Mystic Tan P Therapy?
from Roddy H.

Ed:  Good afternoon from Boulder, Colorado. I am a 33 year old male who started having guttate psoriasis outbreaks at age 27. Since the first incident, I have never been completely clear for more than a few months. My doctor has prescribed the Dovonex/Ultravate ointments used alternately. He also has me on UVB narrowband phototherapy. This seems to work fairly well for me but I still will get an onset once or twice a year (change of seasons) that causes a full body flare and great emotional distress.

Last spring I was planning to go to Florida for a trip and was intensely distressed about the condition of my skin prior to the trip. I still had prominent spots over many areas of my body and I knew I would be hiding out when I traveled South. In desperation and kind of on a whim I went to a tanning salon that had a Mystic Tan booth. If you don’t know about Mystic Tan, it is a plastic booth in which the user is sprayed with a self-tanning agent. There are other companies that have similar products but all use the same sort of technique. The self-tanning solution is sprayed at high pressure from some sort of air-compressor through many nozzles in the booth. In effect, you are completely covered with dihydroxyacetone unless you have some part of your body shielded during the "application."

After the "tan" sets in, my psoriasis spots seem to get pinkish and become less visible. It might take a day or more to experience the maximum effect. The tan only lasts a week or less depending on showering/workout habits. I have been experimenting with this since last year and it seems to help me. The procedure is rather expensive — $20.00-25.00 per visit — and a pain when you are also doing light therapy.

I certainly do not advocate this as any cure but it does seem to lessen the appearance of the spots and therefore reduces the stress level I was experiencing. I was certain my anxiety, because of my lack of control over my P, was making it far worse. This has added another tool to my arsenal to battle this depressing disease. Hope this helps someone else!  Good Luck, -Roddy H.

*****

Ed’s Response:  Well, Jo W. won’t be surprised.  Read Fake Tan is Improving Her P and Fake Tan Still Working: More Details.

The active ingredient sprayed on in the Mystic Tan booth — dihydroxyacetone — is the same thing Jo was getting from her Fake Tan product(s), so there must be something about it that palliate’s some peoples’ P. 

I might try this myself, though I probably wouldn’t go the Mystic Tan route as it does sound pricey.  I’ll probably buy the OTC product, like Jo did, and try it on a few normally hidden lesions. 

If anybody else tries this, please let us know how it turns out!  -Ed

P.S. — I know what you mean about seasonal flares, Roddy.  I lived in Colorado when my P first started (1989) and I remember the season changes as being very hard on my skin.  At that time I was living on the Western Slope (Grand Junction), but I spent my childhood (50’s and 60’s) in and around Denver (Eastern Slope) and CU (headquartered in Boulder) is my alma mater.  I hope you’re helping to hold down the population explosion out there!  Go Buffalos!

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