since I was diagnosed with (an uncommon form of) psoriasis nearly a couple of years ago. At the time of my diagnosis, my doctor told me to sunbath nude where I could. Since that time I've tried to do that as much as possible, which in my profession isn't very much.
I've found out that a little sun helps alot. But what I've also learned is that even when I wasn't able to get the sun treatment that I needed, that extended periods of nude time would also be of tremedous benifit. As the health of my skin goes, the time I spend nude seems to be more important than the time that I spend sunbathing. So much so that if I miss some sunbathing treatments but am still able to be nude I am able to go longer (several days) between treatments before I begin to have noticable breakouts. If sunbathing alone without other nude time is experienced then I can go only a couple of days before new breakouts are noticed, and usually those breakout are worse. If I am able to get both the regular nude time and the sunbathing treatments in on a regular basis, my psoriasis can go virtually undetected.
This is merely my experience with my form of psoriasis. I cannot assume that this would be true for anyone else, neither can I assume that it won't help anyone else either.
I do wonder though, if the form of psoriasis that I have is not actually my skin reacting with it's environment as God had intended in the beginning? Was this something that men lost in the fall? Or is this really a disease as some say it is? Which I reject the notion of it being a disease because I see nothing wrong with me, or my skin.
It seems that psoriasis is caused by an overactive immune system that is then triggered into a skin reaction by other environmental conditions, some of which can be avoided.
For many people it is indeed helpful to expose the skin to sun and fresh air (starting slowly and gradually increasing exposure time). The article suggested using lotion to help prevent dry skin scaling and also suggested that you be careful not to overextend your stay in the sun.
...actually there are several forms of psoriasis. The most common three consists of 99% of the cases. The form that I have falls into the last 1% along with several others. So the it is understood how rare my form of psoriasis is; less than 100th of one percent of the population fall into that 1% of psoriasis cases that I fall into. One percent of the population has psoriasis of one form or another. I have looked on several psoriasis websites (including the suggested one) looking for more information on the form that I have to come up empty handed. There's just too many forms in that last 1% to decribe everyone on a website. I do thank for the link, it is a good resourse for the most common forms of psoriasis.
I used to be a research assistant at a med school. The medical librarian at such schools will have the skills to do searches from medical journals, probably focusing on the Dermatology or Immunology type journals.
Many libraries, even private ones have a mission statement that includes service to the general public.
Assuming that you are within driving distance to a medical library, either a large regional hospital or a med school, then you simply walk in, file your request at the reference desk and come back when the librarian notifies you that he or she has completed the title search of articles.
At that point, you can pick from the list, revise your search if necessary and when that task is complete, begin printing the articles themselves. The fees are fairly modest per article.
The terminology in the body of the article may get over your head, but the abstract and conclusions are usually readable to most everyone in the general public.
Ideally, you would share these articles with your physician to gain additional insight from him or her.
If a medical library is too far for you to drive to, then you might want to contact your physician for help in obtaining articles by interlibrary loan. (of course articles are not really loaned but are photocopies and printed).
I know that there is information out there that an Internet search will not readily reveal. The Internet is still NOT the repository for all the world's knowledge!
Well, the online index is Medline, but it used to be so cumbersome that a professionally trained medical librarian was needed to run the searches. Also, they were billed for the time and the librarians did not allow the general public to sit down at the terminal and search for stuff themselves. It's been a few years, so I don't know how accessible and usable a tool it is now.
The hardbound version of this isn't too terribly difficult to search. If you have access to a medical library, you want "Index Medicus", which is, as the name implies, an index to medical articles in peer-reviewed journals. In other words, Time and Newsweek and such are NOT listed, just articles written by medicial professionals in journals and all of which are subject to review by other medical professionals beginning even before publication and critiques and commentaries following for months.
Index Medicus is not found everywhere, but I can guarantee you that no medical library would fail to have it.
