Hey everyone,
I just wanted to share with you some of my journey with Psoriasis and how I have recently discovered how to effectively manage it. There is no cure- only management IMO. Inspire has been a great help to me over the years so thought it was time to give something back.
I grew up in the UK and was a very active/sporty child. I used to get eczema on my shins from playing football and the shinpads rubbing! But otherwise had no skin issues at all.
My psoriasis started after taking anti-malarial tablets (antibiotics) during a 3 month overseas trip when I was around 18/19. As you can imagine, taking antibiotics for that long is not good for you and it's my biggest regret in life. It started with some flakey skin in my ear and then ended up with more patches spreading.
There is a predisposition in my family to diabetes and psoriasis (grandad and uncles had psoriasis) but no P in my immediate family. So I think I am therefore more susceptible than most to developing it, but this was the major trigger.
Fast forward a few years and multiple doctor/dermatologist appointments I was able to manage it using Eumovate/Dovobate for body patches and coconut oil on my scalp.
Aged 25 I moved to Australia and started to exercise more regularly again having spent most of my early 20's at University and then working in London in a high pressure job. I was burning the candle at both ends in terms of an okayish diet but partying a lot and not prioritising my health, but importantly to the story- not exercising much.
In Australia my lifestyle continued in the same way going into my early 30's, but I was still managing my P with creams. But by this time I was getting bigger patches on my legs/arms/torso as well as behind my ears/armpits etc. Despite living in a better climate I was beginning to notice my skin was deteriorating slowly over my late 20's into early 30's. It was making going out in the hot weather in only my swimmers tough and causing a few aesthetic issues but I was still being able to manage it just enough with creams to not make me feel/look too weird.
Looking back, I had started to exercise more (playing soccer and training hard 3 nights per week and matches on the weekend).
Aged 31 I had my first child and thought it was a good opportunity to change my lifestyle drastically as it was going to drastically change anyway. I began to implement different protocols in terms of diet (no booze) to start dealing with my P. I decided to come off steroid creams completely to see how bad the P actually was. The way I kept/keep thinking of P is that it is a fire burning inside you and the creams are just splashing some water over it. I had studied P so much through academic journals etc I thought I was an expert and tried everything. I'd stick to 'diets' for 4/5/6 months and couldn't find the golden bullet.
Fast forward 3-4 years and I was still struggling. Skin still getting worse. Still no steroid creams. I was starting to have to do UVB treatment which cleared me completely as I was unable to take my T-shirt off to go the beach and my arms and legs were 80% covered. But after i'd stop treatment it would be back and some within a few months. It was unbearable. Despite me trying vegan/carnivore/juice/GF/DF every other diet known to man. And I was so diligent. I have an obsessive personality and I mean I was diligent. And it had still been getting worse.
At the same time, I had started to run more. I am a pretty good runner so I started to train for marathons despite my P. P still getting worse.
I then randomly started to take a supplement that had BCAA's (branch chain amino acids- included L-Glutamine) to help my recovery from running. 3 months later I started to clear for the first time in so long 'naturally'. But i didn't correlate it to the supplement and stopped taking it once i'd completed my marathon. I thought it was just a miracle haha. Low and behold it started to come back.
FF to now, I am hooked on marathons. 4 months or so ago, I started taking some additional supplements to help with my running recovery and had seen some studies about L-glutamine helping with P. Then it all clicked as to how I had cleared before... so i started megadosing (about 20g p/d, something 30 p/d). I decided to do this to build up my L-glutamine levels which I had been depleting during training. I researched it alot before doing so. It seems that people use L-glutamine in their bodies at different rates. I did this for around 2-3 weeks. All whilst training.
L-Glutamine is the main amino acid that helps with your immune system/gut btw (google it).
After 3 weeks I started to flare massively- although this time it was different. I had thousands of tiny guttate type spots appear. What I look back on as my body clearing out all the toxins. I shit myself, but thought I needed to push through as this was so different from before. I am so glad I did. As the next few weeks passed, these spots started to merge together into more plaque like patches but importantly were thinning. Then they started to disappear all together. I'd started to reduce the L-glutamine at this point to a maintenance level (about 5g p/d). I am now 98% P free, although I do have some pigmentation from where I had a bit of a tan on my previous 'normal skin' and the new 'baby skin' as my kids call it- is much more pale. But that's ok, it'll fade/tan as time goes by.
That's where I am at currently. There aren't many side effects to l-glutamine. I did have a little brain fog initially and I imagine if you have never taken it before it might cause a little gut discomfort to begin with.
Happy to answer any questions and a big thank you to everyone on here over the years. It's an absolute nightmare of a journey and P really is the worst, but stay strong you got this!
if you do decide to try this route, please report back with your progress!
Thanks,
Russ
