Psoriasis And Lifting

Off Topic
1

I wasn’t really sure where else to post this since there’s no general health board to put it in, so here’s as good a place as I could think of.

I have psoriasis. Had it since I was five years old, and it’s sucked every damn day. Especially when I hit puberty. During my early teen years the physical pain and burning feeling from having 70% of my body covered in, more or less, an open wound caused me to actually consider ending my own life. As far as I was concerned, that was as good as it was going to get and it would only get worse. Luckily I never did go that route and now have quite the tolerance for pain and suffering. :slight_smile:

Now that I’ve explained that, I can explain this. The only reason I mentioned that last bit was just to give a perspective on how severely one’s life can be affected by this disease. That’s what psoriasis is… an immune disease. Genetic, not contagious or transferable. But, even with that being said, that’s not the reason I’m posting.

I’m curious if any other T-Nation members have had to deal with psoriasis or know someone who has. I’m interested in how lifting and diet affects my condition. I’m currently taking medication to help regulate my immune system to fight the disease and have been taking it since early 2008. That also sucks. Twice a month I have to inject myself in the leg with a dose of the drug Humira. While it works, it also feels like i’m stabbing myself in the leg with a dart. But since it works for the most part I won’t bitch too much.

One thing I have noticed over the past few years is that Humira isn’t helping clear up all of my psoriasis like most people have reported. The psoriasis is affecting my eyelids and recently has caused my left eye to look like I have a ruptured blood vessel. I went to the eye doctor and they said it was something called epicluritalsomethingorother. I don’t remember specifically, but I do remember being told it was supposed to go away on its own within a couple weeks. It’s still here, and while it doesn’t hurt or affect my vision, I am getting sick of having to assure people that I don’t have pink eye and that I’m safe to be around.

I must admit, for the past eight or nine months my diet has been the shittiest it’s ever been, and I worked out maybe four or five times in that time frame. Work schedules were all fucked up since last summer and manpower’s low, but no one wants to hear excuses. I know I’ve been being lazy, so I don’t need to hear that. I’m just curious if it’s the poor diet that’s causing the P to act up more than usual or if it’s just hormones reacting oddly.

Not looking for medical advice or anything like that. Just some conversation to stimulate the thought process, since my doctors don’t seem to have anymore ideas than I do at the moment.

As I asked already, is there anyone else on these boards with the condition that notices a stark difference between when you’re leaner and healthier and when you’ve slacked off and fallen out of shape? And just to be clear, I am talking about the psoriasis and whether it’s clearer or not.

2

Sucks man as a medical guy who treated this I understand your problem good luck.

I will just say eating clean and exercise is better than not doing it.

Stay strong.

3

I had psoriatic excemas.

Occoasionaly, in the face, that was nice.

Havent eaten gluten for years now and its gone.

That is not quite the same as psoriasis, but maybe you want to look into it.

4

Hey man, I have Psoriasis though no where near the level you describe. I have no visible patches and when they have appeared they usually go away with some ointment and sun exposure. My scalp can get bad, but I just have to be on the ball with it and make sure im always treating it.

What I do have with some severity is psoriatic arthritis. I have this pretty bad and when it flares up it affects all of the joints in my hands, both ankles, my jaw and also my spine. It was at its worse about 3 years ago, and I could barely walk for the first half of the day, could not open doors with my hands and had to hold a cup with both hands precariously.

At that time I could barely function, so training was most definitely out of the picture. I was also living abroad, so medical costs were high and it led to me returning back to the UK prematurely. Anyway, with the right medicine I started to see some improvements, enough that I was able to start some non impact cardio training. I also completely changed my diet and ate pretty sparsely, avoiding pretty much all alcohol, spicy foods, and anything that was even remotely linked with inflamation. I started to see a real decrease in my bf levels, with a corresponding reduction in my symptoms. As I improved I started to increase my training and add in some resistance work.
Fast forward to now, and I am able to train pretty intensely. I’m never going to win a power lifting meet, but I have seen significant improvements in my strength. My symptoms are still there, and some days are better then others but on the whole I feel a lot better now.
I’m not sure how much I attribute my improvement down to diet, as the meds def had a huge impact but I definitely think that you can help yourself by limiting known stressors from your diet. I honestly think that alcohol is the single biggest stressor for anyone with psoriasis, and it should be avoided as much as possible ( As someone who loves drinking I know how hard that is!)

Anyway, I feel for you dude, and I hope things improve. If you want to chat about anything to do with what i’ve said, feel free to PM me!

5

Thanks for the responses guys!

I think a big part of it’s had to do with the amount of alcohol I’ve been drinking in the past four months. I just turned 21 back in September and have been going a little wild.

I was on the right track from 2010 to February of last year up until I had an inguinal hernia. That really threw me, then right after I recovered and started to train again my work schedule proceeded to get severely screwed so I never had time to drive to the gym where I could really train. Working out fell by the wayside because work took front and center, but I promised myself I’d start doing something, anything come first of the year. While I didn’t quite keep to that standard, I have kept away from the booze the past few days and I went for a three mile run in the snow and slush today, then immediately got to some light calisthenics. Now I’ve just gotta get my diet back on track again.

I wasn’t anything special by any means, but before I had surgery I was making great progress toward building mass the right way without adding too much fat. Now I’d say I’m a good 20% bodyfat at least, and that’s being kind to myself. Lots of work ahead…

One thing I know for sure is that living in a cold, dry climate has not helped me at all.

6

Not to derail thread but how is that author and book in your avi?

If you don’t want it here can you post in best book thread?

