I’ve had rashes ever since I was born!

First, I got diagnose with eczema.

Then, later on I got diagnose with psoriasis.

Then, again the dermatologist said it was eczema not psoriasis… hmm..

I still have a hard time telling the difference between the two disease. From what I understand eczema is not an allergy but can flare up when you’re around allergens. Psoriasis is an autoimmune disorder. Psoriasis is where skin cells grows really fast! Normal skin cells takes about 28 days to grow but people with psoriasis their skin cells can grow in as fast as 3 days!

I’ve had it all… rashes on my joints, hands, scalp, feet, ankles, back, face, ect. My mom worked hard putting topicals on me when I was little. I have never been good at doing it by myself. I would put it off and then get really bad rashes. It was really embarrassing!!! Sometimes it was terrible dry skin which crack really easy! Other times it was plaques of hard flaky skin… I’ve even had blisters and bumps. Most common it was just red itchy round spots of skin. Oh boy… it was itchy! Sometimes I would be up all night itching.

I realized throughout my life that I had seasonal eczema. My rashes would clear up when it was summer and then come back in the winter. When I lived in Ireland, I had rashes the whole time there because it rained so much and there was no sun! I went to the dermatologist to ask him why?! He told me sun helps eczema and psoriasis. He prescribed me 15 mins of direct sunlight a day on my rashes… ya kinda hard in mid-winter Utah… There are UV treatments I can do at a hospital but it’s just sitting under a UV light so I never wanted to pay for that. LOL. During the summer I would try to get sun and my rashes were significantly better. I usually was almost cured by the end of the summer!

Why direct sunlight works is a little unknown but UV light is a natural way to suppress your immune system. So for people with overactive immune systems like mine, it is good to have sunlight to tone down my immune system.

The other time in my life when my eczema and psoriasis went completely in remission is when I was taking a daily biologic injection called Kineret. The Rheumatologist was using it to treat my Rheumatoid Arthritis. I was on the drug for over 6 months. During that time, I was completely cured of my eczema and psoriasis. I was even cured for another 6 months after getting off the medication but the rash came back. Kineret is also another immune suppressant which is probably why my rashes went away.

Now miraculously for the first time in my entire life… I’m in remission for my eczema and psoriasis without any medications or sun!!!! Glory to God for being so merciful. I honestly don’t know the exact reason why I’m in remission right now. The only thing I can say is that I’ve been eating gluten free for almost 3 years now. My rashes started to go away after 6 months of being on a very strict gluten free diet. It hasn’t come back… yet! It’s even winter time right now where I don’t get any sun. I do, however, get a little itchy when I’m not careful and eat gluten contaminated foods but I’m no where near as itchy as I use to be!! I don’t know if my diet changed has put my rashes in remission or if it’s just a coincidence. I almost take it for granted because I’ve had these rashes all my life. Now I have almost forgotten what an annoyance it was to have it! I hope it never comes back.

Another thing I changed in my diet is eating dairy free… but I don’t think that was what was causing my rashes… it was just causing me stomach pain. Well… this is a post for another day!

Do you have eczema or psoriasis or another rash? If so, what helps you?