My Psoriasis Cure
In the spring before my high school graduation, I found myself wearing long pants and sweaters while everyone was breaking out their summer clothing for the season. I had struggled with psoriasis since the 6th grade, but never to the extent it affected me that year. There wasn’t one part of my body not covered with rough, itchy, painful patches and at one point, I could barely see the skin on my stomach and even my hair began to fall out. In a panic to solve the issue before I had to walk across the stage in my strapless graduation dress, my mom brought me to Edmonton to see a dermatologist. Three options were presented to me:
- Inject myself with a biologic drug that had the potential to deform the eggs in my ovaries resulting in infertility during use, increase my risk of cancer, cause upper respiratory issues and stomach issues;
- Apply a topical steroid cream to each spot that would thin my skin and stain clothing, not ideal with it covering my entire body;
- Take light treatment, which involved you standing in a UVB light booth for 5 seconds up to a couple minutes every few days, the time being determined by your skin tone and how long you had been taking the treatments for.
With constant use of the topical steroid cream, it cleared the spots a little, but if I stopped using it for a day, the spots returned. It was not solving the underlying issue, but masking it for short periods of time and was beginning to take the pigmentation out of my skin.
“There wasn’t one part of my body not covered with rough, itchy, painful patches and at one point, I could barely see the skin on my stomach and even my hair began to fall out.”
The light treatment was the best out of the three, with minimal chances of skin cancer from the lights. However, I lived in Drayton Valley, Alberta at the time and the closest place to do the treatment was 80 minutes away in Edmonton. Summer, before and after my graduation, was consumed with making the tedious round trip, 2-3 days a week, to the city for less than 3 minutes of light treatment at the dermatologist’s office. Not just costly in gas, I lost precious time from my last summer in Drayton Valley with my family and friends. However, the treatment was working and a lot of my spots were starting to heal, with the exception of my scalp, impenetrable to the direct light from the treatment. However, I wasn’t prepared to part with my hair quite yet to solve this issue.
Since I had been accepted into Mount Royal University in Calgary for the fall, I switched dermatologists to an office in Calgary and continued to go religiously, for a while. However, as the assignments, projects, midterms and finals began to take over my life, the time consuming light treatments became more unrealistic every week and counteractively, the stress of school contributed to the return of the psoriasis and sadly, worse than ever. I also wasn’t practicing anything at this point for stress relief and it was greatly adding to the issue, stress I’ve found is a major trigger for my psoriasis. This proved to me that, like the steroid cream, it was just masking the issue and hadn’t fixed what was really going on in my body to cause the problem.
In a desperate effort, I researched the root causes of psoriasis and read article after article about what had worked for others in the past and possible triggers of the autoimmune disease. There is a lot of information on gluten and dairy linked to skin conditions and I decided to change my diet as a last hope.
“Perhaps my story could bring help and comfort to other sufferers, knowing that there are other possibilities besides extreme, dermatological treatments available to us.”
First, I eliminated gluten, which was fairly easy, as there are gluten free options at every grocery store and almost all restaurants now, with the popularity of the gluten-free diet. However, the psoriasis persisted and I saw little improvement in the following months on the outside of my body.
Next, I began to eliminate dairy. As someone who drank milk with every dinner and used cheese on every possible dish, this was the most difficult change for me. After a few weeks, however, I stopped craving dairy and it became much easier. There are many great dairy alternatives available at local grocery stores for every product. Coconut milk, Daiya cheese and Daiya yogurt are a few of my personal favorites. This resulted in the clearing of my skin, while it still continued on my entire scalp, ears and parts of my torso. Frustrated and out of ideas, I turned to the internet again for some support and diet tips.
When I heard about the vegan diet, I researched the links between animal based products and their effects on our internal, and therefore, external body. Between food documentaries, nutrition articles and talking to people I knew that had adopted the diet themselves, my research revealed the more negative effects of an animal-based diet, with the only positive being an easy source of protein. Some information had been researched and backed with numbers while others were opinion pieces from personal experiences.
I was completely psoriasis-free!
So I began the diet in the summer of 2017 and found foods that consisted of good proteins to replace the animal products I had been consuming. This included beans, lentils, nuts, seeds and fish once in a while. As well, I continued to eat honey that the vegan diet does not allow. After a few months, there was tremendous progress in my skin; I was completely psoriasis-free! If I had a weekend that I strayed from my diet, I noticed it almost immediately, with the spots returning to my scalp and ears. Most recently, I have started a vegan, all-natural skin care product regime and I am experiencing the positive effects. The important thing to remember with this diet, I believe, is to properly research and substitute products with healthy options. Just because a cookie is vegan, doesn’t mean it’s good for you or your skin!
My belief is that there is enormous value and importance in sharing positive stories about solutions that work for our various conditions. Every person is unique and our bodies function differently under the same conditions. With that in mind, I am completely aware that this method, that has been wildly successful for me, may not be for everyone. Perhaps my story could bring help and comfort to other sufferers, knowing that there are other possibilities besides extreme, dermatological treatments available to us. This is what worked for me and finally provides relief from the sleepless nights, wasted money and wasted time on unhealthy treatments.
Changing my diet and skin regime have brought back my confidence and ability to be comfortable in my own skin again.
Erin
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Thanks for sharing and supporting us! We are happy for Erin and her journey with psoriasis and we pray for all others dealing with any health issues or concerns.
HCM Lifestyle
4 Comments
This is such an incredible story. I am so glad that the diet change healed your skin. It always seems like everyone wants a quick fix and will just use steroid cream after steroid cream, and never look at the whole picture. Our skin is our largest organ, and we must care for that organ like we do all of our others, which means healing the body inside and out.
Thanks for sharing your story, you are a true inspiration!!
Are you struggling to treat Psoriasis? Are you frustrated by being unable to control and prevent your Psoriasis condition despite all your efforts? If you answered yes, then I know exactly how you feel, because I have personally gone through the same experience. I battled my severe Psoriasis for more than a decade until I finally found a treatment and healed it permanently.
Check it out:
https://www.healthwise101.com/psoriasis_treatment
Best of luck!
My daughter has psoriasis on her elbows and regular lotion would help with the itching a little bit but once we started using Dermalmd psoriasis serum, her elbows cleared right up after a couple of uses!!
Thanx Lizzi for your input, we just never know what suggestions my help. Thanx for sharing!
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