Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease which can be very painful and quite frustrating. One of the telltale signs of psoriasis is thick, red, silvery, scaled patches of skin that usually flake and itch. With psoriasis, new skin cells reproduce rapidly to the surface of the skin within days, rather than the normal growth period of a few weeks. These skin cells build up and form thick patches (plaques). While a doctor should treat severe psoriasis, many home remedies can be used to treat mild cases of psoriasis.

Psoriasis affects both males and females equally and is more common between the ages of fifteen to thirty, although it may appear at any age. Psoriasis is not contagious and you can’t “catch” psoriasis from touching someone who has it.

Psoriasis Symptoms

The following are common symptoms of psoriasis:

• Patches (or plaques) of red, irritated skin (may be slightly raised) that may be covered with bright silvery scales
• Scaling spots
• Itching, burning or soreness of skin
• Dry, cracked skin that may bleed
• Change in fingernails and toenails—thickened, pitted or ridged nails that change color and separate from the nail bed
• Swollen, stiff and painful joints—restricted movement of the joints
• Emotional distress

Psoriasis patches can vary. You may experience dandruff-like scaling in a few areas or there could be major eruptions over large areas. Patches usually occur on the scalp, elbows, hands, knees, feet, chest, back, arms, legs, toenails and fingernails. Although psoriasis is more common in adults, teens and children can also develop psoriasis.

Mild cases of psoriasis can be a nuisance and many people who suffer from it may avoid swimming and other situations where patches can be seen. More severe cases of psoriasis can be very painful and even disfiguring.

Most types of psoriasis involve cycles:

1. Flaring for a few weeks or months
2. Flaring subsides or goes into remission
3. Flaring returns (in most instances)

Psoriasis Causes

Researchers believe that psoriasis is caused by an overactive immune system which results in the inflammation and flaking of skin. The immune system consists of a type of white blood cell called a T call which aids in protecting the body from infection and disease. Scientists think that psoriasis is related to an overproduction of T cells in the skin. The T cells trigger inflammation and increased reproduction of skin cells, which leads to inflammation, and flaking of skin.

Heredity can also play a role in the development of psoriasis. If you have a family history of psoriasis, you chances of having the disease are increased. Read this article from eMedicine Health to find out about 7 new genetic clues for psoriasis to find out more.

Psoriasis Triggers

Psoriasis may occur or worsen due to various triggers. You may be able to figure out what factors triggers your psoriasis and find ways to try and avoid them.

• Stress
• Smoking
• Drinking alcohol
• Hormone changes—disease occurrence may peak during puberty and menopause. Pregnant women with psoriasis may experience an improvement in their symptoms. However, during the postpartum period, psoriasis may flare up.
• Overexposure to sunlight—short periods of sun exposure can help reduce psoriasis in most people, but too much skin can damage the skin and sunburn can cause flare ups.
• Cold weather
• Infections—strep throat, oral thrush
• Skin injuries—cut, scrape, insect bite, sunburn
• Medications—lithium, blood pressure medicines, iodides, antimalarial drugs

Psoriasis Home Remedies

Below are skin care treatments and home remedies to help ease the pain of psoriasis:

• Keep your skin moist by using creams, lotions, pills, baths, or soaks.
• Carefully remove psoriasis crusts by gently putting cream on them and then peeling the loose crusts off. This can help your skin to absorb lotions and creams. Be careful not to irritate the skin.
• Take a bath with hot Epsom salts then apply a little olive oil. Keep your skin clean with dry friction or daily sponging.
• Aloe Vera can help to soothe the skin.
• Cabbage leaves—make sure they are thick and green. Wash the cabbage leaves in warm water, dry with a towel, flatten them (you may want to use a rolling pin), make sure they are warm and apply to the affected area. Put a pad or cloth over them and secure with a bandage.
• Avocado oil has been proven very beneficial in treating psoriasis. Gently rub the oil into the affected areas.
• Buttermilk helps to relieve the pain and itch. You can drink it in liberal quantities or you can use it as a compress over the affected parts.
• Take Vitamin E in doses of 400 mg per day to help reduce itching and scab formation.
• Take 6 to 9 lecithin capsules a day (2 or 3 before or after each meal).

–Nolan

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Even small splinters can be painful. Leave one in too long and it can become infected or embedded fully in your skin.

