Smoking & Alcohol - Is it a factor?

Dear Dom n friends,
Based on so many testimonials and feedback on the net, what is your view/personal experience?

Does smoking/drinking really causes the P to flare or worsen? I for one am a smoker for the past 15 years and i do drink occasionally but have stopped alcohol for past few months.

Dom, i have contacted Eugene and gave my details via mail. How regularly do you'll meet and how many members are there? I hope to attend a meeting in the future and meetup with you and the others.

Take care friend,
Raj

Hi Raj,

My personal opinion is that psoriasis patients should try their best to stop smoking and eventually try to target stopping all together.

Here is my personal point of view:

Smoking causes so many diseases related to the internal organs .e.g heart disease, cancer to organs, etc.

As your immune is gravely affected when these organs get hit with all the toxins from cigarettes - it will only make your immune system weaker and out of whack which it already is kind faulty due to our psoriasis genes.

There is also a revelation that Psoriasis Patients may be predisposed to heart disease. Please google this. Hence if we are really predisposed - cigarettes are only going to push psoriasis smokers further "into the zone" of where the heart ailment may occur.

Again the above is my personal point of view derived from information I have read from health reports and the internet.

With regards to the meetings, I think they occur 2-3 times a year. Minimum once a year as there is an AGM that needs to take place.

Perhaps you can check with Eugene when the next meeting is?

Take care and I hope your psoriasis is under control or that you are making some progress.

Dear dom,

Tnx 4 yr feedback and i think quitting is order 4 me now as long as improvements on my lesions can be seen.

4 me, stress is a major trigger and a few small lesions have appeared on my face of all places. Currently trying elomet cream and there is improvement.

I hope more sufferers will join our forum so that we can share our opinions and personal experiences.

Take care n hang in there.

Raj.

Hi Raj,

Great to hear that you are of the opinion we should get more Psoriasis patients on this forum.

However, I think (a) not many people know of this forum, so pls invite other psoriasis patients you come across to come here (b) there may be may psoriasis patients that are not familiar with using the internet and forums

Keep to the less stronger steroids like elomet on the face and other sensitive areas. Dr Alan Yee (advisor to P Association) said that the stronger steroids can cause some permanent marks or stretch marks to the senistive areas if applied to often.

I have tried to contact a few directories and also the Dermatological website to link to this forum but no response as yet. Will keep trying

By the way Raj,

Please go through this website for the time being ..

http://www.flakehq.com/

Look through the letters to Ed (website editior) ... you may find good tips and info to pick up. Though some systemic treatments discussed there are currently out of our reach ...

I have been smoking before I had Psoriasis, so basically I can't really tell if there is a difference when I smoke or not. All I know is if you try to quit smoking, it might get worse due to the frustration built up because of the withdrawal effects (not sure but theoritically it might happen right?). I tried to stop smoking for awhile before to see whether it worked or not but the craving of cigarettes were making things worse. I felt more stressful and my psoriasis got worse.

In my opinion, alcohol made me feel worse. Whenever I drink large amounts, I feel itchy and I start to scratch (not sure whether I'm allergic to alcohol or not). One thing for sure is the dehydration caused by alcohol will cause the scales of the patches to dry up and cracks. However I still drink once in awhile, it doesn't really matter isn't it? Since there's no proof saying quit drinking and you'd get cured.

All right, I've just seen my derm recently and finally he asked whether I smoke and drink. I told him I tried quitting smoking and it really made not difference so I continued smoking and then he laughed and said "I like your idea but I'm an anti-smoking person". According to his explainations, he said alcohol and ciggies are suppose to SLOW DOWN your treatment. Therefore if your treatment doesn't seem to work, it might be caused by your smoking habit.

Your derm seems to have a point. Did you try using a nicotene patch when you tried to quit? Maybe if you want to try again in the future - you may want to ask your derm if it is safe for us Psoriasis patients to use nicotene patches.

I haven't smoked before so I can helped you with regards to what is the best method to assist you in quitting.

I have a box of nicotine patches actually. I left it there for almost 2 years and I didn't even open it yet hahaha it's already expired though. Wasted RM65 for nothing.

No, working out won't do much. But dude, you don't *want* to raise your tolerance, because that means you'll just need to drink and more to get high. And a tolerance to alcohol means you're becoming addicted, and could get cirrhosis/brain damage/liver cancer etc. Why would you want that? Two-three drinks a day is considered moderate drinking for the average adult male, who has a higher body weight than you do and brain that's less vulnerable, since it's no longer growing. If you move beyond that, you're increasingly likely to screw yourself up.
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Fireman Sam | Omega 3