I have lived with psoriasis for a long time. It was diagnosed by a well-qualified member of the medical profession, who immediately started me on the road of treatment with powerful medications. My research led me to realise very soon what dangers lay ahead on that road, so I decided to find my own path through the treatment minefield.
In the years since then, I have had many successes and a few setbacks. I occasionally have a dermatologist check my skin but on the whole I do what I have found to work for me without reference to doctors, my psoriasis has minimal effect on my life and my treatments cost me very little money.
During those years I have also been involved, in a small way, in helping others to deal with their psoriasis. I was on the committee of the Cape Psoriasis Association in Cape Town, South Africa for many years and I was chairman of that body for a few years as well. We ran public meetings at which we had experts in various aspects of psoriasis treatment talk about their specific area of expertise, ran treatment workgroups and supplied support to anybody with psoriasis who needed whatever support we could provide. All the time I encouraged people to take control of their own condition.
I feel that too many people do not take responsibility for their own bodies, they sub-contract the maintenance of their own bodies to the medical profession, which has often proven itself to be unworthy of the trust that people place in it. My intention with this blog is not to make war with the medical profession but to encourage people to take responsibility for their own health, to take ownership of their psoriasis.
Dont' just follow what the doctors prescribe without first researching the implications of what you are doing. Your doctor is not the one who will have to spend the future dealing with the side-effects of what he/she is instructing you to put into or onto your body. You are the one who must live with those results. Don't blame your doctor when something happens that you don't like because you blindly followed instructions. Listen to what he/she says, research for yourself what the medication does and what the possible implications are if it goes wrong, then decide for yourself what you will do.
New to psoriasis I have learnt a lot from you blog already. I can see some patterns that may explain my outbreak. I need to explore them. I hope you keep sharing your experience as it will help me, for one, regain a quality of life currently reduced by psoriasis.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Jeannette (Denmark)
Hi Jeannette,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post, I am pleased that you are being helped by what I have written. It is good that you are seeing patterns, they will help you to identify causes. Be prepared to continue the process because there are likely to be other causes to identify as well, after yo get the first ones out of the way.
I have never allowed psoriasis to control my life. Life must go on in a way that you will be happy, so don't allow it to take away from how you want to live. I am assuming here that you want to have a healthy diet, which is central to controling psoriasis. If you want to eat burgers and fries with sodas then expect your psoriasis to grow worse and your life to get worse. If you eat healthy and work to identify those foods that trigger your psoriasis then you can expect improvements and a low level of impact on your lifestyle.
Dear Sir
ReplyDeleteI am a 39 year old mom diagnosed with Scalp psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis and has my day to day challenges with it. To start with i have never been on any fast food stuff, fried food etc. This whole thing flared up at a time of stress, Now i have learned to deal with stress, however still my PA is a challenge.
I have been trying all kinds of alternative therapies in the past 2 years since diagnosis without taking any of the usual immunosuppresants or steroids.since i am not ready to take the immunosupreassants my rheumatologist suggested(OLUX foam) topical foam for my scalp, as he things sometime taking care of the skin condition could take care of the arthritis. But on research i found that it is a strong steroid.
Also i have had poor digestion since quiet sometime,so i was researching into possible probiotics to improve my digestion. While searching for it i chanced upon your website as a blessing.
can u please help me with questions on food combining, is it ok to eat vegetarian proteins with starches, say rice with cooked lentils or beans,similarly yogurt with rice, yogurt with honey or little raw unrefined cane sugar (rapunzel) are these acceptable combinations.
On your blog,you talk about the cleansing cycle, can you please explain this little more. What i could gather is one should eat normal and keep journal of diet and conditions and eliminate the culprit food, say 2-3 weeks. After that should one go into a cleansing diet (can you please give details of the diet followed) for 2 weeks.Is this period called the cleansing cycle. what to take care during this time?
After this how long did u go into the diet with coleslaw and other items? From juice diet when you go to the good diet, how did u ease into it? what should i take care of?
Are fermented food like the below good, i am wondering because it has coconut vinegar will it be harsh (it tastes sour and is pungent), but at the same time looks like it is a good digestive
http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/atchara.htm
Thank you
Waiting your response
Love
Smi
Hi Smith,
DeleteFirst, I must emphasise that I am not a dietary expert, I write my blog from the point of view of my own experiences, what has worked or failed for me personally. You may find that the same principles work for you but there is no guarantee.
I don't use immunosuppressants, I believe that they are dangerous. I also don't use cortisone but I do use over-the-counter hydrocortisone topical cream.