Although I do appreciate your advice, I have to wonder if (as long as I've got things under control) I would actually gain anything other than a bad case of information overload.
At the time of my diagnosis, my doctor told me that as long as I kept it under control then there was no need for further action. And I fully agree with that. He went on to tell me that because of the rarity of my paticular condition it is best to listen to how my body reacts to frequency/duration/type of treatments, if I was to start having problems keeping on top of it (similar to what I was experiencing prior to diagnosis) then we could try something else. That is one bridge that we have never had to cross, as of yet.
I've paid close attention to how my skin reacts to the environment that I put it in. 1) I've noticed a length of time clothed/breakout corralation. The more time and frequent that I'm nude, the less likely and/or less severe the breakouts 2)I also know that if I'm able to sunbath for about a half an hour a week (although I prefer more), that is enough sun exposure to keep my skin healthy for at least a week as long as I also have adaquate time in the nude on a daily (or near daily) basis. (when I can't 'sunbath' a tanning bed helps but is yet inadaquate by comparison, requireing 40min a week for almost the same benifit) Without the nude time the sunbathing still helps alot, but not near to the extent that nudity along with sunbathing does.
My doctor could have given me alot more information at the time or during the period since my diagnosis (nearly 2years), but apparently he doesn't feel that I need to look at the articles to treat my skin any better than I'm already doing. In my case, all I have to remember is frequency, because frequency is my biggest hurdle to keeping my skin health in check.
The only reason I suggested Index Medicus and/or Medline was because YOU said that you were looking for information and failed to find it on the Internet. (Wrong tool)
I think it is hasty of you to assume before even attempting to find articles about your condition that it would be information overload. Have you lost all interest in your condition?
By the way, Index medicus is not the articles, just the titles. If the title doesn't sound interesting, don't read it.
Back to your original question, your skin is reacting in a way that few people do.
I don't think it proves that you have a hereditary disease. It would be more accurate to say that you have a hereditary condition.
Some people might say that we have inherited imperfect bodies since Adam fell from grace. That is true. We do not live as long as Methuselah. However God has often used the deviations from perfection to help us cope with a fallen world.
Sickle cell anemia occurs in communities where malaria took many lives. Those who are heterozygous for this trait have a greater liklihood of survival than those who don't.
People with pale complexions can't handle much sunlight, which is unfortunate if you are a nudist in a sunny part of the world. However, I believe that God allowed some ethnic groups to have pale skin in order for them to survive in cool cloudy parts of the world.
So is it possible that one or more forms of Psoriasis are not God's original plan for mankind, but that he may have allowed it to help you survive better in other ways?
I am not saying one way or the other, just speculating.
since the past tense didn't come through as well as I had intended.
It's not a matter of lost interest as much as time spent-actual benifit recieved in return. Otherwise what return on my investment am I likely to get. This helps me keep my priorities in line when I have so much going on, between family, work, other health objectives and research. Not to mention my most important priority, the one that allowed me to have psoriasis in the first place, my creator and my God.
But your final speculation sounds similar to what I was also trying to get across in the final statement of my opening post in this subject. I feel that that may just be the case.
I understand that you have family obligations as well as your career. However, it still sounds like you are assuming that you will not benefit from a type of search that you have never tried.
Just because you found little or nothing on a self-conducted search of the Internet does not mean that a search conducted for you by a medical librarian using a database of peer-reviewed articles will likewise give you no useful results. I have four years of experience that tells me that your results will be entirely different and entirely better.
The fact that you were searching for information indicates that you allowed for the possibility that it might help you. You have yet to prove that the current medical information will not help you. You have simply proved that you don't know how to find it on your own.
When I worked at the library, the time required for the doctors to submit a keyword search was a matter of minutes. The librarian did 99 percent of the work. A few days later, the patron would get a phone call letting him know that the results were available to pick up.
So if you did get technical articles about your condition would it help you live a better life? It's possible, especially if you share them with your physician.
