Whether or not you might be taking any prescription medication, the availability of over the counter psoriasis treatment means that it is possible get relief from the inflamed skin that epitomises this disease, without necessarily even consulting with a doctor. Although it is generally advisable to seek medical advice with any condition, if only to make a positive diagnosis, psoriasis sufferers often find the best treatments are those which are not prescription only medications.
Before you begin to try and employ any self administered treatment, it is vital that you do get confirmation that what you are dealing with is psoriasis. This is always best sought from a medical professional, and in most cases a diagnosis can be made from just a brief examination of the skin. The signs and symptoms your doctor will be looking for when investigating a possible case of psoriasis will include the scaly red patches of skin that are typical of the disease.
What separates psoriasis from other skin disorders, such as eczema, is this scaly nature of the affected areas. The presence of these scales gives the skin area a silver or whitish appearance, combined with the red or pink coloured rash. These scales are actually dying skin cells which have built up on the surface of the epidermis, and once they die they will eventually flake off. If such scales are present when examining the skin rash, the diagnosis will almost always be psoriasis.
Once you are satisfied that you are in fact dealing with psoriasis, you can begin to look into what over the counter psoriasis treatment is available. This is not to say you should discount the prescription medications that your doctor will suggest, but to ensure you are aware that there are alternatives to the psoriasis medications on offer. The reason many people decide to try home treatments, is that psoriasis is actually an incurable disease. Any medication provided by your doctor will only be effective in treating the symptoms of the condition, not the cause of it.
Most of the psoriasis medications available also come with some unwanted side effects, another reason people turn to over the counter psoriasis treatment instead. Take the often prescribed steroid creams for example. Applied directly onto the affected areas of skin, these topical steroid treatments do actually have a visible effect on most cases of psoriasis. The problem is that they have the side effect of causing the skin to weaken and become fragile, leading to the increased likelihood of suffering from cuts to the skin very easily. For this reason, topical steroid treatment cannot be used long term. Once the use of these creams is suspended for safety reasons, most people find that the psoriasis begins to return almost immediately.
Over the counter psoriasis treatment is not only safer to use than doctor prescribed medication, but it tends to be much cheaper too. If you consider the fact that psoriasis is incurable, you might have to face up to the reality that whatever treatment you choose and that works for you, is going to become something you will have to rely on indefinitely in order to keep psoriasis at bay. However, as with prescription medication for psoriasis, over the counter products are only going to treat the symptoms of your condition, and not completely cure you of it.
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