There are a lot of things you can do about psoriasis. Sunlight or UV light treatments, pills, creams, lotions, and solutions, various types of injections, etc. They may not be 100% effective for all people, but to say there’s nothing you can do about it- well, that’s just not true.
You can NEVER get rid of it, thus you have to get used to it. And for some of us, like myself, who are limited in what treatment options may be available, when there’s no particular improvement there’s nothing else to do but shrug and deal with it.
Have they ever told you why airmen can’t use biologics? I used to have one in a practice I worked in who could have benefited greatly from them, but had to settle for UV treatments to the scalp, which weren’t very effective for him.
They told me why I can’t. As a flyer, thus at greater risk of capture, injury, etc., I cannot take anything that suppresses my immune system. That’s their policy and it’s set in stone. Topical stuff only.
Were I not a flyer I could use anything so long as medical approved it. The list for ground-pounders is much bigger. But I like flying, so sacrifices have to be made.
Wow, you’re lucky. I got denied by every service when I tried to get in nearly 30 years ago. Every last one of them said “Psoriasis? Nope”. Wasn’t even an option. I lied my way through to the physical for army, doc took one look and told me to go home. When I asked why it was a big deal to them, 'cause it’s ugly but so what? he just said “It’s been on the books for 100 years, sorry.” No real answers from him. Not sure he knew why.
When I enlisted it didn’t exist.
The interesting thing about the military is that they will not take you if you have a problem, but if you later develop that same problem while in uniform they’ll treat it so that you can stay. My older sister is about to retire from a 20-year active duty career and she developed asthma about five years in. Good luck getting past MEPS with that.
My wife and I came down with itchy red spots on our legs within a couple days of each other, shortly after a trip down south to Georgia on which we did a little hiking. We thought we found some new (to us) parasite or fungus or something. So did the first doctor we went to (together), and the second (together). Only when we went to a dermatologist did we hear it was psoriasis. Now, years later, mine is pretty well controlled (a few patches I can see but I don’t think anybody would notice from three feet away), but hers is much worse despite vigorous treatment with several different drugs plus tanning (it keeps her from doing some things she’d like to).
Nearly every source I have read says psoriasis is not contagious, but the timing is just uncanny.
Try psoriatic arthritis.
OK people, Try this. EAT OATMEAL for BREAKFAST EVERY DAY for a month.
seriously. it’s a really good stick to your ribs meal, and it will work Wonders on your skin.
a little brown sugar makes the magic taste that much better.
No meds, good fibre, healthy skin.
Enjoy in good health!
It won’t fix psoriasis.
This is going to sound like a cliche, but some people really have found out that following a gluten-free diet helps them tremendously. Other people have found that cutting things like dairy or wheat (not necessarily gluten) out of the diets have led to an improvement in the condition.
Doesn’t hurt to try.
But, at least at this point, any help from a dietary change appears to be from the placebo effect or specific didease combinations (celiac and psoriasis). This pageshows that, while there is little study supported evidence for diety being widely effective in controlling psoriasis, some people report relief when trying various diets. The odd thing is that the diets are all different!
What is the deal with newbies dragging up zombie medical threads and giving suspicious advice?
I’ve eaten oatmeal for breakfast every day for years. And I still have the same psoriasis I had several years ago when I wrote the item six posts up.
Psoriasis and zombies seem hard to fix.
I’m gonna guess, by the way, that zombie resurrections happen because a web search engine finds the old thread and the new poster doesn’t notice the date or doesn’t notice the SDMB’s dislike of zombies (which I actually don’t get).
zombie or no
maybe you need to split up the oatmeal. eat most of it. apply the rest to the psoriasis, if it can stick to your ribs then it can stick to that.
Not necessarily. Ribs don’t flake off.
Fortunately.
Well, unless you’re a zombie.
I know this is a zombie thread, but as a psoriasis sufferer with horrible scalp psoriasis, there is a tea tree oil shampoo that I had a hairdresser reccomend that really really worked. Usually you get advised to a coal tar shampoo which strips out all moisture to my hair and the color. I don’t wash my hair everyday and I have really found it to work.
The FDA just approved a drug, Cosentyx, for which the clinical data was phenomenal.
Thanks for the post. Since the OP, I have had psoriatic arthritis develop, which has been no fun whatsoever.
I’ve since been on methotrexate for the past 5 months, however it’s not helping very well with the arthritis.
I’m going to be talking to my doctor about Cosentyx.
Enbrel didn’t work? I’ve been using topicals but now that I’ve stopped drinking, I could use internals?
Cosentyx looks like it is blowing Enbrel out of the water. And this is coming from someone attempting to develop a competing drug.