Psoriasis Skin Care – Natural Remedies

Psoriasis is a skin condition often referred to as a skin disease, which is believed to have no cure. Modern medicine treats the symptoms of the disease with a variety of prescription medications which can help ease those symptoms. Natural remedies exist however, so we’ll look at those in this article.

First, an overview of psoriasis. This is a condition where extra skin develops on your body. Most often it’s seen on the elbows, knees and scalp, and it looks like a thick build up of skin in white, flaky patches. Those patches are often covered with white or silver skin flakes and scales.

Psoriasis is caused by the body producing extra skin cells much faster than it normally does. In a healthy body, the surface skin is replaced about every 28-30 days. When someone has psoriasis however, new skin cells are pushed to the surface every 3-5 days instead. And that’s not enough time for the existing surface skin to die and flake off. So the skin piles up into these thick, white, flaky crustations on the surface.

Now, herbalists believe psoriasis is caused by something being wrong inside the body. So most of the psoriasis treatments and remedies tend to revolve around cleansing the body – particularly the liver and colon waste disposal system. We’ll cover the details of that in future articles.

Treating the actual skin symptoms however, is what most modern doctors do. And there are herbs which can help relieve some of the side effects these symptoms cause too. Psoriasis skin patches are often itchy and red. Sometimes they can crack and bleed too. So applying topical ointments, herbal teas and home made remedies to these areas can help relieve some of those problems with causing risky side effects.

Applying pure aloe vera gel to the psoriasis skin patches for instance, can help soften and soothe them. Applying liquid zinc can also help too, because it also soothes and softens the skin.

Putting chickweed herb into the bath water and soaking in it can help sooth and soften the psoriasis plaques as well.

Burdock is one of the best herbs to use for chronic skin problems. Make a tea of it and rinse the affected psoriasis plaques, or put Burdock into the bath water and soak in it for awhile.

Most importantly, keep your skin from becoming overly dry. Dry skin will crack and produce openings for bacteria to get under the skin leading to irritation, inflammation, and a flare-up.