The coal tar treatment thread

[Caroline]

I have sent my question on coal tar to the National Psoriasis Foundation.

You would be better off asking a lamppost.

Yes, that would have been quicker and lead to the same result.

Well that was interesting and just proves that nobody knows and they are just guessing.

Yes, Jim. Some idiot once tried, and it seemed to work, but they don’t have a clue why.

I could have told you as much, Caroline. The funny thing is that there are refined coal tar products for psoriasis, but how do the manufacturers know what to refine when nobody knows what the active fractions are? It never worked very well for me and these days I would sooner use an emollient and minimise the mess. When I did use it I ended up changing to Stockholm tar based topical as the amount of tar I was using was making me sick. It is toxic stuff!

I certainly do get that Bill.
It is a senseless process I think, this refining process. And I certainly do believe that it is toxic stuff, so I will not use it.
Very nice of my contact that she mentioned that it would not help for this systemic component of psoriasis. She also mentions the comorbidities, which we know that can happen, but again nobody knows “Why, they can happen”. I do not get, that they are not researching/analysing that to find the mechanism that makes this connection.

And I still do not get why and who came up the idea of using coal tar on the skin instead of e.g. peanut butter or chocolate cream. Which distorted mind has thought of this approach.

[D Foster]

The results when you use coal tar are marginal and it has the effect of keeping everyone away from you as the smell is horrendous. When I was in hospital the last time they used it a couple of us sneaked out to the pub , we had no problems getting served as everyone moved well away from us. Thank goodness all the next admissions to hospital they had given up with the stuff.

[Bill]

Maybe someone with psoriasis had occupational tar exposure and noticed that their psoriasis was better for it?

[D Foster]

Maybe someone with psoriasis had occupational tar exposure and noticed that their psoriasis was better for it?

Maybe it was a road repair worker.

[Caroline]

Maybe someone with psoriasis had occupational tar exposure and noticed that their psoriasis was better for it?

Maybe it was a road repair worker.

[Bill]

Maybe it was Black Pete?

[jiml]

Maybe it was Black Pete?

[Itchygirl42]

On the subject of coal tar… I’m assuming most of you have experienced the lotion but have any of you added a coal tar solution to a bath? I have inverse psoriasis on my whole undercarriage and I’m wondering if coal tar is safe and effective for that. 

Also, which solution to use. I bought a bottle of coal tar but I think I’m supposed to mix it with alcohol or something and only use a percentage but I don’t know what that formula is so I haven’t used it.  Has anyone made their own solution and if so, what’s the recipe?

[D Foster]

How much do you like your bath?
Had tar baths many years ago in hospital and then tar wraps and they used to keep one bath specialy for this,it was the brown stained one.

[Turnedlight]

On the subject of coal tar… I’m assuming most of you have experienced the lotion but have any of you added a coal tar solution to a bath? I have inverse psoriasis on my whole undercarriage and I’m wondering if coal tar is safe and effective for that. 

Also, which solution to use. I bought a bottle of coal tar but I think I’m supposed to mix it with alcohol or something and only use a percentage but I don’t know what that formula is so I haven’t used it.  Has anyone made their own solution and if so, what’s the recipe?

I tried it once.. I think I found it stung my sore skin and took ages to clean the bath after (shared house as well at the time) so I never did it again.
Something that has helped me on sensitive areas is sudocrem (the sort in a pot for babies nappy changes!) or any similar cream with lots of zinc oxide.
Good luck with the tar bath, I do hope it helps you.

Edit to add - sometimes it’s water itself that makes you more sore, but not being clean also affects it, so occasionally cleansing just with your usual moisturiser or emollient instead can give sore skin a break from water.