Soooo – after spending 10 days so far and no let up of being covered head to toe in an extremely uncomfortable rash and spots, the docs have pointed to Psoriasis as my condition, have any of you Singletrackers got experience not only of this, but with riding particularly when you have flare ups. I’m just about to turn 35 and have never had anything like this ever.
I’ve done my first light turbo session tonight as I just couldn’t face going out or even putting a top on as it’s pretty bad, I found it very sore and burning all over, but it was lovely to spin the legs. Any tips / advice would be appreciated.

Not sure but a friend has it pretty bad. Never stops him riding although knee pads can get a bit sore for him.

Plenty of sun and moisturizer. His clears up a lot when on holiday.

Good luck

30 years of it…, my mum before me too. sometimes a lot worse than others, but constant. Got so severe a couple of years back that they put me on a new therapy that has left me with literally just a few small patches

My advice is – scrupulous hygiene, anti-histamines and emollients are your friends

Cut your fingernails, regularly. Otherwise you will scratch & tear the skin and open it to infection.
If it does get infected (hot to touch) get to the GP for antibiotics
Bathe/shower regularly
If you shower, anti bacterial gel like hibiscrub, moisturise all over afterwards
If you prefer the bath, Bath oil like Dermol is a great way to moisturise the skin, this will make the bath extraordinarily slippy, don’t break your neck
Anti histamine like clarityn is very good for taking the edge off the itch – I’ve known people resort to Valium etc. In order to sleep on summer nights. .
Fresh air and sun to the skin. Especially after a ride, get stripped and changed rather than sitting there is sweaty gear
That’s some starters

mate of mine suffered really badly, daily hospital treatments at several points, until he was mid 20s. turned out it was related to lactose intolerance.

I get it relatively mildly but enough to have been refereed to specialists… I understand it’s not always easily treatable, but once you get past the over the counter medications, and into the world of real treatments, you might be surprised how effective they can be.

Prior to the rash kicking off.. did you have a, say 1″ diameter rash / manky spot ? anywhere on your body ?

See this thread for a similar discussion on eczema http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/excema-flare-ups

I’d suggest the same as is did on that thread.

I suffered from guttate psoriasis which was horrendous. Had a course of light therapy at the hospital and cleared it up for good, touch wood.

You should also look at your diet as I believe there may be a link. I now limit milk and haven’t had any eczema or psoriasis flare ups since.

Try the charcoal based face wash in semi chem for a pound as that is really good for hands and feet, or anywhere really.

Good luck with it.

Had it for a lifetime. It works like a stress barometer. Just mild in usual places, legs, elbows and scalp. Past few years I have had palmar plantar psoriasis, which makes my palms crack and thicken. Needless to say I wear mits or gloves for riding, but it can get painful.

Modern treatments are very good. Part of my day job is looking for better ones!

Thanks for the replies, it’s all very useful. I will try anything, some of the looks and comments have been enlightening. It started with a few very small red pimples on the hand and spread unbelievably quick, funny enough it was a crash and open wound and a cold at the same time that’s flared it up!!

I have it, lots of it!

I’ve had a few courses of light treatment but it always comes back after a couple of months, trying to stay away from that now as the skin cancer risk is in my head.

This year has been a bit better for me as I’ve changed my approach to it, I realised that the more I damaged my skin the more aggressively the Psoriasis came back. I now stay away from having a long bath as this seems to dry my skin out too much, it is tempting to soak all of the crappy skin away though, I just stick to having a shower now and slapping on moisturiser straight after.

The tip to keep your nails short was a good one as you’ll scratch in your sleep and damage the skin, file the edges as well so they’re not sharp. Another thing was that despite everyone saying the sun is good for it I noticed mine was milder above the ‘cyclist tan line’ than below it where the sun got to it, I started using sunscreen (factor 30) and it’s lessened a lot on my lower legs and arms. Again, I think where the new skin was getting burned the Psoriasis was growing the new skin back even faster!

I still have large patches of it all over me but it is now less fierce, unfortunately I have some small bits where my sit bones are so cycling can literally be a pain in the @rse 😀

I stopped going to the doctor as I felt like a lab rat being experimented on, I don’t think mine will ever go away but it’s manageable at the moment. One good thing is that as I wear shorts and a T-shirt most of the time I don’t get people sitting next to me on the train to work, a small victory but they all count.

Find what works for you OP, everyone is different, but moisturise lots and stay away from stress.

