Home Remedies for Treating Psoriasis
Diana | Jan 27, 2010 | Comments 0
Psoriasis is the quiet disease that many people suffer from, but no one really hears about. It can be embarrassing as the ugly skin leaves no recourse but to either cover it up or let the world know you have something wrong with you.
Luckily, there are a lot of home remedies that can be used to minimize or eliminate most of the symptoms and skin flaking and redness that accompanies psoriasis. Let's look at them.
Salves and Ointments
These are directly applied to the affected areas to alleviate the symptoms of psoriasis. These will remedy most of the painful and embarrassing problems relatively quickly while the next group of dietary remedies will work for the longer-term.
Sunlight – one of the best known remedies, even to your family doctor, is to get 5-10 minutes of direct sunlight on your infected skin daily. Sunlight is probably the best natural remedy for psoriasis.
Hot Baths in Salt – bathing in a hot bath of seawater, Epsom salt, or brachish water can sooth and help pull the flakes off of psoriasis-affected skin. Similarly, a towel soaked in hot salt water (either sea or Epsom salt) and placed on or tied to the affected area can also help. Do this daily and once out of the bath and dried off, apply olive oil to the affected area liberally – uncut, pure olive oil, not “virgin” or distilled oil.
Mudpacks – many people find relief by applying a daily or thrice-weekly mudpack that is heavy on clay content to their affected areas. The mud absorbs and removes toxins from the affected area and goes a long way towards soothing relief.
Cabbage leaves – stripped from their center veins, cabbage leaves can be applied as a compress or pulped into a pumice (no additives) and left to dry on the skin. This pulls out many of the toxins in the skin and ads Vitamin E and other nutrients when soaking in.
Internal/Dietary Remedies
These remedies are longer-term remedies for keeping psoriasis under control. These will be helpful from Day 1 of your diagnosis for the disease, but won't alleviate the symptoms you haven't been treating. For those, the above salves and ointments are the way to go in conjunction with these dietary fixes. They can all be safely combined, even later on when flareups occur.
Vitamin E - probably the best-known and most effective way to treat most skin conditions is with Vitamin E supplementation. Daily doses of 200-800 IU is recommended, depending on your need. Consult with a naturopath or a homeopath for exact dosage.
Lecithin – this is also one of the top cures for psoriasis and is even often recommended by dermatologists. A daily regimen of capsules can remove all (or nearly all) signs of psoriasis and keep it at bay in a few weeks.
Diet – eating a diet rich in green vegetables and fish oils can greatly help all skin ailments, including psoriasis. It will, obviously, improve your overall health as well.
Hopefully these remedies will help you show that there is more available than the prescription drugs your doctor might offer you. Talk to your doctor about non-pharmaceutical options, you might be surprised at how often doctors are willing to talk about those remedies with you in today's changing medical atmosphere.
For professional skin care information, please consult with your dermatologist.
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Filed Under: Tips for Healthy Skin Care
