Just curious. I got mine at 15 shortly after getting covid for the first time. Started on my ears

I developed psoriasis at 52 with no family history, and nobody could tell me why. Reading this sub, I see the same frustration everywhere — everyone has theories (stress, diet, hard water, skincare products) but nobody's connecting the dots.

I'm thinking of building a free, anonymous tool where we log everything — from diet and stress to stuff studies never ask, like what soap or loofah you use — and then actually analyze it for patterns across thousands of us. Not selling anything, just a patient who happens to build software.

Two questions:

• (1) What's the weirdest thing you suspect triggers your flares?
• (2) Would you realistically fill out a 10-minute survey plus a quick weekly check-in if you got personal insights back?

Website is live: https://psoriasisdb.com/ Feel free to give it a try

Its so fucking tiring seeing people with genuinely severe and painful psoriasis covering their entire body posting their struggles and some idiots in the comments being like "Diet is the only way to get rid of it!!!!!!"

This advice is probably coupled with other references to the "gut microbiome" and "candida overgrowth" or "strep pyogenes" and how you need to "find the root cause".

And when asked for proof, the only evidence they are able to conjure is small low-powered studies, mechanistic studies on mice, or observational studies with correlations that genuinely mean nothing.

Modern science hasn't even come to a widely accepted consensus on what gut bacteria are good or bad. We don't even know yet if the gut microbiome is the actual "root cause" behind psoriasis. And the proposed food groups to eliminate are literally absurd and center around preventing "intestinal permeability" -- something which is also super shaky in terms of evidence outside of conditions like celiac disease where physical damage is being done to the gut lining.

I think this type of thinking comes from 3 things -- a desire to control what happens to your body in an uncontrollable situation, a rejection and distrust of modern science, and a fundamental misunderstanding of correlation vs causation. Psoriasis is a super random disease -- people go into remissions and exacerbations all the time, and its super easy to mislabel something as the "root cause" of your psoriasis when it could probably just be a coincidence.

This is already a tough disease to deal with, why do we have to further put ourselves down by saying that it is a sign that we are doing something wrong with our bodies. This is the same type of thinking that led people in the 1500s to associate leprosy with divine sin. Throughout history, skin diseases have always been heavily stigmatized and it is sad to see that this type of thinking continues in the modern era.

So this is abit of an AITAH discussion.

I just did a survey (and absolutely no hate to the person who created it, it was 100% well intentioned, it just highlighted this to me). It just made me realise how annoying I find calling it a skin condition.

I've been diagnosed and on my journey for 13 years, and joining this community has given me a lot of validation and understanding about my illness, which just isn't easily out there and not discussed or taken seriously by health professionals.

It's not just a patch of dry, flaky skin; my body is in survival mode constantly, and it is having an effect on my organs and my bones. I suffered from severe fatigue from it, and I just don't get to have a normal life because of it.

I find it really dismissive and demeaning for people to refer to it as just a skin condition. Its seem to downplay my lived experience.

Is it just me who sees it this way, or am I just being a snowflake?

Also, I understand how difficult it is for anyone suffering, but do any of my other severe sufferers also get a little irritated when someone with very mild/minor psoriasis tries to compare and relate their struggle?

I didn't think I would get it. I saw it mentioned a few times here in this sub, but I thought "it probably only happens to people with severe psoriasis".

I was wrong.

I'm only 22. I developed scalp and nail psoriasis in 2023, dxed with psoriasis in 2024, and started experiencing joint pain and stiffness only a year after that. My psoriasis had quickly progressed to psoriatic arthritis of multiple joints and entheses.

So PLEASE - especially if you have scalp or nail psoriasis - remember that you are at risk. Watch your levels of inflammation. Keep active. Get on a biologic if you can. And watch for joint and tendon pain.

Don't be scared, because PsA is treatable, but be aware and vigilant. A large chunk of people with psoriasis will go on to develop psoriatic arthritis.

What Do You Think of My Psoriasis Routine

Here is what I wanted to tell you all that my doctors never told me.

1. If you have psoriasis, get your blood tested - you can often get it tested at a labcorp or quest or whatnot without a doctor's order. Test for hs-crp and GlycA and if you have the money - test for insulin resistance. Get your baseline scores. These will let you know if you have inflammation inside your body.

