Pain is Unavoidable, Suffering is Optional

All, I am so sorry for the long delay in an update.  I want you to know I have not given up on diets or healing.  I have just been so busy I have been unable to sit down and write about it.  But there is a lot to catch you fellow psoriasis sufferers up on. 

First off, as you may have read, I used some steroid cream for 1 week exactly and it really cleared my rashes up.  My trip back east was pain free.  In fact when I got back I worked out twice, and I went running with my daughter yesterday, and I am probably going to go again today.

However, I did get over zealous with my healing that I messed up on my diet a bunch. I had alcohol, I had gluten, and pork! And I stopped taking the steroids and guess what. I am starting to see bumps return.

I saw a new dermatologist yesterday.  I had made an appointment with her about a month ago and I went in with low expectations because I thought she was just going to throw more pharmacueticals at me, but she actually is more into natural healing.  She reaffirmed my diet choices but made some suggestions.

1) my type of psoriasis and locations has been linked to nickel allergies.  I knew this but got overwhelmed with the nickel foods that I didn't act on it.  I need to revisit this. 

2) she has a PHd in genetics and warned me sternly about the evils of GMOs.  I have already made huge efforts to go organic and GMO free, but I am going to push that for the rest of my family.  My husband is still buying the frozen waffles, and boxed cereals so I need to curb that for my poor kids.

3) the humira and other biologics that I was afraid to even consider is not even a good option for my type of psoriasis so I can stop even worrying about that. (yay) I have Postular psoriasis.

4) She did recommend light therapy but honestly the time commitment with my job cannot happen right now.  So I passed for now, especially considering I feel like I have got this under control.

5) Stay away from gluten.  She said there are few studies that show real food linkages to psoriasis but gluten is a definite offender. This was only a suggestion in the Pagano book.  Also she said people of Irish and English decent are more likely to have gluten intolerances.

6) She did feel like grass fed beef was ok.  I am not so crazy about beef that I need to have this, but again for my family I will try to be more of a stickler about it.

She made another good point that America is such a melting pot of races and ethnicities that it is really hard to determine what each person needs.  We can't model ourselves from a popluation with a similar background.  I know for myself that is very true, I am over 7 different ethnicities, and my childern are over 10.  We each have our own unique set of triggers and allergens.

So I am very happy with my current progress.  I feel like the diet is making a huge difference, but a little steroidal cream when things get too bad is VERY effective.  I need to adjust my diet to remove the nickel. 
And  I need to get back on the wagon as I fell off a bit.

Final point.  The steroidal cream that cleared me up in 3 days was the same cream that I used for 4-5 months with very little effect.  So I do think something is different, and that something is diet. :)