When people see your psoriasis, they think it is just a skin rash or you have hurt yourself. You get comments like “What have you done to your arm?”, “Is it contagious?” or even “Eww!! What is that?!” or “What is the elephant skin on your elbow?”. Not helpful is it?

Little do they know it is incredibly itchy, and you scratch it even when you don’t know you’re doing it. You don’t want to wear clothes that show it off, like short sleeves or summer clothes, or too many layers in the winter because that means you can’t get to the plaques too easily when it gets mad itchy. They don’t realise that the excuses you make not stay the night at their house is not because you’re being unsociable – its because the flaking of your skin gets everywhere, and you feel gross about it. They don’t realise you have to check your car before anyone gets in because the flakes have got all over the wheel and the dashboard (never really worked out why that happens!), but it makes you feel bad. You also feel awkward when you say you can't eat something that triggers your flare, and feel you're being fussy. It also doesn't help when they think they can catch it from you. What people also don’t realise is that what you actually have is an inflammatory autoimmune skin disease, which puts you at risk for other diseases such as heart disease and metabolic syndrome - to name just two. That’s great, isn’t it? Not only do we have to live with this miserable disease on a daily basis, but it raises the risk for more fun in the future.

So, what can we do to help ourselves. There are treatments such as steroids and biologics, but they do not suit everyone. I believe these are useful when you are in a massive flare up to get things under control. I also believe you can help yourself with changing your diet and lifestyle to reduce flares and manage your skin in the future. Sadly, we cannot cure our psoriasis and if anyone tells you they can, it is a warning sign. By delving into your health history, changing your diet and lifestyle you can work towards finding out what triggers your flares and manage your skin – and people often get into remission by doing so. Remission means that your skin clears up, but if you allow the triggers back into your life again, it will come back.

The problem is – how do you find out what is causing your flares when there is so much information out there on different diets and lifestyle habits? It all gets very overwhelming doesn't it? Especially as we are all so different and there are many different genes associated with the different types of psoriasis.

Let me help you get through the maze of information so you can find out what triggers your skin and learn how to manage it yourself.