If these articles help you live a better life, you might actually spend less money on treatments, lose fewer days at work due to illness, be able to focus on your work to make more money and get a promotion, and spend more quality time with your family.
If the search I suggest provides no benefits, you are out a few bucks and have really lost no more than a few minutes time walking to the library. Remember, the librarian does all the research for you, often at the library's expense.
That is a very interesting observation. I noticed that my body response better with less skin rashes. But I do get it scratched up a lot more and paint splatters on it! But nothing a doc can do about that!
Scientists are learning that depriving people of the sun is causing more problems than skin cancer issues ever did. So in the long run, we are better off with less clothing and more sun.
Boyd Allen "May the Lord protect our nudity from the sight of those who will not benefit, and may he allow us to be seen by those who will."
Hi Daniel
I'm glad to hear that you have an enjoyable freeing way to aleviate (sp?) your condition.
My wife has Psoriasis as well, probably the more common type, she seems to have inherited it from her Father. Her remedy was discovered by accident. 4 years ago she gave up Chocolate for Lent, then, towards the end of Lent she noticed that her 'patches' were clearing up. Try chocolate & they came back. Stop, they disappear. So now she has white chocolate and carob for when she gets a craving!!! Sun also helps but not to the same extent.
I have problems with "atheletes foot", which is a fungus complicated by wearing socks and shoes, especially during the summer. I go barefoot often to avoid it. But it can still cause itching between the toes. I have tried medicine, but haven't had much luck with it in the long run. Keeping them clean and open to the air helps more than anything.
I can also get jock itch. When I was a teenager, I had a rash in the crotch area that was publically troublesome, since I am constantly scratching and itching. My own version of the Itchy and Scratchy Show.
It still gets me once in a while, but not as often.
Again, maybe the types of detergent we use in the laundry, heat, humidity, lack of fresh air and sunshine, many things can cause problems. Even the foods we eat.
I noticed that I had a craving for regular ice-burg lettuce. When I pull out the lettuce and start cutting or pulling on the leaves, my jaw would get a "tight tingly" feeling, like it was craving something it needs. That kind of lettuce has practically no nutritional value at all, but yet when I ate it in quantity, my acne cleared up to an extent (as much as teen acne could clear up).
It doesn't affect me the same way today, but I do remember the feeling.
Of course, since our faces are not crammed in their version of "underwear" and is out in the open all the time, it does have it's own causes and affects. Nutrition does play a larger role than maybe other parts of the body such as feet.
This is an interesting subject which can help support naturism, if nothing else, for "medical reasons".
Boyd Allen "May the Lord protect our nudity from the sight of those who will not benefit, and may he allow us to be seen by those who will."
Lettuce is mostly water and fiber, but it does has a nutritionally significant quantity of selenium. The body doesn't need much selenium, but you'll be in a heap of distress if you don't get the little bit you do need!
Other foods have selenium and you can take a pill for that, but maybe, just maybe, your body knows something you don't about lettuce! I'd have to look up the complete list of trace elements lettuce contains. I have heard that Romaine is more nutrient dense than iceberg. I often get a hankering for some of the stronger tasting lettuces like oakleaf and endive. Oakleaf lettuce is hard to find in the stores. But I suspect that some of the darker green, stronger tasting lettuces have a higher concentration of the trace elements our bodies need.
In the old days in the mountains, folks used to go after wild greens such as brook lettuce (which is actually an edible member of the saxifrage family) and ramps, a wild but mild onion. Folks have eaten dandelion greens for thousands of years and those greens are extremely nutritious, but folks these days seldom go looking for them, except there are still ramps festivals in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. I don't usually like onions, but hunting ramps make me like a hound on the trail of a rabbit!
Watercress, chickweed and the flower buds from wild Solomon's seal are very good for you.
In short, there's a whole lot of things that God put on this earth that we need to be eating that our high tech overdressed society is not eating anymore.
