Burning Seawater and Steroids that Steal Hair
from Doug H.

Ed:  Like some of your other correspondents, I started to suffer from crippling P later in life — 44 to be exact.  It seemed to really come on after a series of bad events happened in my life:  My father died from a mistake made during a routine hernia operation.  I spent 10 days in the hospital asleep by his bed in ICU.  I noticed my skin getting dryer and dryer.  I would ask the nurse for one of those little hospital lotion bottles.  I was going through the whole bottle in a day. That same month I was moving out of my home, quitting my job, trying to rent my house, moving into a new house and studying to pass my real estate brokers exam.  It was too much, my skin went down hill from there.  I finally went to a Doctor who sent me to a derm. 

The derm must have looked at me for all of 5 min — if that.  He prescribed some steroid cream and was out of there.  My skin cleared and for awhile I was fine.  A friend told me to get ready for when it comes back — maybe worse than before.  One of my pastimes was surfing.  Someone else said sunshine and the beach is great for your skin.  So I went surfing. 

I felt like I’d thrown myself into an ocean of hot burning oil.  It seemed to calm down after a while but holy s$%^t. 

Here is my first question:

1. Is salt water good for your skin, combined with the sun does it help the P? 

I want to go surfing because when I am in the water I don’t scratch.

2.  A steroid has made my hair fall out.  This maybe as bad as having the P, because I am always wearing hats now.  I read that this can be a side effect from the steroid, but that begs my question:  Will my hair grow back some day?  I want to cure this without steroids I am so afraid of the side effects.  Please help. 

-Doug H.

*****

Ed’s Response:  I’ll do my best to address your questions, Doug.

1.  Seawater helps some people with P.  Specific forms of salt water — from the Dead Sea in the Middle East, from Soap Lake in Oregon — cater to and are the source of “cures” for some psoriatics.  Far more people, however, find sunshine improves their P.  The fact that romping on beaches provides both salt water and sun may confound the issues (which is helping ... or are they both helping?).  However, consider this:  Many dermatologists treat psoriasis with various UVA and UVB light therapies (two forms of light, both of which are also received from the sun), but few dermatologists use or prescribe sea- or salt water for treating P.

With regard to your feeling scalded when you tried surfing after manifesting P, I can’t help but wonder if the burning didn’t occur where you had been scratching?  I’ve learned the hard way that lesions that are scratched can sting when exposed to water (at least initially) and I imagine salt water would be even worse.

2.  First, a personal comment.  As a flaker who happened to wear hats even BEFORE he started to flake (see pic, in which I was 35 and flakeless), I would quibble with any suggestion that having to wear hats might be worse than having P.  As you’re obviously not a “hat man,” I can almost forgive your sentiment.  But to your question ... the only drugs used for P that I’ve associated with hair loss (e.g., Soriatane, methotrexate and maybe one or two others) all promise a “temporary” loss (if any loss at all).  There are a number of different steroids — topical, injectable... — used for P, but I’m sure their side-effects are broad and varied.  Though I’ve heard from lots of flakers who have suffered hair loss from assorted treatments, I’ve never heard from one who says “I lost my hair and it never grew back.”  (Could be, though, that they’re just too angry to write about it.)

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