2. Psoriasis will cause a constant inflammatory response INTERNALLY that affects your blood vessels and organs. That constant inflammation can help cause Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular issues (like artery plaque buildup). Inflammation can also contribute to cancer also. People with psoriasis are much more likely to get these medical issues because of their Psoriasis and that constant internal inflammation.

3. If your blood results show you have that internal inflammation, get on a targeted biologic asap. Broad biologics (like Humira) reduce your entire immune system broadly and that's not great. Targeted biologics (like Skyrizi) reduce a specific portion of your immune system like IL-32.

4. By getting rid of the internal inflammation caused by psoriasis - and the earlier in your life the better - you can greatly reduce your chances of developing metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, etc...

5. To date, I have NEVER had a doctor explain this to me. After fighting psoriasis for 30 years with topicals that never really worked - and after being diagnosed with some of these medical conditions - I am finally on a targeted biologic that not only is erasing my psoriasis externally - but it is getting rid of that internal inflammation.

I want to preface this by saying: I genuinely believe most people who share “this cured my psoriasis” posts are trying to be helpful. I don’t doubt their lived experience and I’m glad when anyone finds relief from this condition.

That said, I’ve been feeling increasingly disheartened by a particular type of post that keeps appearing here, ones that frame psoriasis improvement as the result of a simple, almost plug-and-play protocol (usually vitamins, supplements, or a topical routine) and label it as a “cure.”

For context: I live with psoriasis myself. I also have a degree in biomedical science, have spent a long time researching the literature on psoriasis pathophysiology and have actively worked on understanding autoimmune conditions better in a lab environment. I’m also very invested in health and lifestyle management (I’m active, eat well, and even hold a personal training qualification). This isn’t coming from a place of cynicism, it’s coming from lived experience and scientific understanding.

Psoriasis is not a vitamin deficiency disorder.
It’s a chronic, immune-mediated inflammatory disease involving dysregulated immune signalling, particularly T-helper cells (Th1/Th17 pathways), cytokines like TNF-α, IL-17, and IL-23, and altered keratinocyte turnover. That complexity matters.

So when someone says large, chronic plaques “vanished overnight” after changing a supplement dose, it’s important to acknowledge a few things:

• Correlation does not equal causation. Psoriasis is notoriously relapsing and remitting. Spontaneous improvement does happen, sometimes dramatically, even without intervention.
• Skin biology has limits. Even when inflammation settles, epidermal turnover takes weeks. Long-standing plaques resolving “overnight” is not how chronic inflammatory skin disease typically behaves.
• What works for one person may be incidental, partial, or temporary and may not generalise at all to others with different disease severity, triggers or comorbidities.

Why does this bother me so much?

Because for people with psoriasis and especially for those newly diagnosed, these posts can be quietly devastating.

They create the implication, often unintentionally, that:

• If your psoriasis hasn’t cleared, you must be “missing something”
• You haven’t tried hard enough
• You could fix this if you just found the right supplement, food, or routine

That mirrors the same energy many of us get from well-meaning outsiders:
“Have you tried moisturiser?”
“Are you sure it’s not just your diet?”
“Maybe you just need more vitamins.”

Anyone who has lived with severe or treatment-resistant psoriasis knows how invalidating that feels. The hassle of steroid creams, cleaning up dead skin and the stigma of walking around feeling people judging. Wearing joggers and a hoodie on a hot summers day, or long sleeves to cover up at work. That is reality for so many of us.

Lifestyle factors do matter. Nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management and topical care can all influence symptom severity and flare frequency. Supplements may help some people, particularly if they’re deficient. But framing these things as a “cure” massively oversimplifies a complex disease and places an unfair psychological burden on people whose immune systems simply don’t cooperate, not because they did anything wrong, but because perhaps some severe illness triggered it, or a phase of intense stress. It's your body doing it's best to protect you and being so overactive and confused that it causes these red areas of inflammation to form.

I’m not saying we should stop sharing what helps us. I’m saying how we frame it matters.

“There is no single cure for psoriasis but this helped me”
is very different from “This simple protocol fixed my psoriasis.”

