dustywalker25 said:I personally know people who went to Naphtalan, and for some, the condition completely settled down. For most others, the symptoms are just managed—they ease up, but there’s always that lingering tendency for it to flare back up after a while. The reality is that Naphtalan is actually the only place with proven results for treating psoriasis, yet our broken healthcare system refuses to cover the costs. You can only get a referral if you have a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. For folks living near a major hub like Chicago, it isn't even a huge hurdle since they can commute daily from home and just pay for the treatment itself, whereas everyone else has to foot the bill for both therapy and lodging.
My father has been dealing with psoriasis for what feels like at least 17 years now.
He has tried absolutely everything under the sun, and the most effective thing he ever found was Dr. Višnjić's therapy (I think it was somewhere out near Makarska).
He used a specific method to identify which foods were triggering his body's inflammation, and by cutting those out, he could reduce the psoriasis flares.
The tricky part was that, for instance, tomatoes would trigger him during the summer but wouldn't bother him in the winter, making it incredibly difficult to maintain a consistent diet.
Back then, he was taking a mountain of medications and constantly applying various ointments and creams.
If my memory serves me right (and this was quite a while ago, maybe 15 years), his psoriasis had almost entirely cleared up.
Over all those years, we collectively realized that the one thing that truly helps him see any improvement is absolute peace of mind and psychological stability—staying completely stress-free—which, let's be honest, is incredibly hard to achieve.
Last winter, a medical board finally approved a three-week stay at Naphtalan for him due to his rheumatoid arthritis, but it didn't help him at all.
Again, I suspect it might just be a psychological effect.
He told me that the group of patients at Naphtalan spend their days drinking liters of wine and eating heavy, greasy food, yet they seem to feel better.
It's because it serves as a total escape from home, wives, kids, work, and endless responsibilities... they socialize, they relax, and simply because of that mental break, the psoriasis recedes.
I once watched a program where a German doctor treats psoriasis (!) using snake venom (like, one drop in a pool of water) by administering an injection once a week for three months into the nape of the neck.
One shot costs about $1,000 (if I recall correctly), but apparently, the results are fantastic and long-lasting.
Ultimately, my takeaway is that psoriasis is strictly an aesthetic issue. It doesn't bother me, I don't find it repulsive, and I find it perfectly normal to see someone with scaly skin. The real struggle is the psychological toll.
My dad, for instance, hasn't gone skinny-dipping at the beach or even taken his shirt off in front of anyone in probably 25 years; it really weighs on him emotionally.
As far as a permanent cure goes... I don't think one exists.😢