Update: Kim Kardashian West has proven time and time again that she isn't afraid to show the world what struggling with psoriasis really looks like. On March 12, the star posted another video of her most recent flare-up, which showed rashes on her cheeks and under her eyes. "Psoriasis face," she wrote on her Instagram Story. She followed up with a selfie on March 17 with the caption "Morning psoriasis."
Even with state-of-the-art treatments at her disposal, Kardashian West continues to battle the incurable condition, which an estimated 7.5 million Americans can definitely relate to. Read more about the treatments she's tried, ahead.
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This post was originally published on February 12, 2019.
Since the early days of her reality-TV fame, Kim Kardashian West has been incredibly forthcoming about not only having psoriasis, but also her fight to soothe the rashes and scaly patches that flare up as a result of the chronic skin condition. She's tried medical-grade cortisone injections, bottled up Costa Rican spring water, and even stolen her sister Kourtney's breast milk and splashed it onto her legs.
Psoriasis is technically incurable, so treating its symptoms is a constant battle — even for Kardashian West, who has continued to offer an unfiltered view of what dealing with psoriasis can look like. Most recently, she's used her Instagram Stories to show a few of her favorite at-home treatments, including a selfie on Monday that featured her face covered with a strange brown ointment.
"Psoriasis is the shits," she wrote, adding, "It's just an herbal treatment." Though she doesn't clarify which herbs went into the making of it, the National Psoriasis Foundation says that herbal treatments and ointments with ingredients like aloe vera, apple cider vinegar, capsaicin (which is the ingredient in chili peppers that makes them hot), tea-tree oil, and turmeric have been used to sooth and heal the skin following a psoriasis flare-up.
Next up, Kardashian West posted a picture of the Blueberry Detox Smoothie from Medical Medium, a company that encourages juice-drinking to cure certain illnesses (as you can probably guess, Gwyneth Paltrow loves it). "I'm really trying it all!!!" she wrote. The NPF states that dietary changes haven't proven to be especially effective against easing symptoms — but hey, a smoothie can't hurt, right?
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That said, not everything Kardashian West shared on her Instagram Story was entirely natural: She also posted a photo of what looks like a tiny room walled in by long fluorescent bulbs, which is likely related to at-home UV-light therapy, a treatment she called "life-changing" in a blog post in 2017. Unlike changes to diet, phototherapy is backed by the National Psoriasis Foundation when administered under medical supervision.
Kardashian West clearly shouldn't be considered a professional when it comes to treating psoriasis; she is, after all, a celebrity and not a doctor. But the important thing the star is doing here is helping remove the stigma that still surrounds the common condition, which affects 7.5 million people in America alone. Given that she has more than 127 million followers on Instagram, Kardashian West really may be helping millions with the tap of a finger.