As the above have said.

For me, sunlight helps and the soap I use in the shower makes a huge difference. This stuff is great: http://mitchellswoolfatsoap.co.uk/

Ah, soap – bring back the proper wrights coal tar soap with actual coal tar in it, smell of my childhood

Bloody EU!

you can still get coal tar products on prescription, if you think a long soak in the bath soothes it then try a soak in the bath with polytar bath oil, you will think all your Christmasses have come at once… Just don’t be the poor bugger who tries to clean the bath afterwards, and don’t use your best white towels.

Psoriderm bath emollient does the same without staining everything brown, if you find the bath drying your skin out then you want to avoid soaps entirely and use something like this once a week, and demol 500 bath oil the rest of the time.

I’m still to find a regime that works well for the skin with the shower unfortunately.

Ps. 100% on the ‘stress barometer’ point

I have/had several patches on me. Shins, hands and bum.

They respond very well to sunshine, moisturiser and low stress.

So well that during the Summer you’d never know I have it 8)

Thanks for the tip on the soap – the wife has the cream moisturiser all the time and the soap was too good for me before, so 2 bars ordered just for me – now who’s laughing there !! I’ll try all the advice, it’s definitely not subsiding at the moment so I think it will be here for a while yet – just hope next weeks Peaks marathon is not too hot. Stress unfortunately is always part of life as I have a poorly 5 year old, just need to find a better way of dealing with it,.

Light treatment via hospital can be pita. If i have a flare up i simply book a course of sunbeds starting at 1 min day 1, 2 mins day 2 etc. and work up to 10 min sessions. I usually only need a couple of 10 min sessions. Be smart ie no burning. I use sunscreen on my face to avoid looking tanned.
I’ve only had to do above 3 times in 20yrs fortunately.
Alternatively go on hols somewhere sunny.
It can be an embarrassing condition, unfortunately.
Hopefully light treatment works for you too.
I’ve no idea what triggers mine.
Ke Fir probiotic yoghurt can help too.

ninfan – Member
Ah, soap – bring back the proper wrights coal tar soap with actual coal tar in it, smell of my childhood

So it just smells of it then lol

I have capisal shampoo, makes me stink

ninfan – Member
bring back the proper wrights coal tar soap

The current stuff is terrible, actually makes me worse.

Definitely reinforce what’s been said about stress, which of course is really hard to manage because the very nature of the condition creates stress. I think that’s why people tend to see improvements on holiday – less stress, more sun, possibly more salt water from the sea on your skin etc

Good probiotics can be worth a try – it’s amazing what stems from the gut. Biocult are good.

Creams/moisturisers/soaps etc re very personal and you might find that you react badly to some which other swear by, so worth experimenting and going easy to begin with.

Sweating often makes it worse for me, which is really frustrating!

Holy thread ruserruction and i am not sure why i am here , but can anyone affected by psoriasis try lush dream dream. My missus found it a few years ago and has cleared hers up entirely. About 10 pounds a pot which i am more than happy to pay given results seen. Any hoo – a good evening to all and anyone who has sucess with such let us know.

Lots of nice natural ingredients that they then go and add citronell, which I’m allergic to unfortunately. Smells nice though ;o)

Jerome – I’ll give that a try as well. Anything is worth trying. Since I posted this, I have been proscribed a good dose of Ciclosporin before I transfer onto Methotrexate for a bit more long term in 2 weeks and a greasy steroid foam spray to add the mix. it has faded to a level that is under control but it is constantly trying to out break in new spots, little fed up now but also used to it.

Ok let me know if anyone has as much success as my other half. Hiya john , can you work out what the active ingredient is and find that in a product. First time i have ever felt the need to recommend a health product, but amazing results for my other half when nothing else had worked..

I first discovered it over 30 years ago, even failed to get into the forces as it was too bad, after loads of weird creams i.e. creams to burn the top layer of skin away ! I finally managed it get in.

I’m unlucky where I have 2 forms of it … common one which is plaque psoriasis and guttate which any cuts or wounds also turns the area into psoriasis 😥

After many years of working abroad in the middle east it completely went but as soon as I finished working overseas its now slowly coming back

Best thing I’ve used is taking vitamin D tablets daily as its proved that psoriasis suffers lack vast amount of vitamin D.

I’ve recently been diagnosed with PTSD which doesn’t help and my stress levels goes through the roof when i get triggers, stress avoidance for me is non existent