'm also quite overweight. Must get my act together. Thanks for the book recommendation.

rubadub

Pabmac wrote: »

Wow the only thing on the list that I don't partake in is tobacco.

I think most would be the same, its not exactly obscure things being listed.

I have the book too. I gave up some of the things for over a year, but am back on them now and notice no real difference, main ones being tomato & potatoes of which I ate a lot.

some regard him as a bit of a quack, there are some dubious bits in the book, you can get it in some libraries too.

Alcohol certainly has an effect on me, it is meant to effect men more than women with regards to psoriasis. I still drink, like a fish, however if I keep hydrated and take antacids I find it does not effect me nearly as much.

Clampdown

rubadub wrote: »

I think most would be the same, its not exactly obscure things being listed.

I have the book too. I gave up some of the things for over a year, but am back on them now and notice no real difference, main ones being tomato & potatoes of which I ate a lot.

some regard him as a bit of a quack, there are some dubious bits in the book, you can get it in some libraries too.

Alcohol certainly has an effect on me, it is meant to effect men more than women with regards to psoriasis. I still drink, like a fish, however if I keep hydrated and take antacids I find it does not effect me nearly as much.

During that year were you still drinking alcohol? It's the biggest culprit for causing psoriasis flareups for me. I improved hugely just by cutting that out. It makes your system totally acidic and stresses your liver which prioritizes filtering out alcohol above everything else because it's a poison. so more toxins from your gut ultimately reach the blood and your skin because your skin tries to pitch in to do the livers job and that's where the flaky red patches come from. The book says it is literally impossible to cure psoriasis if you drink alcohol regularly.

I've been to many doctors and dermatologists, the typical western trained type, and they are all pretty clueless about psoriasis and a complete waste of money. Most of the creams and biological drugs like Humira they prescribe are bad for you long term and don't treat the root of the disease (which they claim not to know). The creams they give can only help control the symptoms but the steroid creams are harmful and you typically get a 'rebound' where after a remission you get a bad flareup and are back at square one.

Following the steps in the book helped me more than anything else and I've had psoriasis and eczema for 20 years. I cleared up my entire back and most of my legs arms and feet. When I would stop following the diet, it always came back, especially if I got stressed out.

Also Padmac, there is a definite link between obesity and psoriasis. The less food you consume the less toxins will leak into your bloodstream which the skin then tries to get rid of. The good news is if you follow the psoriasis diet and start basing your diet on fruits and vegetables and cut out the pork, red meat, sugar and alcohol the weight will be falling off you in no time. It takes effort and patience which is not easy but neither is living with the torture of psoriasis.

whereto now

Clampdown wrote: »

During that year were you still drinking alcohol? It's the biggest culprit for causing psoriasis flareups for me. I improved hugely just by cutting that out. It makes your system totally acidic and stresses your liver which prioritizes filtering out alcohol above everything else because it's a poison. so more toxins from your gut ultimately reach the blood and your skin because your skin tries to pitch in to do the livers job and that's where the flaky red patches come from. The book says it is literally impossible to cure psoriasis if you drink alcohol regularly.

I've been to many doctors and dermatologists, the typical western trained type, and they are all pretty clueless about psoriasis and a complete waste of money. Most of the creams and biological drugs like Humira they prescribe are bad for you long term and don't treat the root of the disease (which they claim not to know). The creams they give can only help control the symptoms but the steroid creams are harmful and you typically get a 'rebound' where after a remission you get a bad flareup and are back at square one.

Following the steps in the book helped me more than anything else and I've had psoriasis and eczema for 20 years. I cleared up my entire back and most of my legs arms and feet. When I would stop following the diet, it always came back, especially if I got stressed out.

Also Padmac, there is a definite link between obesity and psoriasis. The less food you consume the less toxins will leak into your bloodstream which the skin then tries to get rid of. The good news is if you follow the psoriasis diet and start basing your diet on fruits and vegetables and cut out the pork, red meat, sugar and alcohol the weight will be falling off you in no time. It takes effort and patience which is not easy but neither is living with the torture of psoriasis.

Hi I'm not sure if this will help but a relation of mine had bad scalp psoriasis and she used a shampoo from a company in the UK. They make products for humans and animals. I know she didn't have it on her body just her head but the shampoo worked and I'm sure it could be used as a body wash too. I know it was expensive but it did work for her so I thought id mention it. I think the company is called Ruggle it... I know there's a website but that's all I can remember....might be worth a look...ðŸ˜

Pabmac

Thanks everyone. I've had my 7th session today. I go three times a week for the treatment. I was told I have extremely sensitive skin. I started off with just 20 secs. I'm up to 1 minute now. I've only been noticing a bit of improvement really over the last day or so. My husband says he sees a great improvement. Also thanks wheretonow for the tip re. the shampoo. I'll look into that.

huskerdu

Pabmac wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I've had my 7th session today. I go three times a week for the treatment. I was told I have extremely sensitive skin. I started off with just 20 secs. I'm up to 1 minute now. I've only been noticing a bit of improvement really over the last day or so. My husband says he sees a great improvement. Also thanks wheretonow for the tip re. the shampoo. I'll look into that.

Keep it up. The improvement only really speeds up after 3 or 4 weeks.

I have very sensitive skin as well so they only increased my dose slowly but the treatment really worked but only towards the end,

Watch out. I got savagely burned at 1 minute.

Gael23

Light Therapy didnt work for me. Well it did, but as clampdown said, it came back within weeks of stopping the treatment. I had 40 sessions so it was pointless to do more. For me the answer was biological drugs, it wasn't a decision I made easily but a year on it has changed my life.
Some of those shampoos and body washes do help but they are ridiculously expensive.