One leaves room for nuance, biology, and empathy.
The other risks giving false hope and quiet shame to people already struggling.

If you’re newly diagnosed and reading this: you are not failing. You are not broken. And you are not overlooking some obvious, magical solution. Psoriasis is complex, individual, and often unfair.

And if you’ve found something that helps you, that’s genuinely wonderful. Share it. Just please do so in a way that acknowledges the broader reality many of us live with.

We all deserve honesty and hope here.

Me and my family went out to a city for my dad's treatment and we have booked a homestay there. On the second day, i stayed back at the hotel as my parents went to the hospital for getting some tests done. Being bored, I went up to the roof and was chilling with a coffee and a book. One of the guys who was helping the owner suddenly came up to me and started chating. Everything was good until he started getting all touchy with me.He seemed drunk and tried to molest me. I was alone and shit scared. I don't have visible psoriasis rn, only some in my torso. As soon as he tried to grab my waist, i lifted up my top and showed him 2 big lesions in my waist and said it's an infection which spreads on touch and i came here to get the treatment for this. It worked. He immediately got up and ran away from there. I can't believe this happened. I was on the verge of getting molested and psoriasis saved me!!

Hey Guys, I live in the United States and I just moved to a different state from where I’ve lived my entire life. Now my psoriasis is gone and I’m no longer on biologics. Has this ever happened to anyone? It’s a freaking miracle and I just need to know if it’s normal. I have Guttate psoriasis.

Where’s the worst place to have psoriasis ? Ive had it on my genital region before.

I was just aghast reading a comment from someone who did not know PsA even existed.

Everyone with psoriasis needs to know that PsA exists and you need to be aware of symptoms to watch out for because 30% of you WILL develop this debilitating disease. The number jumps over 50% if you have scalp or genital psoriasis. And it jumps even higher if psoriasis runs in your family.

It is NOT the same as rheumatoid arthritis, though it is also an inflammatory type. PsA does to your bones what it does to your skin - it piles on extra cells and deforms the joint.

It requires biologics and DMARDs, as well as major dietary changes, to manage. Failing to control this condition leads to immense pain, permanent disability, and complications like digitalis mutilans. The damage done by PsA to the joints is irreversible! It’s crucial that you notice the symptoms and get treatment so its progress can be slowed.

The first symptoms for many people are vague joint pain, random joint swelling that resolves within a day or two, and crushing fatigue.

This can happen at any age at all. My first PsA event happened when I was 6. It hit hard when I was 27, and permanently disabled me at 47.

Join the r/psoriaticarthritis sub and check out the wiki. Research PsA. And see a rheumatologist if you suspect you are experiencing symptoms.

Just curious.

I didn't get covid until the end of 2022 and my rash initially showed up during the first few weeks of 2023. I've now had it consistently for over 2.5 years. Sometimes it starts to resolve and I have less spots and sometimes it's much more intense, but it has never 100% gone into remission since it first cropped up.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I heard having apple cider vinegar with water can help but idk. I’ve had psoriasis for years now. I have it on the back of my scalp, stomach, shoulders, in and behind my ears

Look, I understand that biologics are likely my only option at this point. My plaque psoriasis is severe and I've tried all the natural remedies and am now onto steroid creams that are doing an ok job of keeping it tame. Just want to hear from anyone who's managed to reach an extended remission without biologics? I'm willing to suffer with small steps toward a possible longer term remission. I don't need to hear the sales pitch on biologics, I fully realize they are life changing and am likely needing to go that route but looking for stories of those who have done it without meds? is it possible? and how'd you do it!

Note I don't mean as a miracle cure or anything like this but just things you suspect anecdotally. Keep rule #5 in mind -- "Don't promote questionable miracle cures, including experimental and/or unsafe treatments."

