My dear members of our extended family, today I have brought detailed summary of the ebook- How I healed my Psoriasis by Marinda Dunbar. I bought this ebook on an online shopping web portal about 2 years back at the cost of around 20 US dollars. To my surprise and disappoint, this ebook just had just 15 or 16 pages. Anyways, I read this book at the time and I feel motivated to see that how a woman managed to find a way out of psoriasis for her.
Today, I was exploring the internet for some real life stories of psoriasis healing. Suddenly, my inner conscience gave me an invisible punch and remind me of this ebook that I had purchased almost 2 years back. So, I am here with a through detailed summary of this book.
Introduction
Marinda got psoriasis in 2001. She suffered mainly from pustular psoriasis. Pustular psoriasis is a type of psoriasis when the patient has pus filled patches on her skin. These patches are surrounded by red skin and these psoriasis patches are extremely itchy. Scratching of these patches would spill the pus on your skin, making it further worse. Marinda’s hands were quite severely affected by pustular psoriasis. She experienced extreme itch. This extreme urge for scratching used to make the things further worse for her. Exposure to heat or high temperature used to worsen her situation. For example, while handling the steering wheel of her car, exposure to direct sunlight used to make it extremely difficult for her to drive. Washing hands in hot water would soothe her skin.
She wrote this ebook in 2011 after enjoying almost 8 years without any psoriasis patches on her hands. She dedicated this ebook to her husband, Colin, who traveled this journey of psoriasis healing along with her all the time.
Getting diagnosed with Psoriasis
Like most of us, she didn’t realize the complexity of this problem during the initial phase. She would apply oils and creams, hoping that it would get healed. After some time, she contacted a pharmacist who wrongly diagnosed her condition as eczema. He told her that she might have become allergic to washing powder or other cleaning chemicals. Hence, she bought gloves and use them while washing dishes and cleaning the house. That pharmacist gave her a cream to apply on affected skin. Unfortunately, that cream didn’t help her and those psoriasis patches started to spread on her body. Then she finally decided to see a doctor. The doctor finally diagnosed her situation as Psoriasis. The doctor told him- There is no cure available for Psoriasis till today. This statement of the doctor made her feel bitterly sad and disappointed.
Her questions and doctor’s answers
Like any other patients, she asked the doctor about the cause of this problem. The doctor told her that there are many listed factors which contribute to cause this disease- Stress, diet, faulty immune system, strep throat infection to name a few. Miranda believed that stress and poor immune system caused this disease. Her immune system was also weak. She used to get sick easily. Due to personal life problems, she had been under stress for a long time.
Her doctor recommended her two treatments- Blue light therapy (photo therapy) and dead sea bathing (bathing in the world’s saltiest sea in the eastern Israel). These two treatments can relieve the symptoms as there is no cure for this complex skin problem. The doctor prescribed her hydrocortisone cream to reduce skin itching, swelling and redness.Unfortunately, it didn’t help her much. She would use glycerin soap for bathing. She would wear gloves while handling detergent and other cleaning products.
How psoriasis affected Miranda and her family’s life
The feeling that she would be living with this stubborn skin problem for the rest of her life was making her feel terribly hopeless. This hopelessness gradually turned into a sort of depression. She and her husband tried to gather information from the internet about psoriasis and their heart sank after reading painful experiences of fellow people suffering from psoriasis.
Luckily for her, the psoriasis patches restricted to her hands only. They didn’t appear on other parts of her body. Seeing pictures of people covering with psoriasis patches from head to toe, she would feel sad for them. Due to psoriasis, she started to withdraw from society because people’s questions about those patches on her skin used to make her feel sick. Her husband was also disturbed due to this problem. He used to see her in pain and he was not able to do anything for it.
Breaking the wall of depression
The turning point came when her left hand was also started to get affected from psoriasis. Earlier it was only restricted to her right hand. It was the time when she decided that she would not let this disease overpower her life. She started to look for various options apart from the conventional medical treatments. One of her friends advised her to go for Shiatsu massage. Shiatsu message is a Japanese massage technique, it is also known as finger pressure massage. The massage therapist would use finger and palm pressure to restore the process of optimum flow of energy through the body. It is also described as equivalent to acupressure. After a few sessions of Shiatsu massage, things started to get better.
Starting the healing process
Her massage therapist recommended her to join a health gym. Exercise helps in relieving stress and maintaining smooth flow of energy through the body. Apart from taking the body massages and regular workout at the gym, she started reading various books to take some dietary clues to heal her psoriasis.
Her diet tips
She devised a diet program for her based on her blood type. Her diet tips are summarized as below:
Foods she would NOT eat: –
- No wheat (it contains gluten)
- No refined sugar
- No refined white flour
- No dairy products
- No tea
- No coffee
- No soya sauce or tomato sauce
Foods she would eat: –
- Wheat free (and refined white flour free) bread and wheat free muffins
- Mozzarella cheese of feta cheese instead of dairy cheese
- Soya milk in place of normal dairy milk
- Caffeine-free coffee
- Rooibos tea (South Africa grown caffeine free tea) instead of normal tea (made by adding milk)
- Various gluten free snacks
- A lot of green vegetables
- To drink at least 2 liters of pure drinking water
- Occasionally she would drink wine and eat red meat
- To take vitamins and other nutritional supplements as per blood type
- Sometimes, she would feel head ache due to her disciplined lifestyle and diet. Drinking warm water would help us
- She has low blood pressure problem. So, she would never skip meals because it would make the things further worse.
Getting the fruitful results
After adopting this healing process, she started to feel improvement in her problem. Within one month, the itching get reduced and there was no more watery pus in those psoriasis patches. Her hands get fully healed after 3 months of this healing process. But, as she was told that psoriasis is incurable, she continued the healing process- restricted diet, regular gym and schedules massage therapies. She followed the healing process for almost two years. Then gradually she started eating the foods back that she had left for the treatment. She stopped going to the gym, but she would wake up early in the morning and do various exercises for 30 minutes a day, five days a week. More than 8 years have passed and her hands are still clear. It has been a remarkable healing journey for her.
What worked for her
- Blood type based restricted diet
- Regular exercise
- Strong determination and discipline
- Family support (her husband was equally involved in her healing process at every point)
Her message to fellow people suffering from psoriasis
It took a lot of hard work, discipline and dedication to stick to the healing process. But it pays off very well. Sometimes, you would feel like quitting the healing program, then the emotional support of your spouse, parents and other family members is very crucial. Involve them in your journey of holistic healing. She specially mentioned her husband for all the support that he provided. Never give up!!
Also, she says that- Psoriasis is a specific problem and it is never assured that something working well for me would prove equally effective for other people also. But, the real thing to learn is- There is a way out of this problem. You have to choose the path which is right for you.
Lessons to learn for us
Never give up. Take the responsibility of your skin and your life as a whole. Accept your present day skin condition wholeheartedly. Stop hiding or denying the problem because it is not helping you at all. It is making it worse actually. Understand your psoriasis, empower yourself with knowledge and then make your best efforts to get out of it or at least manage it to the extent when it doesn’t bother you too much.
Also read: Psoriasis healing story of an elderly man narrated by her wife
