First of all, I do not have psoriasis, although I did have it around six years old following a fall in the playground at school, developing on my knees following severe grazing of the skin. This persisted for quite a few years, and was treated with betnovate, eventually clearing up, possibly due to age, although the cream obviously helped control it to some degree.
I mention this, so you can get a feel from where my interest in psoriasis lies, having first hand experience of the itching, bleeding and flaking skin.
I have been researching the effects of minor postural changes in relation to the direction of gravity acting upon the fluids in the body since 1994. Mostly directed towards helping people with neurological conditions, ranging from cerebral palsy to spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease etc. During several pilot studies, many participants have reported huge changes in skin tone, skin temperature and huge obvious circulatory improvements in the skin. I have seen the some of these improvements in people for myself!
For many years now, I have been trying to get the medical establishment to take onboard the simple logic of avoiding flat bedrest in favour of a head up incline of five degrees to the horizontal, where the whole bed slopes gently down from head to toe, by elevating the head end of the bed by 6 inches or fifteen centimetres. The important thing to realise here is that we are not talking about raising one half of the bed and having the legs either raised, or level. The whole bed slopes from head to toe.
A simple self study / experiment would be required to identify exactly what changes have occurred as a result of sleeping slightly inclined, instead of flat, and more importantly how long any changes take to develop in a group of people with the same condition.
Initially, I contacted several vascular surgeons, winning their support, along with a professor and doctor at Exeter University, who agreed in principle to test my theory on a large group of people with leg ulcer, varicose veins, oedema, gangrene, in order to determine any obvious improvements. One of the vascular surgeons had already witnessed at first hand a massive improvement in one of his patients using the inclined bed method, so was completely convinced by the explanation and method.
Varicose veins and leg ulcer would have provided photographically self evident and irrefutable results. This would have provided a rapid move towards making this simple non-invasive therapy. (Inclined Bed Therapy) or I.B.T. available to millions of people suffering needlessly. But as usual all of the promises of help to achieve this goal were dutifully ignored, possibly because of the implications of redundant surgery practices.
I had all but given up trying to find a way through the medical brick wall to drive this simple message home, when a lady with possibly the worst case of psoriasis I have seen walked into my home with my son and his girlfriend. I tactfully asked her if she would be interesting in conducting an experiment to see if her psoriasis would improve as a result of I.B.T. And thankfully she has agreed to test my theory experimentally for herself. She also let me take photographs of her arms, hands feet and legs, and as far as I know, tilted her bed on the 19th June 07, although, I have still to verify this with her personally.
During many years of research into this fascinating subject of gravity assisted circulation , several cases of psoriasis have been reported to have improved dramatically. One case in point is a regular visitor to my home, who was featured in the Woman’s Realm Magazine, having experience massive improvements in psoriatic arthritis, and to this day, the only visible evidence on her whole body are two small circular patches on her elbows. The lady in question is a former nurse who used to wake up every morning racked with pain in her joints and unable to move her hands for up to 2 hours, immersing them in hot water to get them moving. She had holes in her fingernails and toenails, and is over 60 years young. Several other reports of psoriasis improvements have been noted, including 76 year old going topless on a beach for the first time in her life following huge improvements in her skin.
But alas, no amount of anecdotal evidence will embarrass the medical profession into accepting a drug /surgical free method of treating patients with a whole range of medical conditions. I.B.T. has been infuriatingly slow to progress towards becoming mainstream.
Sincerely
Andrew K Fletcher
Tel: 01803524117