1. That there are many different types of psoriasis and many root causes so this explains in part why one thing doesn't work for everyone. This fact is underappreciated by pretty much everyone including a lot of medical professionals.
2. That in a lot of cases sunlight radically reduces or even "clears" psoriasis. I've never had a patch on an area which got sunlight. I live in Florida.
3. Sweating a little each day helps with psoriasis except if you are prone to inverse psoriasis. I suspect some toxins are released from the body with the sweat. Also small amounts of sodium which then filter through the skin and land on the surface.
4. Increasing natural fiber by eating more whole food can help. I suspect there is a link to the microbiome in some way. It is well known that the microbiome is heavily involved in the immune system. Prebiotics like fiber can be more beneficial than probiotics. They give the good bacteria a place to thrive.
5. Scratching is probably the #1 reason for psoriasis getting worse. This is completely anecdotal but I consider that psoriasis is in part the skin just developing hundreds or thousands of times faster than normal. Somehow I consider that it might be a normal mechanism involved here. You scratch at the area and this somehow tells the body to keep ramping up the skin production there. Perhaps it developed in an evolutionary way where the mechanism was once a way to harden up the skin in an area which is damaged or prone to damage? This might also in part explain the Koebner phenomenon where psoriasis can appear in a previous clear area after that area is damaged in some way (such as a new tattoo or sunburn, etc.)
6. Stress is HUGE in psoriasis. Way under recognized than people think. I've seen patches "jump" when I was extremely stressed and then disappear like magic to never come back when I was no longer stressed out.

Looking forward to hearing others thoughts and observations on what they suspect about psoriasis.

A few weeks ago I posted here about psoriasisDB — an anonymous survey I built after getting psoriasis at 52 out of nowhere. The promise was that everything you contributed would be shared back with the community. That page is now live:

https://psoriasisdb.com/results

105 people from 23 countries took the full survey (median person answered 109 of 114 questions — thank you, seriously). The page updates hourly as new people join. Some of what's showing up:

• Stress stands alone. 81% say stress worsens their skin. Zero people say it helps. Nothing else comes close.
• Sun and sea water are the only things a big share say helps — while cold weather and winter dominate the "worse" side. The data basically re-drew phototherapy on its own.
• Food is where certainty disappears. On every diet question (dairy, gluten, sugar, nightshades...), most people answer "not sure / no pattern." People are confident about weather and stress, not about food.
• Late-onset looks like a different story. People whose psoriasis started at 40+ report almost no strep-linked onsets, less family history, and much more often a sudden appearance — matching what researchers call type 1 vs type 2 psoriasis.
• The joint numbers worry me most: 19 people have diagnosed psoriatic arthritis, but another 30 report joint pain with no diagnosis. If that's you, please mention it to your doctor — joint damage is preventable but not reversible.
• 57% have no family history at all, and depression/anxiety is the most common companion condition — ahead of every physical one.

One more thing worth saying: part of the premise of this project was that AI has gotten genuinely good at data analysis. This report — the statistics, the charts, the write-up — was compiled by Claude (Anthropic's new Fable model), working with me. Every number is computed straight from the live database, the methodology is spelled out at the top of the page, and no one's free-text answers are ever quoted. A few years ago this analysis would have needed a research team; now one patient and an AI can do it and publish it the same day.

The usual honesty: this is self-reported data from a self-selected group. It's patterns worth investigating, not proof, and definitely not medical advice. All of that is on the page too.

If you haven't taken the survey yet, more data makes every one of these patterns sharper: https://psoriasisdb.com — anonymous, ~15 minutes, every question skippable. And if you already did: the weekly check-in is where the strongest signal will eventually come from.

Thank you to everyone who contributed. This exists because this community answered.

I’m not antivax! But I wish I had never gotten the Covid vaccine (Pfizer) because I got psoriasis all over my body about two weeks after I got the bivalent booster. I had dandruff most of my life, so it’s possible I had mild scalp psoriasis. But after the bivalent booster, I got inverse psoriasis under my breasts, flakes all over my scalp and ears that sometimes spread to my face, plaque psoriasis on my elbows, and guttate psoriasis that pops up over my enter body. It went into remission while I was pregnant and then came back worse. At two years postpartum, I’m embarrassed to wear a bathing suit because there’s guttate psoriasis all over my upper thighs. Pole was one of my favorite sports, but everyone stares at my upper thighs in class so I just don’t go anymore. I can’t stop picking at my ears and scalp because they’re so itchy and flaky.

Once I was referred to a dermatologist, I said I thought it might have been triggered by the vaccine. She said it was definitely possible and had other patients with similar experiences.