I know the basics of food combining but there are good books that include this subject and sections on detox and fasting. I have "The pH Miracle" by Robert & Shelley Young, "The pH Balance Diet" by Bharti Vyas & Suzanne Le Quesne, "Let Food be your Medicine" by Sally-Ann Creed and "Perfect Health the Natural Way" by Mare-Ann Shearer.
Basically, don't eat sugars or starches from 30 minutes before protein to 3 hours after. Vegetable protein is not as bad as animal protein because it doesn't have the animal fats but it should still be kept separate. Eat protein with fibre, not starch or sugar.
Starch turns to sugar, so is not much different from eating sugar when it comes to interaction with protein.
The detox that I have done was not full fasting. I went a few days on fruit juice and water only, then onto a vegetable and fruit diet. This totally cleared my psoriasis within a few months. Over the years since then my diet has mostly been on the healthy side of what is normal to most people, with lots of vegetables with some poultry, fish or pork and almost no beef. The state of my skin varies depending on how far off a vegetarian diet I am at the time. I am currently eating very little animal protein and my skin and joints are pretty good but not perfect.
I am now reading a book titled "Fasting and Eating for Health" by Joel Fuhrman. This has excellent info and promotes full-on fasting. I don't know if I will go that far but will know when I finish reading the book.
Sorry, I have no experience of Atchara. If it is hot and spicy I would stay away from it. If not, try it and observe how your body reacts in the following 48 hours. If it is very bad, you will probably start to itch within about 3 hours.
Thank you so much for your inputs.Yes i did try the atchara, it was not spicy, it seemed ok, no adverse reactions.
ReplyDeleteWanted to add my experience on raw diet, I am someone who had tried almost 70% raw food, but it drove me anemic as probably i didn't know to do it right. I was to the extend that i was breathless, my iron levels were normal so initial tests didn't reveal it, finally the ferretin tests revealed the anemia, started on supplements and improved my diet, then all that improved. So i think any drastic changes in diet like fasting should only be very small periods of time, they help to cleanse, but i believe nourishing happens from cooked food as it is easy for body to assimilate. I had read an article on this.
Thaks
Hi Smith,
DeleteAs you said, you probably didn't know how to do it right. You cannot decide your diet principles based on reading one article. If you want to take control of your own diet you need to read as much info as you can, from a wide variety of sources. There are many different opinions and you have to experiment to find what works best for you.
You cannot even be sure of the scientific research on these issues because most scientific research is funded by some commercial company or other that wants positive results to increase their profits. If they don't like the results then they kill the research project and the results.
A few years ago I went almost totally vegetarian but it was a combination of raw and cooked. I generally ate raw salads and veg for lunch and cooked veg with salads for supper. I found that I had an increase in energy and no problems of any kind. My skin also improved dramatically. I still eat mostly that way but with small amounts of fish, poultry and pork, very little beef.
Some veggies are more nourishing cooked and others are more nourishing raw. I find that raw or lightly steamed is best for most dark green veggies like broccoli, green beans, spinnach etc, more heavily steamed for most other veggies.
Don't boil your vegetables, you will throw away much of the nourishment with the water. If you stir-fry, do it over moderate heat. The same for making stews. Don't start by browning the onions and meat, that browning produces carcinogenic toxins that can harm your health. I cook the onions over medium heat then add the other ingredients to the stir-fry or stew, then cover and turn the heat down a bit so that nothing can burn to produce the carcinogens. Those principles work for me, they may work for you also.
Hi Dix
ReplyDeleteYes my cooking habits are inline with what you have said. Occasionally when i boil i use the water for soup
So while on the above diet, were you on any grains? if not how long did u go without grains (rice, wheat, barely etc)
Does your current maintenance diet include grains? if yes how much and what kind?
When having salads with cooked veggies, are there any restrictions that you follow, for example is it ok to take nuts, dried fruits, fresh fruits etc with salads when taken with veggies?
Thanks again for all inputs
I have never gone off grains. For lunch I have a bowl of coleslaw or some fruit with whole-grain bread or rye bread. It may be that I would be better off going gluten-free but I enjoy whole-grain breads too much, particularly those with nuts and seeds in them.
ReplyDeleteI also have a mixture of seeds on my oatmeal or breakfast cereal, with cinnamon and honey. I detest the over-processed white breads that most people eat. They are little more than air and won't even toast nicely. Totally gross.
I am happy with nuts and seeds on salads with veggies but not with fruit in the salad. Keep fruit for fruit salad, not in a veggie-type salad.