Last Updated on April 20, 2020
This is a guest post by Lia. If you suffer from psoriasis, or you want to know more about this disease, you can check out her blog, My Psoriasis Treatment.
My story with psoriasis started about 15 years ago. Even before that happened, about 20 years ago I got TMJ in the left side of my jaw. Here’s the story how my psoriasis started, 15 years ago:
I worked for a living growing plants, after college. The company I worked at use many pesticides on the plants, and I managed a team as well. I was still finding my way in life since I was just out of school. The first instance of psoriasis came up on the left upper side front of my scalp. At the same time it also appeared in the middle top of my scalp. At that point, it did not resemble psoriasis. It resembled scabs and sores that seemed as if I had an infection.
What caused this? Well, there were four things happening in my life any or all of which could have triggered the psoriasis. My family has no history genetically of having psoriasis. The four things going on in my life were as follows:
- I was very stressed out as I was about to move and my girlfriend and I were in the midst of breaking up.
- I was in my phase of wanting to try natural and organic products. I went to the store Whole Foods and bought Nature’s Gate Rainforest Shampoo. The day after I used the shampoo for the first time is when the irritation on my scalp started.
- The place I worked had need of having pesticides sprayed. Within the week before the irritation on my scalp, I was in the presence of pesticides being sprayed, without enough protection to keep me from being exposed.
As these are the things that originally happened, and were happening in the week before the irritation started, because the irritation started on my scalp, I believe the trigger was more number two above than the others. But, on the other hand, who’s to know which contributed the most.
In my early treatment I would just scrape at my scalp in the shower trying to remove the scabs. This obviously wasn’t the best solution, and medical treatment was needed. I went to the doctor and they diagnosed me with psoriasis. For my scalp they gave me Dovonex solution. After that, they gave me Dovonex Cream. I started to get psoriasis on my left elbow. The psoriasis kept growing on my elbow. Eventually, another doctor gave me steroid shots. In future months and years I went through many more medical, herbal, and other treatments. Pages beneath this section will give a summary of how each treatment worked for me. For treatments that I have not tried, I have had other people with psoriasis write those.
Here I am, 15 years later from the start of my psoriasis. Psoriasis over the years has at times not bothered me, at other times been debilitating, and even at other times then unbearable. Not only can this website help you learn from my experiences, but it can help you learn from other people’s experiences as well. If you have had experiences yourself that you feel can help other people, please click on the contact us page on this website and either send me your story, or ask me for a login so that you can post to this website.
Click on the navigation to the left underneath this section in the left nav to read more about each treatment that I have tried. Please note that some treatments were very effective, while others were not. Others worsened the disease. The best treatments for me overall in clearing my psoriasis were Shea butter cream, stress reduction, Dead Sea salts soap, diet adjustment, exercise, and improvement of job situation.
For years I have tested so many techniques to help my Psoriasis, and some things have helped more than others. Some things I have done have worked very well. Many other people have different stories on what helped them the most. This website is here to help you learn from those stories. http://www.mypsoriasistreatment.com/
hi i enjoyed the read
Hi would you say the Psoriasis was caused by the pesticides you were exposed to or from your choice of diet or from say having stress in your life.
Psoriasis itself is not causing you stress, The way we handle stress , our negative thoughts and self doubt that is what causing you stress.
I work for the railroad and over two months went from healthy to psoriasis over 80% of my body. I have been told it was from creosote and pesticides in creosote if anybody has any info on the subject please let me know
i have psoriasis for years now. on a trip i took with some good friends to Israel, i found this amazing place called the Dead Sea.a few days there helped me to achive a great relief in my condition.the combination of salts in it’s water and the sun there, is great. now i try to travel there ones a year.
Thank you Ian. I also heard about the Dead Sea and the benefits of that water. I think there is a cosmetic company which produced some creams based on it.
hi,
you were so right!
i always wanted to visit israel, and your comment gave me the final push i needed.
the stay at the dead sea done wonders to my skin!
thank you.
if any one else needs information on the matter, the following site helped me alot:
http://www.tourism.gov.il/Tourism_Eng
Thank you both for this information.
I further researched the matter and this “dead sea” sounds like a great place for my next vacation.
the dead sea offers many activities for kids, it depends on which hotel you will be staying at,
i would like everyone to understand that you can get psoriasis off your skin regardless the dead sea, there is a way out and anyone can do it.
hi ortal,
can you recommend a specific hotel?
It has taken me a long time to discover I have psoriasis since it only appears on my scalp and comes and goes. I’ve tried changing shampoo and discarded other hair products, I’ve even stopped using the hair dryer which works for a few days but then it comes back. I can’t think of anything else, other than occassional stress, that might be causing this. Does anyone know if ingredients in hair products could be a factor?