Should you leave it alone or remove it? Depends. If it’s small enough and it isn’t bothering you, you can leave it and your body will eventually push it out on its own. If it’s big enough to cause you pain, you should remove it.

What is a splinter?

A splinter or a sliver is a foreign piece of material that becomes embedded in your skin. Most splinters are wood, but metal, plastic and even glass can turn into a splinter.

How to remove a splinter

If a good portion of the splinter is exposed above the skin, you can use a pair of tweezers to gently pull it out. If it’s not to a point where you can get a solid grip on it, apply some pressure on either side of the splinter with your fingertips.

Some people find that if the splinter is visible above the skin, you can remove it with Elmer’s glue. Spread a thin layer of glue over the area of the sliver. Make note which way it’s lodged in the skin. Wait until it’s completely dry and pull the glue off in the direction the splinter is lodged. The glue will grab it and remove it.

If the sliver is deep in your skin, try making a paste of water and baking soda. Apply this to a dry bandage and cover the area. After 24 hours, when you remove the bandage, the splinter will be sticking out of the skin.

If that doesn’t work, simply soaking the skin can force a splinter to emerge. Take a nice, warm bath and see what happens!

When all else fails, use a sterilized needle to create a hole in the skin just above the splinter. When the end of the splinter is exposed, remove it with a pair of tweezers.

-Magdalena

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Spring is here and the world is coming back to life: trees, flowers, your lawn and the ever-dreaded poison ivy. We’ve all heard the saying, “Leaves of three, let them be,” yet hundreds of thousands of people each year contract a rash from poison ivy. Be careful the next time you find yourself trekking through the woods!

Is poison ivy contagious?

Well, it depends. It’s the oil found on the leaf, vines and roots of the ivy, called urushiol, that gives people the rash. Now, common sense dictates that if you have this oil on your skin and then touch your friend, you have just passed on more than a handshake. The oil can also be found on clothes and pets who have been around poison ivy. This is the only way poison ivy is contagious.

The rash itself is not contagious. Once all the oil is gone, either by bodily absorption or simply being washed away, if you were to touch your friend now, the rash will not be passed along. Even if your poison ivy develops blisters and these blisters break, the fluid will not spread the rash to others or elsewhere on your body.

Are some people immune to poison ivy?

The rash someone gets from poison ivy is an allergic reaction, not a disease or fungus. Because it’s an allergy, that means some people will have varying degrees of immunity. This immunity can change over the course of one’s life, just like how allergies to dust and pollen sometimes come and go with time.

Even if you have a high tolerance to poison ivy, you should still try to avoid it. Who knows when your immunity will change?

-Magdalena

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The skin is a marvelous thing. When wounded it regenerates, healing itself by creating new fibrous skin cells to fill in the void left behind. But sometimes when a wound is severe the end result is a visible scar.

What is a scar?

Scars are fibers of collagen that fill in the wound as it heals. Generally most skin scars are flat, pale and barely visible to the naked eye. Scars will initially appear red as the blood flow to the sight of injury is increased. This redness will disappear in about 3 to 12 months. However, there are some certain forms of abnormal scarring.

Different types of abnormal scars

Hypertrophic scars are raised red bumps of skin that don’t grow beyond the original boundaries of the wound. They improve in appearance within a few years.

Keloid scars on the other hand can carry on growing larger and while benign, should be brought to the attention of a doctor if they start to become itchy or painful. Both hypertrophic and keloid scars are more common in younger and darker-skinned people.

Atrophic scars are pitted areas of the skin where fat and muscle under the skin were lost. Atrophic scars are commonly associated with acne and can be classified as either ice pick (a deep, sharply angled scar) or box car (a more shallow scar with softer, flatter edges). Chickenpox and other accidents can also form atrophic cars.

Home remedies for scarring

Contrary to popular belief , rubbing vitamin E on a scar does nothing to lessen its appearance . In fact, some people even experience contact dermatitis when applying vitamin E directly to the skin. So why did people rely so long on vitamin E as a scar fix?

Vitamin E is commonly sold as an oil. Oil smoothes and softens the appearance of the skin, creating less noticeable scarring but only for a short time. Also the rubbing motion on the scar stimulates blood flow, temporarily making a scar look better.