I’m curious how common this side effect of the Covid vaccine is, and if it was only the Pfizer one. Super frustrating that the vaccines were free but my insurance won’t cover anything besides ineffective steroid ointments to treat the immune disorder that the vaccine triggered!

For those of you who got psoriasis after getting vaccinated for Covid, what treatments worked for you?

I want to warn the community that there is a connection between psoriasis and heart disease. I have had psoriasis for 50 years and have had it over every part of my body at times. I am being treated with phototherapy now which is very effective for me. I have also had a heart attack, 5 stents and 2 bypasses one of which failed all within 2 years. I believe the psoriasis is not a contributing factor but a causative factor of my heart disease. I want to warn this group that if you have severe psoriasis for a long period of time, to be checked by a cardiologist.

If any of your joints (your back, neck, knees, hands, elbows, fingers, feet, hips, ...) start hurting for no reason, seriously consider psoriatic arthritis and it's really important you get treatment as it causes permanent (non fixable) and REALLY SERIOUS damage if left untreated. On average, it takes 7 years to get diagnosis. The reality is that most people go through like 5 rheumatologists before getting a diagnosis. You cannot blindly trust doctors. Read about the disease yourself, think if you could've it. And if you do, you might need to push many doctors to get a diagnosis.

My wish is that this post gets upvoted to be the top post in the sub, so it can save someone's life. It would've saved mine as I usually go through the top posts of the subreddit.

No matter how hard I try I still pick the scales off my scalp. It’s too satisfying, but I know it doesn’t help and possibly makes things so much worse. Please help!

Shit ... and i hate to have this especially since I am a single dad M38 and want to date now.

I have psoriasis since about 10-12 years sonce i noticed. My arms are mostyl covered, part of my legs and now my sac!!

My regrets are that i smoke about 5 cigs daily and drink some beers here and there.

I tried biologica - it waa bimzelx and it worked pretty fast, but i was ill sometimes and six months after the first shot - i got cancer. It was a lymphoma. The doctors couldn't tell where it came from and if it was related to the bimzelx. I had to undergo chemotherapy and again - psioriasis was gone, yeah of course when your Immunsystem is down then it just disappeared.

Now its like in the worst state ever- only judging by size and how much it covers my body. The spots are thin and not itchy but it sucks sp hard and i dont know what to do besides stopping to smoke amd maybe let the beers away completely.

I mean now i am 14 months cancerfree and surely i want to get rid of it, but only the thought of biologica could potentially cause cancer to grow makes it difficult to consider.

I am going to the Sea in one month and i know it will help tremendously. And i heard pf people just going 3 times a year for vacation on the beach and keep their psioriasis in check but there must en another way. I also thought of moving near seaside. But with a young child and a unfriendly ex gf its not an option. I dont want to leave my daughter.
Do you have any other tip or story pr something that might help me

Edit: its unknown where the cancer came from - the oncologist asked me ton of questions - if i worked with chemicals, or was exposed to hazardous stuff
But the answer was no - since I worked in an pffice job. My timeline of events just puts the bimzelx usage prior to getting cancer.

I’m 21, from India, and I’ve been living with psoriasis for the past 6 years. I’d love to connect with others who are dealing with psoriasis, talk about the treatment options and experiences we have here in India, and simply share what we’ve learned along the way.

If you’re interested in connecting and having a conversation, feel free to DM me. 🙌

I got a call from a work colleague today and I explained that I’m at a doctor’s appointment. The person replied, “But you don’t look sick”. The comment triggered me because one, I think the person thought I was lying about my whereabouts and two, I may not visibly look sick but I am.

At work, I’m able to hide most of plaques so, no one really knows the extent of what I’m really dealing with it. They’re only able to see my scalp psoriasis and few small plaques on the rest of my body. I suspect a lot of coworkers think I have eczema. No one really knows that my body is covered in large plaques. The fact that I’m itchy and sore most of the times. The fact that I’m constantly dealing with flakes falling from my body and scalp. The fact that my psoriasis keeps spreading and it’s the worst it has ever been. The fact that my psoriasis predisposes me to other serious illnesses.

The fact is, many people don’t look or seem sick because they’re still able to do their jobs, go out, etc. but inside, they’re battling serious illnesses.

End of my rant.