Psoriasis

My mother had psoriasis most of her life - she passed away a few years ago in her 90s. She found the coal tar treatments did not work on her, but a herbal treatment (don't know what exactly) did work to some extent. She went to a herbalist (not Chinese) and it was quite expensive, but it was the most successful. The biggest surprise was when she was put onto a different cardiac drug and the psoriasis disappeared completely. It had gone down to a small patch before but never cleared completely. As far as I recollect it didn't come back. We tried to draw the attention of her GP etc to this fact but no-one was interested. So, not a lot of help to current sufferers but it may be there is a cure out there.

My mother's psoriasis started from a bit of a burn on her elbow from an oven. My husband's started from a dose of tonsilitis and subsequent antibiotics (penicillin). My son also has a fairly bad dose of it. I have sensitive skin and also used get tonsillitis regularly till I had my tonsils removed, but I have never had psoriasis.

I had strep throat and it triggered my psoriasis. It’s very common apparently.

I wonder does gum or teeth healthcare affect psoriasis...when babies are teething they can get really bad rashes. I’ve often wondered if there is a link.

looksee wrote: »

My mother.

Interesting looksee.
I would guess from my own experience that it's related to inflammation rather than the medication doing/affecting anything more directly psoriatic.
Maybe the second medication was miles ahead in terms of killing inflammation ?

But yeah, complete clearance is like, wow.

I remember in the early years I had it, I knew a lady well who suddenly got a massive flare of psoriasis on her feet in her 60s. She couldn't walk with it, it was that bad. She had that for a while, not sure how long but I would guess a year or so, then it just went away. Gone.
I thought there was hope for me, but it never happened ! :rolleyes::)

Well, at least I am so thrilled to have the methotrexate and soon (hopefully bearable and efficient) Xeljang.

I just brought the dog up for a walk, I never take it for granted that I can actually walk upright these days, and most days (most good days I guess) I don't collapse with debilitating fatigue when I get home. Well, I do have to be reasonable in the effort I make, and there's always the worry, but hey, I'll take that.

Humira for me has been quite a slow process and I’m on constant antibiotics for infections.
Enbrel was the one that really helped me

Dick_Swiveller wrote: »

Not sure tbh. I didn't have any psoriasis on my scalp.

Not related to this thread but your username gave me a good laugh.

khalessi wrote: »

I found capisal shampoo and cocois ointment helped scalp psoriasis

Cocois is a very old fashioned treatment. The smell of it is fairly repulsive too.

khalessi wrote: »

I dont mind as it smells clean to me and works for me

Any suggestions of a more modern treatment for scalp psoriasis?

I’ve yet to find something that really works unfortunately. The best I’ve found is Tgel dry hair. But if you don’t mind the Cocois then use away on it

wonga77 wrote: »

I have tried almost everything, this one worked wonders for me, i went from probably 70% coverage to nothing
https://www.amazon.com/Psoriasis-Medicated-Conditioning-Formula-Shampoo/dp/B07XGL7GJ9/ref=sr_1_32?keywords=mg217&qid=1574759958&sr=8-32

That appears to only have coal tar as an active ingredient, so if you find similar here it should work for you too.

It is 3% coal tar.

Polytar was the standard coal tar shampoo you got in pharmacies here, and then there was a coal tar shortage and it was off the shelves and online in some places for crazy money.

Polytar is back on sale and I see 1 star reviews on amazon saying it is not the same,

https://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B01HYL96I4/ref=acr_dp_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=one_star&reviewerType=all_reviews#reviews-filter-bar

I have used this product effectively over many years for treating psoriasis and flaky scalp. However, it disappeared from the local pharmacies, so I was happy to find it re-appearing online. However, it is not the same product that I used to use - it doesn't have the same tarry antiseptic smell as it used to, and is not effective in treating the scaly scalp and psoriasis as it used to.

Not the same as it use to be

I see it on chemistdirect and the label shows 4% coal tar
https://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/polytar-scalp-coal-tar-shampoo/prd-0107668?affiliateid=78888&affsource=AW&awc=2102_1574768727_6ab691393c070afc082d81a7d7724f0a&utm_source=Affiliatewindow&utm_medium=Skimlinks&utm_campaign=0

as does this one
https://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/polytar-scalp-shampoo-150ml--6-pack/prd-0107737

On the amazon image I can barely make out the 4%. I had guessed they might have dropped the % due to the shortage and the reported drop in smell. But I think it was always 4%. Maybe they have old photos.

The cocois ointment has other active ingredients. The sulphur is antifungal and the acid helps scales fall off. It is also 12% coal tar

https://www.inishpharmacy.com/p/cocois-ointment/p-cocois

. Contains Coal Tar, Sulphur and Salicylic Acid. Cocois reduces the scaly appearance of the skin and reduces irritation.

Mildly antiseptic
Antifungal
Reduces hardening, thickening and scaling of skin

They also say to leave on for 1 hour so it should have more effect than the shampoos which are usually left on for minutes.

The cocois also had none of the foaming agent sodium lauryl sulfate in it which most of the shampoos do -even though it is known to be an issue for people.

EDIT: I found data sheets and this one for polytar plus for Ireland in 2018 shows it as <1% but I am not sure if this means it has changed, the 4% on the bottle might not mean the same thing.
https://www.3eonline.com/ImageServer/ImageViewer.aspx?id=hnUF5Z5yhmrnThfXGNOlbNNfxLTJI7ejWP%2bU6qfsWzZtKEChB0qSSosfXB6sNTjTxE0J4jjH%2f%2fnKfAXw%2bxng9PFNhyN0xObcIyMlIchM%2f3fKhLGTtHU2%2blGsMJRNy38Bb0IkxaLSxDlEZmGHxuUJzw%3d%3d

I've gone through methotrexate and acitretin and no dice. It looks like one of the biologics is going to be next on the list.

rizzee wrote: »

My psoriasis is 90% gone, I eliminated all meat from my diet approx 6 weeks ago, start taking 2-4 high strength omega 3 tablets with a berocca every morning with food.

was it just meat? or did you give up anything else like say milk. Tesco do a cheap own brand version of berocca which I think has pretty much identical values.

I have been focusing on clearing my arms, forearms and upper arms have similar patches for a couple of years now. Pissed off not being able to wear tshirts. I have been hammering them with everything for several weeks now, all non-prescription, UVB 9W bulb, dovonex, dithranol, urea, coal tar, sudocreme and they are now pretty much smooth but still a bit red.

When previous patches cleared they seemed to stay clear, new ones might pop up elsewhere though. I was saying before I consider it like a sort of pipe under pressure, you stop one leak and another one forms elsewhere. So I want rid of the most visible -scalp, face, arms.

If they do clear I will still give them some treatments pre-empting a rebound and then move onto some other patch and try and clear it one area at a time. I find it too time consuming to do them all and end up doing it halfheartedly, see some improvement but it comes back. I am not sure if any studies have been done to see how this approach works, I do not know how to even word it for searching, purposely leaving some areas untreated and really going overboard on others.