From a comment on another post a reader brings up the issue of psoriasis and how a deadly drug, Raptiva, has just been removed from the market. I actually thought about posting on it because I’ve suffered from psoriasis most of my life but found that holistic health practices healed that for me too! So now I have an opportunity to do so.
In the case of psoriasis, it is plain to see that the drug treats the symptoms and does not address the cause of the problem. A terrible confusion has crept into health care in that we believe that controlling the SYMPTOMS of madness is actually addressing the CAUSES. An analogy would be to have a cholera drug while doing nothing to clean up the sewers that are breeding the bacteria and then to blame those who die anyway for their susceptibility to cholera or intolerance for the drug…
…The genie is out of the bottle and I am not going to be able to turn back the tide of better living thru chemistry. My choice is to follow Gandhi’s advice and “be the change” and keep talking about the unintended consequences of chemical behavior control in my own life.
My response to Jeanne was this–with some minor editing:
Jeanne,
It’s interesting you bring up the psoriasis drug. I happen to follow psoriasis news too as I’ve had it most of my life.It’s the same exact phenomena as in psychiatry—deadly drugs (and there are several used for psoriasis) to care for something that is uncomfortable and ugly. It’s not just families who don’t want to look at it—having lived with psoriasis I can tell you first hand it’s not nice to have people constantly pointing at your patches saying “ooohh, what’s that?” For some people it’s excruciatingly painful to be stared at all the time. I understand why people want to take that poisonous crap. I’ve had psoriasis all over my body at certain times in my life.
I used topical steroids for many years until I found out they made the problem worse. I was lucky enough to know not to take the immune dampening drugs that can kill you. I’m also happy to have been able to pretty much strong enough to just dismiss people ogling and asking what that gross stuff on my skin was.
And when you talk about symptom control being all it’s about, yup! you got it. Dermatology has never looked at underlying causes just like the rest of medicine.
You know when I started treating my body as the holistic thing that it is—finding what nutrients I needed, healing my gut, finding food sensitivities and changing my diet—well the psoriasis is almost gone now. I only have a couple very unnoticeable patches that get no attention anymore.
I made all the changes to my diet to deal with coming off the psych meds—but holistic creatures that we are, my psoriasis went away too. Balancing our bodies through food, nutrition and exercise is likely to heal all sorts of “chronic” conditions.
Thank you Jeanne for the chance to highlight the natural wonders that our bodies can be if we learn to take care of them.
Dear Jeanne,
I’m so terribly sorry…
and yes…our bodies do speak to us…all the time…
peace to you.
ah, sorry for the slightly fractured english. strong feelings warp my words.
Part of the abuse I suffered as a tot has to do with the monstrous skin eruptions on the skin bewteen my legs and on my ears. Of course, these were the very areas that were the focus of my father’s sexual violence. The abuse, documented in police records by my father’s confession while in custody, note that attacks began when I was less than a year old. The various “treatments” of the 1950’s were positvely barbaric. When our mouths are mute, our bodies speak for us.
I have a friend who suffers from this for some time. After pill and topical treatments where not working, and by not working I mean having other problems due to the drugs, he turned to the food balance as well.
The issue has become less and less over time…. but he still sees Stress as a big factor.
My late hubby had psoriasis – he was also an alcoholic and had some diabetes in his fam. It was heartbreaking to see him struggle with it – but he was lucky as we lived in Alaska and it was not on his face or hands.
I was putting the creme on his back once and I was going all over the place and he said – it’s not there – it’s not there!! He was really upset. He was in the hospital and put in tarlike wraps – this was the early 80’s.
I thot this was something NEW to him – but I got his medical records recently and turns out that he said – he’d had it SEVERAL years … and was having troubles keeping stress under control.
But his prob was that he loved WHITE and meat and potatoes and not much else. His body reflected that. 🙁 May he rest in peace!
I’m grateful he’s not in pain anymore.
I’m glad you’ve found a way to deal with it Gianna!