Know Psoriasis To No Psoriasis: Freedom from Fear of Psoriasis

Psoriasis is an uncommon word.People were unaware that psoriasis is a skin disease. Many believed it is a new disease but that is not true. Psoriasis is not relatively new. It has been around for thousands of years going as far back as the era of Egyptian mummies. Even today there are several misconceptions and myths about psoriasis. While a few misconceptions gradually cleared over time nobody knew about the causes of this disease. This does not mean that it was not being treated. Psoriasis treatments have prevailed for centuries. Some treatments were successful while others were failures. However most treatments were usually inhumane. They were based on assumptions opinions and trial and error. A step-by-step reliable and safe treatment that cured the disease did not exist. In 1979 around the time I was an undergraduate student very few psoriasis cases existed. Since no effective treatment had been discovered yet our college would offer patients to reside permanently in the hospital. This helped doctors to conduct research and teach students. It also helped patients especially the poor people as they would be provided with free food and utilities. I remember a homeless psoriasis patient who was extremely happy to reside at the hospital as he would at least have food and shelter. We saw a rise in psoriasis patients as years wentby. This intrigued me to study psoriasis in depth. Today psoriasis is a prevalent condition. The percentage of people being affected by psoriasis is increasing day by day. Around 1981 due to the high number of patients AIDS was identified as an epidemic. The severity of symptoms and the speed with which the disease spread forced the medical community to begin research. They rapidly came out with treatment measures and controlled it within ten years. Around the same time many countries had recognised Tuberculosis as a contagious and deadly disease. The world’s governments had to take urgent action to avoid an epidemic. However psoriasis was prevalent even before. Until 1979 the books stated that psoriasis usually occurred between the ages of 30 and 40. During those days people would generally be done with 60 to 70% of life’s responsibilities. They were headed toward retirement and didn’t care about the disease or getting treated. This was one reason why doctors were not serious enough to research the disease or find safe treatment measures. None of the world’s governments wanted to conduct research. It was late in the 1960s that all the psoriasis patients came together in the USA and established the non-profit National Psoriasis Foundation in Oregon to research and treat psoriasis.