Aloe vera on the other hand has some anti-inflammatory properties which could be beneficial to scar reduction while healing. Apply to the scar after it’s had a chance to heal for at least a week, a couple times a day.

For raised or discolored scars you can use a product like Neosporin to help flatten and change the color of a scar so it is more flesh-toned.

Simply enjoying a well balanced diet filled with essential vitamins and minerals will be exceptionally helpful when a wound you have is healing. Don’t just fill up on multivitamins. Be sure to eat foods rich in vitamins too! Your body can absorb those better.

While not a direct scar fix, drinking water keeps your skin soft and supple which reduces the appearance of scars. Try to get your required amount of water for your weight a day.

You know that saying, time heals all wounds? With scars, sometimes all you need is time . The hard part is a lot of scars need up to 12 to 24 months to finally stabilize. Even then, your skin will not look the way it did before. This is where a healthy diet comes in. The better you take care of yourself, the better your skin will heal.

Surgical scar removal

There are surgical alternative for scar removal which include procedures such as dermabrasion, ablative laser surgery, non-ablative laser surgery, chemical peels, saline injections, punch grafts and many, many more. Take note however, surgery will not fix your scars 100% and could even cause different kinds of scarring if not performed correctly.

It’s depressing to think about but it’s also realistic: your skin will never look the way it did before you had the scar. Believe me, I’ve tried many different things to make my scars just “go away” but it seems the best thing any of us have to heal naturally is time. Just treat yourself and your skin right while you wait.

Veggies really aren’t all that bad.

–Magdalena

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Looking for ways to keep your skin looking youthful, fresh and radiant? We can’t control genetics, but we do hold the reins of our diet. Here are some great-tasting foods you would be wise to munch on that are also skin-loving and healthy.

To preface, a diet rich in a wide variety of nutrients, vitamins and minerals is key to healthy-looking skin. It isn’t fired foods, chocolate and sugar per se that make you skin look less than appealing, but rather it’s because diets high in these foods lack skin-healthy nutrients! Remember, anything is good in moderation… even food. So don’t be afraid to indulge in some fried chicken once in awhile.

The fountain of youth within foods

Colorful vegetables. That means red bell peppers, yellow squash, carrots and even eggplant! Vegetables offer a wide variety of skin-essential nutrients and wrinkle-deterring antioxidants.

It’s always better to consume vegetables raw, as cooking leeches all the important nutrients away from your veggies. A great way to get a wide assortment of raw vegetables in one sitting is to have yourself a salad.

Dark, leafy greens like spinach, cabbage, kale and other dark vegetable are a great source of vitamins A, C, E and iron, all nutrients that are vital for healthy, glowing skin. Use a dark, leafy green in lieu of iceberg lettuce (which practically has no nutritional value) on a sandwich or in a salad.

Berries of all kinds can help turn back the hands of time with their high antioxidant and vitamin C content. This includes strawberries, blackberries and blueberries.

Whole grain foods like bread, muffins, bagels and cereal offer selenium, which plays a vital role in the health of skin cells. When you can, refuse “white” breads and opt for a whole grain alternative instead.

Fish, especially salmon, has recently been touted as not just brain food but skin food as well. Salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and reduces the body’s production of inflammatory substances which can damage skin. Salmon is also high in protein and Q-10, a powerful antioxidant that your skin craves.

Nuts and seeds like walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds and flax seeds are a great little treat for your skin, giving it tons of vitamins A and E to snack on.

Say no to your morning coffee and yes to green tea! Green tea is brimming with antioxidants that may help prevent certain kinds of cancer and slow the process of aging.

The vitamin A found in dairy products is essential for healthy skin. Yogurt is a great and delicious way to get the vitamin A you need into your system. Plus many brands also contain live active cultures that keep your digestive track functioning optimally.

Water is like magic. Keeping your body hydrated throughout the day plays a big role in healthy skin. Coffee, cola, soup and other liquids don’t count toward your water count for the day. It’s a good idea to just carry a water bottle around with you to sip on when you’re bored. The amount of water a person needs varies by weight, but if you do this you’re guaranteed to get the amount of water your body needs.

–Magdalena

Do you know of any other skin rejuvenating foods? Comment and tell us about them!

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