One of the worst face of psoriasis is psoriatic arthritis. Psoriasis he evil, but psoriatic arthritis is 10 times worst than it the way it affects life and lifestyle. There were days and weeks I had confine myself at my home. Cannot even place my heel on the floor to walk, just to stand is a struggle. To walk is a even more painful activity.
It started with a pain in my left middle finger. I did not realize this was anything related to psoriasis, and went on my usual treatment for any joint pain with capsicum bandage and pain relieving applicants. It gives temporary relief, and as days passed I realized this is deep inside and it started to move to other joints. Next was the ankle, shoulder, toes, knee and hip joint.
It would feel like someone had hit me with a log on my hip. The pain in unbearable. My search landed me in understanding the concept or Pitham in ancient medicine. My body is normally very warm, when it gets bad people next to me would even ask if I have fever, it will be that hot. I was able to relate this with pitham and was searching ways to cool down my body. First started with changing the way I had water, I gave up RO and other bottled water that has little to no minerals. Started to boil water, add vettyver and store the water in a copper pot before drinking. I also started having soaked sabja (Thulasi Seeds) daily.
Then one of my friend suggested banana leaves bath and then even tried termite mount sand bath. All this to cool down the body. The idea is to open up the pores to let the waste to escape through sweat. They were all good, but did not help me.
The next step was to physically cool down the body. I bought a big drum that can fit me in completely. Filled it with water and would sit in it for 30 - 45 min. The water will literally increase in temperature and I can feel my body becoming cold. This gave the result in decreasing my body heat, I was hoping I found the cure for my joint pain, but again this did not help me.
I later moved to Bangalore, I was happy it is a cooler climate which will help my condition. But it only got worst. Mornings were very painful and unbearable. I gave up on bathing with cold water and started taking hot water bath. Then started taking bath with water so hot to a point my body can still take the heat and my body can take in that heat.
It changed my life. I was in the right direction to cool my body, but the means did not help me. By cooling my body, I was making it work more to generate even more heat. After I started taking hot water bath (Not warm water), I saw changes in days. After it became a routine, I know the pain I have when I wake up is for few more minutes and that was totally fine for me. It did not just give temporary relief, to my surprise, I had not got the psoriatic arthritis attack for a long time now.
The cure can totally depend on my body, but I see there is a definite relation between the body temperature and how psoriatic arthritis behaves. I really wish if this helps you in anyways.
About Me: I have been living with Psoriasis for 7 years. With severe episodes when the place I sit will be surrounded with dry skin in just 30 min. Someone has to come and sweep the place to get the skin off. I have also had severe Psoriatic Arthritis attacks, when even getting out of my bed is a 10 min task.
I have not had any medicines or external applicants in my journey with Psoriasis. I try to listen to my body, try to understand, try new things and see what makes it feel better.
I will keep sharing my Phoriasis experience and suggestions. My intention is to help someone who might find this useful. These are also breadcrumbs for someone to speed up their understanding about psoriasis, who may be trying to find self cure like me and one day a cure will be born for psoriasis.