Homeopathic Treatment of Psoriasis

What is Psoriasis?

Psoriasis is one of the most obstinate skin conditions that literally mean "itch" in Greek. The red white patches of varying size and shapes appear on usually extensor aspects of the body like outer aspects of forearms, knees, etc or all over the body. Scalp psoriasis is also common. Even the toenails and fingernails may be affected. The areas usually have thick silvery plaques that flake off on itching.

Causes and Symptoms of Psoriasis:

Though exact cause of psoriasis is not known, the genetic factor predominates in the development of psoriasis. It occurs due to some defect in the dermis due to which the cell production enhances suddenly and the epidermis fails to accumulate all those cells leading to patchy skin growth in the form of psoriasis. More than exact causes, some trigger factors have been identified that increase the symptoms of psoriasis. Among them the anxiety and mental stress dominates the picture. Also injury of any kind, some drug or food allergies, recurrent skin infections etc have been known to enhance the existing psoriasis.

The symptoms are excessive itching, flaking, silvery dryness of skin, occurrence of bleeding spots due to excess itching, arthritic joint pains if the patches are on the joints, etc.

How does Homeopathy Help?

Homeopathy is a wonderful system of medicine that deals with variety of illnesses. But it is always stressed by experts that being side-effect-less should not make people take this mode of therapy lightly. One must seek professional advice and not believe in just what you read. Especially when it comes to chronic ailments like skin diseases, one must seek professional intervention. However, it is true that skin troubles like psoriasis find wonderful relief with homeopathic system of medicine.

Gone are the days when people used to go to homeopathic physicians as the last resource. Today people believe in homeopathy like never before and they present themselves to the homeopaths directly. This gives homeopaths better view of the concerned malady and easy treatment strategy. In any types of psoriasis, including scalp psoriasis, homeopathic medicines act wonderfully to relieve initially the signs and symptoms of the disease like flaking of skin, redness, occasional itching (more so if the psoriatic lesion is lichenified), and related symptoms.

Homeopathic treatment involves constitutional treatment and only that is able to impart permanent cure for the disease. Psoriasis or any other skin disease is never skin deep. It has its roots in genetics as well as bodily built up. The physiological, mental, and psychological picture of the patient must be considered to impart permanent cure. Unless one gives this constitutional and miasmatic remedy, the disease is not cured but suppressed. As well said by Burnett, “Homeopathic failures are the worst failures.” We must exercise great caution in order to not suppress the psoriasis and impart cure by aptly chosen constitutional prescription.

Certainly there are acute remedies to relieve the patient of acute exacerbation of psoriasis that may occur due to various triggers like stress, excess cold or any other aggravating factor. Here you can give acute prescriptions depending upon symptoms but never repeat it too often to cause suppression. Later to clear the picture of the case and choose the right remedy is often tedious job. But at the end, the disease responds well only to properly selected remedy that matches the constitution of the individual suffering from psoriasis.

Along with the homeopathic prescription, the homeopathic doctors should advice modification factors in the lifestyle of people depending upon trigger factors or general factors those are known to aggravate disease. Though definitive factors have not been found yet, certainly one can say that avoiding stress is one of the most important things one can do. Certain behavior therapies, yoga, stress-relief exercises, and psychotherapy may help in this regard. No wonder people call homeopaths psychotherapists because they know so much about the psyche of the person they are treating. If they do not, they will never be able to impart cure!

Why homeopathy can offer lasting relief in psoriasis?

As we said, psoriasis is an immune related disease. The genetic factor dominates and you usually tend to aggravate the condition due to above mentioned triggers. Therefore, it is necessary that the treatment regime should never be mere local. You must have seen that after using certain steroids and anti-metabolite drugs, the skin patches reduce drastically but they tend to recur over the period of time because you have treated them locally. This is the reason, homeopathic medicines that act from inside out help relieve the symptoms in the long run.

The homeopathy offers stimulating effect on the body's natural healing process. The homeopathic remedies have a natural tendency to work at the root level and bring back normalcy to the deviated immune system. Literally thousands of patients have been benefited by aptly selected homeopathic remedies. Yes, it is true that for treating your psoriasis, you must try to choose the right homeopath so that you get consistent and quicker results. Within three to five weeks, usually patients see some results after starting the treatment regime.

Also avoid using homeopathic patent medicines available in the market. They are not formulated considering the individual symptoms and therefore are not according to homeopathic principles. Only after carefully considering the constitution of the patient, a homeopathic doctor should treat the patient!

With regular follow up, numerous cases of psoriasis, psoriatic arthropathies, nail changes etc have found relief. Palliation is never a homeopathic strategy though it is a myth that these remedies cause aggravation in the initial period. Properly selected remedies rarely give rise to aggravation in cases of psoriasis and impart permanent cure!