7

Wheat Belly, give it a read.

wheat gluten can cause it

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if you’re skeptical check the nutrition forum on here for a thread on the book

I have a client that has suffered IBS for years, docs just kept upping meds. After reading the book she says “I changed her life”… of course it was the book recommendation that did

9

[quote]DJHT wrote:
Not to derail thread but how is that author and book in your avi?

If you don’t want it here can you post in best book thread?[/quote]

Pretty freakin good for a self-published author. Well, he was self-published until Baen got ahold of a copy. He’s got three books out for the MHI series so far and I’ve read all three within a week of their purchase dates. He has some other books out but I can never seem to find them when I go to the bookstore.

10

jehovahs,

I have heard that a lot of things in a psoriatic’s diet can mess shit up. It’s just odd that sometimes I can eat whatever and have no flare ups, then all of a sudden it’ll flare up even if I’m eating supremely clean.

I really wish it’d just go away like it did for my aunt. BUT, I know that’s wishful thinking and nothing more. le’sigh

Hopefully cutting back on the booze to about once or twice a week will improve things a bit. If not, I guess I’ll be giving away all my booze to my buddies. lol

11

just because you eat something on Monday doesn’t mean it can’t cause an issue on Friday.

eliminate wheat/gluten for 3 weeks and see what happens.

12

[quote]Hodge_Podge18 wrote:

[quote]DJHT wrote:
Not to derail thread but how is that author and book in your avi?

If you don’t want it here can you post in best book thread?[/quote]

Pretty freakin good for a self-published author. Well, he was self-published until Baen got ahold of a copy. He’s got three books out for the MHI series so far and I’ve read all three within a week of their purchase dates. He has some other books out but I can never seem to find them when I go to the bookstore.[/quote]
Did you try the Baen website? I used to go to it all the time and read free books.

Thanks I will check it out.

13

[quote]Did you try the Baen website? I used to go to it all the time and read free books.

Thanks I will check it out.[/quote]

I’ve been to the website a few times before but it confuses the hell out of me, much like another Baen author’s (John Ringo) website. I’ll probably just end up ordering the other books I want online. I bought the last two MHI books online and even got him to sign them before they shipped.

14

Not drinking milk and limiting my dairy intake has helped me. I used to get it at my elbow joint, not fun at all.

15

When I remember to take my injections you really can’t tell I have it. Especially during summer months. The only way you can tell is either if I forget a few shots and my skin starts to react or if you look really close at my eyelids. It’s actually in the eyelash…Idk, pores. Wherever the hairs grow from. For some reason the medication won’t work in that area.

I used to have a huge patch on my right leg that at one point covered the entire right side of my calf. It stayed there for years because when I was younger I didn’t know there were meds to help. The whole thing disappeared after a week on the Humira injection though.

The eye issue only popped up late in 2009. It’s weird. Nothing I’ve done to date helps. No medication has worked and since it’s now caused an actual issue with the eye in the past few weeks, the only things I can connect it to are poor diet, complete lack of exercise and excessive alcohol intake.

16

[quote]Hodge_Podge18 wrote:
When I remember to take my injections you really can’t tell I have it. Especially during summer months.
[/quote]

There was a lady who was a patient at a place I used to work who used to have really bad psoriasis… she said that nothing worked for her until her doctor recommended actually getting in a tanning bed a few times a week. She says she tans for 8 or 12 minutes a day, 3 times a week, and when she does that she has no problems. If she misses it at all she breaks out terribly. This person was not particularly tan either as the amount of tanning done was little… just enough to keep her psoriasis away.

Given that you live in a cold area and your psoriasis gets better in the summer, it might be worth a try.

17

[quote]There was a lady who was a patient at a place I used to work who used to have really bad psoriasis… she said that nothing worked for her until her doctor recommended actually getting in a tanning bed a few times a week. She says she tans for 8 or 12 minutes a day, 3 times a week, and when she does that she has no problems. If she misses it at all she breaks out terribly. This person was not particularly tan either as the amount of tanning done was little… just enough to keep her psoriasis away.

Given that you live in a cold area and your psoriasis gets better in the summer, it might be worth a try.[/quote]

That’s a good point. Unfortunately I’ve already had doctors recommend that type of therapy and it didn’t end up working for me. I would imagine that all psoriasis cases are different because all immune systems are different.

18

[quote]Hodge_Podge18 wrote:

[quote]There was a lady who was a patient at a place I used to work who used to have really bad psoriasis… she said that nothing worked for her until her doctor recommended actually getting in a tanning bed a few times a week. She says she tans for 8 or 12 minutes a day, 3 times a week, and when she does that she has no problems. If she misses it at all she breaks out terribly. This person was not particularly tan either as the amount of tanning done was little… just enough to keep her psoriasis away.

Given that you live in a cold area and your psoriasis gets better in the summer, it might be worth a try.[/quote]

That’s a good point. Unfortunately I’ve already had doctors recommend that type of therapy and it didn’t end up working for me. I would imagine that all psoriasis cases are different because all immune systems are different.
[/quote]

Ah well, worth a shot. The only other thing I could think of is being sure you are regularly supplementing with fish oil, phosphatidyl choline (lecithin) and phosphatidyle serine. I don’t have psoriasis, but I used to get dry skin that wouldn’t heal, especially during the winter. Fish oil helped some, but it didn’t clear until I added lecithin, which made a huge difference for me.

19

I’ve heard of fish oil but you’ll have to forgive my ignorance on the other two. I’ll look into them though.

20

I’ve heard that tanning beds or sunlight tanning can help.