Psoriasis is out of control!

I can now wear tshirts and shorts.

Hope you find what works for you,kind regards Rick uk

Baths and showers make it far worse. I just use wipes to clean now or not clean at all.

i haven't tried anti histamine a but they should work because psoriasis is an auto immune disease where the body attacks itself. 

I have given up gluten and high lactose foods.

None of the non steroid creams do anything for me. But everyone is different with theses I believe.

"before" and now I'm an "after". Doing a lot of research myself and starting to be critical with some doctors, I found that taking bath with Salt of the Dead Sea and Mud,  is the best medicine for me. Not to forget that what works for one person maybe don't work for another. But those products are for me not to costly and have no side effects. 

I have had every treatment available over the years and absolutely nothing works permanently, or even for several months, and so I have had to come to terms with the fact that this cronic condition is for life and I have prepared myself for getting the arthritis that comes with it at some point too. 

So to you; you say you cannot afford the steroids etc so can I assume you don't live in the UK or anywhere else where you get free health care? If that is the case then you are going to have to work with some natural options to relieve the symptons - which is actually what I do these days as I am just fed up with plastering on all these disgusting steroids as god knows what harm they are doing to my insides! 

Anyway, here are the things that I do which make my psoriasis bearable and also not so obvious and ugly looking. 

1)  Where do you live, is it warm and sunny during the summer months? I ask because without a shadow of a doubt sunshine is the one and only thing that clears psoriasis up and gives you some relief for months at a time. I live in England and unfortunately we don't get too much sun, but on every single occassion that the sun is out I am in the garden sunbathing. And I contort myself into all sorts of positions to make sure every area that has psoriasis gets the sun. I also take every opportunity to go on holiday and it is only ever to a sunny place - I cannot waste valuable money and holiday time going anywhere cold or winter holiday as I live by the sun. This means through the summer months at least I get some relief from it and my skin ends up looking o.k enough to wear bear legs and arms etc without excruciating embarressment.

I have spoken to my doctor and my dermatologist at length about the pros and cons of the sun because we all know the risk of cancer, and both unanimously said that when you live with psoriasis long term you personally have to weigh up the heightened risk of skin cancer and the relief you get from the sun vs. getting no sun and living with cronic symptons. They both agreed for me, a heightened risk of skin cancer was a risk worth taking because I get such good results from it. I 100% agree and for me there is never a chance of me not going in the sun - I live for summer now just so I can have that few months of comfort and relief. 

I also read on this forum someone takes extra strong vitamin D tablets and that helps them. I have not tried this myself but I am going to do so. I have just ordered myself some tablets so hopefully that will help aswell.

2) I bath in porridge every night. Someone told me about this years ago and I thought what a crock of rubbish, nothing helps psoriasis except sunshine and steroids. However, a couple of years ago I was absolutely covered and was so depressed with it all that I was in tears all the time. So I thought, what the hell I'll try it. You take a sock or stocking and put a cup full of organic porridge oats into it, tie it up and put it in the bath whilst it's filling up. Squeeze it in the water until all the milkyness has come out of the sock. The water by this point is milky. Then soak yourself for about half an hour - don't wash or use any soap or anything, just relax and unwind in the quiet, warm porridge bath. Give it a couple of minutes to soften the scales and then use a buff sponge to scrub the dry skin away, then just lie in the water and relax for half an hour. When you get out of the bath smother yourself in a really good emolient or moisturiser. I use Cetraben but not sure what you can get where you are, but you want a really rich emolient and you want to rub it in everywhere. They are very greasy I know, and it gets really boring having to do this every night but I absolutely wear to you it works. I started this regime and for the first 3 or 4 days I couldn't tell if it was helping or shrinking the patches, but I was certianly feeling better. I went to bed that first night and did not itch all night and I woke up the next morning astounded that I had slept all night. This continued and on another plus, I noticed the during the day I wasn't getting all dry and itchy with the horrible flakeyness - my skin was just the pink patches which personally I prefer to the dry scaliness.  Anyway, after about a week I was sititng watchign t.v after having a week or so much less itchiness and I realised my legs looked so much better - less red and certainly shrinking. So I continued with the porridge baths and emolient and after 4 weeks I was clear for the first time ever. I still had very vague pink marks which I call scaring (which never clears up unless you get a suntan) but all the lumps had gone, the itching and dryness - my legs, arms, buttocks, back and chest were smooth.

And it stayed that way for about 4 months and then I noticed a few little bumps coming back. Anyway, what I have realised with psoriasis is whatever you use and do, eventually your body gets used to it and the psoriasis returns. So I stopped the baths for a couple of months and then resumed them again and again, it all cleared up, then came back etc etc. So now I have a cycle of using the porridge baths when the psoriasis gets really bad, it then improves for some time so I stop using the baths, then it comes back so I resume the baths etc. As well as I baths, I go in the sun as much as possible etc. etc. T

These 2 things definitely help me life with psoriasis and keep it as under control as I think is possible, and if nothing else, the baths will certainly ease the discomfort you feel and cool the skin down.

3) In addition to the above I also take an antihistammine morning and night. This helps with the itchiness as well - but when I'm bathing in the porridge I don't have to take the antihistammine. I take 1 piriton during the morning and I take 1 Phenagan at night (don't know if you can get Phenagan where you are but these are brilliant to take at night). Also, when I go on holiday to America I buy something called Benadryl gel - it's a topical antihistammine in a lovely cooling gel which is really easy to rub in being a gel - you just slap it on and rub it in and get no sticky residue etc so brilliant to use if you are out and about (I carry a bottle around with me all the time). So when I go to America I top up and bring back about 6 bottles of the stuff as you can't get it here in the UK.

In addition to all of this, I also never eat dairy products. Cheese is the worst. I cut out cheese a year ago as I was trying to lose a few lbs and hadn't had any for about 4 months and then went out to dinner where cheese was included in the meal. I thought nothing of it but when I got in bed I itched so badly all night I couldn't sleep even using the benedryl gel and taking an antihistammine. I realised it was the cheese as I hadn't been itching for months. So I cut it out together with cows milk, yogurts and butter etc. and that has helped immensely. I have heard something people have found wheat also affects them but I have not found this to be the case.

I find the worse part of psoriasis is on the scalp because it nearly sends you demented with the itching. The only thing I use and will consider using is a scalp lotion called Diprosalic. I have tried everything, all shampoos etc and nothing works at all or even gives any relief from the itching other than Diprosalic. It is only available on prescription here in the UK and I use it twice a week regardless of whether I am itching on my scalp or not - as I cannot bear to even begin to get psoriasis on my scalp. I don't know what to suggest if you are unable to get something for your scalp other than using the shampoos you can buy over the counter and also soaking your head in the porridge bath - I haven't tried this but you could try this and see if that helps.

Without steroid creams and lotions, these are the only steps I can think of that can help relieve your symptons. Please try the porridge as to me, it is the single most effective thing other than the sun, but the sun and porridge combined will help even more so. Always buff the scaly skin away and use a really good emolient at night after you've buffed and soaked in porridge. Then next morning, use a good moisturiser again - doesn't have to be emolient but does need to be a good rich moisturiser. Ditch dairy products for 6 months to see if this helps you. Take antihistammine and get in the sun as much as possible. 

I hope these steps help and give you some relief. Bye for now, and good luck.