I have a new client - she has a long history of psoriasis - not too severe - and has started having low back and buttock pain the last couple of years.

No doctors have ever drawn the association, but this lady has noticed that when her back and butt pain flares, her psoriasis gets worse. She was thinking that the PS flare was caused by the stress of the back pain. I am thinking that I can't believe how many clueless doctors she can see before somebody says "they're a well known phenomenon"... Duh!

Anyway - all of a sudden I realize that I know about the spondyloarthropathies in general, and psoriatic arthritis as a sub group, but then that's about it.

I think this is the biggest pool of folks with all variations of the spondyloarthropathies , so I feel the experience of you all is one major think tank...

So,....all of you with psoriasis and back, SIJ and other joint pain - I want to pick your brains, since this lady is "amazed" that I have told her that the 2 go hand in hand...

1. Anybody found relief from the NSD with their skin probs and/or joint probs???

2. What triggers your attacks? (The lady knows nightshades are one of the culprits...)

3. What else do you find helpful? The PS doc seems to be helpful with lotions and potions, but do you have any 'home remedies' that I can pass on?

4. have any of you tried PUVA (light) therapy?...and does it help your pain as well as your skin lesions? I know as a PT in my younger days, I used to occasionally have to put on the sexy green UV goggles and turn on the 'cabinet' for the severe psoriasis patients to get sunburned, but I was thinking more about their skin, not their joints back then...

Any discussion will be gratefully read by me!

TIA,

Louise

I hear aloe vera juice is good for psoriasis. I tried it, and it didn't really help. Maybe I didn't do it right. If you search on this site for aloe vera juice you would find some good stuff and ways to use it.

I have been diagnosed with AS, but I do have psoriasis of the scalp too. Maybe I have psoriatic arthritis? I don't know, but I do know that I haven't had any let up with the psoriasis and the NSD, then again, I don't know if I'm doing the NSD right. I love haggen dazs bars and I eat them every day. I had almost a year flare free, then it seemed like no form of NSD would help anything. I'm actually kind of lost with my personal experience with NSD and effectiveness but I still go on with it.

Hi, Louise:

I popped up this recent posting by Jordi. PsA and the psoriasis can respond to some topical treatments but the healing does not last; it is always an internal thing, still related to starches or gliadin as a minimum.

Hope that You can read Spanish, but there is a website www.freetranslation.com that might help:

My experience with this diet was of some 4 months approximately. The results were not them expected, the large improvement never arrived (perhaps did not I persevere the sufficient thing), but yes remained me clearly in my case that the not to eat starch is preferably to consume it. The to eat products that contain starch affect me quickly to my agency: exhaustion, pain in the articulations, more swelling... Is like a sensation of articulations fused, loaded, heavy, an annoying and irritating sensation. Therefore, paralemente to the diet Seignalet, I continue a diet completely freed of starch.


[price is right...]

KickAS,
John

Hi Louise, psoriasis over hee. When I flare so does it. Thhe worst was when it attacked both feet, palms and back of hands and scalp. Was in a right mess for some three months - rottenly embarassing when one's hands look a mess...yuck Nothing much seemed to help! Aloe Vera cream was so-so as was flax oil. GP scripted some other creams, one of which was nay bad - will have to locate it to let you know the name! But, psoriasis went down some when the flare subsided.

No, I don't find any 'particular' foods prompt it to flare, but, when *I* flare then so does it. LSD seems to help some as it helps to keep flares down and ipso-facto keeps psoriasis down. Also find that stress levels will prompt a bit of a Ps flare - particularly stress prompted by dealing with doctors (they can make me soooo mad )

At the moment I have one nasty patch on my outer ankle and always have some in the head, but ankle is the worst at present - been there some months now, like most of the year.

I have it around the ankles real bad sometimes. I have found that Vicks Vapor rub at night will get it back under control. Stumbled on to it one night when I got up itching and digging and was out of any cream to use.
J.R.

Two of our members on these forums have PsA and have found some relief following a gluten free diet. There is research which indicates gluten intolerance can be associated with PsA. It would be worth doing a search on PubMed to see what the current state of research is.

Hi Louise,
Both my brother and I have HLA B27 associated PsA.
My psoriasis is only mild but has been helped marginally by a NSD. My brother feels that a LSD has greatly helped his rheumatics but done little for his psoriasis. This might be because he is not big on oils like Olive, Flaxseed, Safflower etc. Granulated Lecithin is also supposed to help psoriasis.
My brother used to follow Sandra Cabot's Liver Cleansing diet before we hit on LSD and found his psoriasis shrank back the most if he was juicing a lot and taking powdered LiverTone.
I'm not sure if this is true but I think I read somewhere that psoriasis somehow mitigates agaisnt the worst aspects of ankylosing spondylitis so that AS is less severe if you also have psoriasis - I suppose that's some sort of consolation.
Cheers David P

Wow! My mom has Psa and I have AS, our Rheumy won't connect the dots to diagnose her with AS, but she has had severe Psoriasis, and I have had only small patches in my ears, which btw went away completely during my stay at the radon mine, and hasn't returned yet. I am a crippled 35 year old and my mom, age 56, works everyday and is very active. I think I believe DavidP's assertion.

Hi, I can't believe I missed this when it was first posted. My sweetie has Psoriatic Arthritis. When it flares, so does his skin. Or maybe it's the other way 'round. He does go to a tanning booth and has always found that it helps the skin flares.

He's never found that diet has much impact, other than easing the strain on his joints.

He's currently on Enbrel and has had awesome results with it. It not only helps his PsA, but it has cleared up his psoriasis and his sausage digit toes now have actual definition, and he has feeling in them again that he hasn't had in years.

It's stunning to me that doctors don't put 2 and 2 together on things like this. I once knew a woman whose daughter had been diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis. My friend had severe lower back pain and equally severe achilles issues, but even knowing her daughter's dx, her doctors never once thought to look for inflammatory arthritis of any kind, let alone PsA or AS.

Honestly, sometimes you just want to rap doctors' heads together. Maybe seeing stars will help them connect the dots, you know?

Hugs,

Kat - Nothing, but *nothing surprises me about doctors' ineptitude! My *only surprise is 'when' they get it right... We, the poor patient, await in impatient patience for them to come down from lofty heights to our 'lowly' (!) level and speak to us... errrrrr. GGGGGGGRRRRRRRRrrrrrr

As for psoriasis - was vaguely watching a TV factual prog earlier this evening. Interesting. Check out the w's forum.