PSORIASIS

A naturopathic doctor’s own personal experience with psoriasis and her homeopathic treatment

I first started noticing lesions of psoriasis on my scalp at the age of 10 or 11. My mother was adamant to find a cure as she knew I was extremely self-conscious about this health problem. I had tried most commonly prescribed topical corticosteroid creams with only short lasting improvement. The scalp lesions continued to appear intermittently for years until about 5 years ago when my scalp broke out with severe psoriasis plaques. This time they continued to stay and that was the beginning of my ‘true struggle’ to finding a solution.

As a naturopathic doctor, I thought I knew how to start treating my psoriasis with a naturopathic medicine approach (such as healing the gut; anti-inflammatory diet; immune system regulation). After following all of these approaches (through self-prescription and seeing other NDs) for more than a year, I saw only mild improvements. After a year into this journey, I started treatments with an ND with primary focus in classical homeopathy. After numerous remedies (from Mercury to Sulfur etc.) I saw only 20-30% improvement over the 1.5 years of working with him. Throughout all this time, I was following the fundamental dietary aspects (gluten & dairy avoidance). I gradually stopped my consults with this doctor, who truly tried and intended to help me.

Almost 3 years into my struggle with psoriasis, I met Dr. Sharif at the AzNMA conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. I truly believe my attendance to that conference was determined by fate. I listened to his lecture on ‘visual homeopathy’, which was completely new to me. Being intrigued by what ‘visual homeopathy’ could offer me in my search, I started consulting with him. I am happy to report that after almost 2 years of working with him I am 95% better.

The first remedy that Dr. Sharif prescribed was my constitutional remedy, Lycopodium 200 CH. It started to address my long-standing issues such as abdominal bloating, intense sugar cravings, easy constipation and it also began to gradually heal my psoriasis. We tried alternating between 200CH and 1M over a year and psoriasis improved by about 50% specially the recently forming lesions on my torso. Dr. Sharif followed with prescribing “Mezereum” 12CH (daily dosing at the beginning followed by as-needed basis). This remedy was based by on the intense dryness of my scalp lesions and severe itching. I noticed a further improvement of 30-40% specially on my body lesions and slightly less on the scalp.

I was continuing to use Lycopodium at 12CH or 200CH as needed, which was keeping my other digestive & general symptoms at bay. About 2 months ago, Dr. Sharif prescribed the remedy “Petroleum” 12CH, which has made the most significant difference, thus far, for my scalp lesions. This remedy was chosen based on the persisting dryness of my entire scalp and specially the lesions. Over a week, I noticed seeing an almost 50% improvement on my scalp, where lesions began to get smoother and less itchy. Today, I am happy to report that I have minimal itching and all of the lesions are equally better by 90-95%. I only have a few lesions on the anterior hairline with a slight raised appearance. I have full certainly that with Petroleum I will see full resolution of my psoriasis, very soon.

I have never been so impressed by the power of homeopathy and the amazing results one may get from it. More importantly, I have never met any physician with such expertise and knowledge in homeopathy & most naturopathic modalities like Dr. Sharif. It has been a real blessing having known him and I’m forever grateful for what he has done for me.