Enstilar ( how to use it )

Hi! So enstillar is basically a steroid and vitamin D (almost - it works in a similar way but is an analogue). The concerns here are - - Young skin thinning and no longer functioning as a mechanical or chemical barrier to infection. - absorption of steroid - this is generally very low in most of the population but a little absorption over a long time adds up, and steroids can have a troubling effect on development, weight, blood sugar etc if elevated. Also, they are likely to have a reduced effect overtime - hence the break or reset that has been advised to allow your sons body to reduce tolerance. - Elevated Vitamin D levels causing an elevated blood calcium. The risks of each of the above are very low in reality. More often, steroid-like side effects (anxiety, weight gain) can be better explained by having just really bad psoriasis which DOES have significant systemic effects if it gets out of control. Inflammation leads to metabolic changes, mood changes (we’re talking about being near covered here). Your derma’s advice is the most qualified advice you’ll receive, however - generally people can tolerate more long term application (2-3 months, before a break) but the 4-4 is erring on the side of caution. The alternating days will only end up putting your son on a 50% dose of enstillar. It’s best to hit hard with topicals to try and knock it back so that you gain some ground to try a reset. Coming to terms with psoriasis is an understated task. It’s lifelong, comes and goes in severity, and will likely require a variety of treatments throughout life. Educating your son to acknowledge and understand these treatments as you are likely doing will be very important to his well-being. All the best - hope that helps (biologist and obviously self-invested in psoriasis research)

Thankyou very much for your information. It feels like we are fighting a loosing battle. I have to Apply his medication twice daily as it’s impossible for him to do the back of himself & I feel like he’s begging to resent me. Like all I’m about is looking at & treating his skin 😢 Do you know anything about probiotics & if they help. Akso I’ve hmjust ordered some omega 3 supplements Thankyou.

No problem! I think I represent to clinical perspective on this forum. Psoriasis is a very individual and changeable disorder and a number of alternative (not supported by research) therapies spring up and, because psoriasis is a stubborn, difficult to treat condition, people become fed up of side effects and a lack of progress and seek a way to basically ‘solve’ the condition by trying things that seem more ‘natural’. My own perspective is that alternative therapies like omega 3 rarely have GOOD QUALITY research supporting them, but can have a very modest impact on inflammation. Fish oil is the main source of omega 3 in supplements, which is also (often toxically) high in vitamin A, which has some modest anti-psoriatic mechanisms too. It’s unlikely to solve the psoriasis. What happens to some is that it kind of calms down right when they give up and try things like omega 3 and then the brain goes ‘omega 3 helps’ but why not? It’ll only help - best case your son reacts really well to it. Worst case - it does nothing but makes his lipid profile slightly healthier anyway. It’s tough. It’s gonna be a road to his acceptance and until he adapts to the idea of life treating his psoriasis, but he will likely find his balance. Remember that few people come to forums because their psoriasis is easily resolved, and you’re likely to see the extreme side here. Remain hopeful and positive for him.

Thankyou for your time & your advice x

Enstilar foam (in my view) is the best rub-on-skin treatment today for psoriasis. Stops the burn and itch in seconds, and deletes the redness in a day or two... But... a big but... it only lasts a few days or week or two... And then there is a big red "rebound"... And the steroid ultimately thins the skin... It is really not a long-term (or mid-term) option... It is just something to calm the soreness for a few days. It is unlikely to make the P "go away".

Hi TracyJane. It breaks my heart to hear of children having psoriasis. I’ve only just developed it and I’m struggling in my mid 30s! I would thoroughly recommend looking up ‘Hanna Sillitoe’ and see what she has to say. As someone mentioned above no natural therapies are supported by research but there are tonnes of anecdotal success stories with changing diet. Lots of love to you and your boy.

Thankyou Bobbin and Buggins. I will look into this. Much love x

So - anything that revs up the inflammatory response of your immune cells is going to make psoriasis worse: smoking, alcohol, a high sugar, high omega-6, saturated fat diet, excess weight. Addressing the above should make the psoriasis easier to treat. For some people, their inflammatory response is super sensitive to dietary changes / their psoriasis isn’t especially severe (severity is better measured by how raised and red the skin is, rather than how widespread) and the psoriasis eases with minimal changes. I have a friend who gets very small thin plaques in her eyebrows only. Whereas I f I don’t intervene with NB-UVB once a year, mine just progresses to full body. If I’m living a vegan lifestyle with no alcohol and shed some weight, I need less light to achieve clearance. The difficulty comes (and, I’ll admit, is my pet peeve) when people think that something like psoriasis comes from ‘living unhealthily’ - it’s an errored immune response with some underlying autoimmune conventions. It’s a mis-programming of the immune system and it’s nobodies fault - something else that new sufferers have to come to terms with. Some psoriasis sufferers often go into ‘remission’, others like me never do without significant medical treatment. Changing diet will be a huge long term help because long term inflammation is associated with lots of medical problems, e.g. heart disease, diabetes. Just teach your son that it’s a ‘staying healthy will make it better than NOT staying healthy’ outlook. By suggesting that diet will solve it, it can give toxic feelings of failure when it inevitably doesn’t and, in the worse case, foster an unhealthy attitude toward nutrition. False hope can, in many ways, be more emotionally damaging where psoriasis is concerned. My thoughts are with you. How old is your son? In my experience, children adopt the condition as no big deal if they’re <10. Teenagers... poor things. You’re doing a great job - as he gets older, if things don’t improve, the dermatologist may try a different therapy. As I say- I respond very well to NB-UVB and have a home unit. The later in life this can be started the better, as the radiation causes DNA damage which stacks up over time. However, not everything need be this way for him forever :)