A bodybuilder who was left feeling depressed thanks to extreme psoriasis that covered 80% of his body has shared the remarkable recovery he made in just one month.
Mohammed Khan, 24, from Toronto, first started suffering with psoriasis in October 2017 when he was overweight, stressed due to money worries and eating “a lot of junk food”.
Psoriasis is a skin condition that causes red, flaky, crusty patches of skin around the body.
For Mohammed, the condition started on one of his hands as a series of “red spots” and eventually spread across large parts of his body, including his genitals.
He saw a doctor who prescribed a steroid cream, but when his skin continued to deteriorate, he was also given medication in the form of pills to take alongside the cream – which he says did nothing but worsen his skin.
When he went to see a dermatologist, he says they “took one look” at his skin and said he was “more than 80% covered” in psoriasis.
He was given steroid injections on a bi-weekly basis, but decided to quit them after two rounds of injections after researching the potential side effects.
When he ceased using all medication, he found his skin got worse than ever – with the psoriasis spreading to his genitals – and he was “desperate” for answers.
“I felt really depressed – I was so young and yet, according to the experts, my psoriasis would be with me for the rest of my life,” Mohammed said.
“I felt totally socially isolated and alone because of my skin. I was living in shared student accommodation and my psoriasis made a lot of mess due to the flakes falling everywhere.
“Some of the students got bothered by this mess and told me very politely to clean it up, but it still made me feel bad.
“I felt so depressed and sometimes I did think about suicide. Like most psoriasis sufferers I was always asking the question ‘why me?’ I started having dreams about falling off a building which scared me a lot at the time.”
At the beginning of 2018, Mohammed started experimenting with different diets in a bid to get his skin under control, and to help him lose weight.
He started eating a vegan diet and joined a gym – where he says other gym-goers would walk away from him when they caught sight of his flaking skin.
Within a year, he had lost weight and had built a dedicated workout regime including lifting weights.
He found that his skin had started to improve, but the psoriasis was sill “very visible” and covering much of his body.
Mohammed started researching online and found a support group for psoriasis sufferers, where other people with the condition recommended trying the Oregon Intensive Rescue Serum – a plant-based cream.
The budding bodybuilder decided to give it a go, and within one week he found his skin improving dramatically.
He said: “I noticed my psoriasis flakes had gone down and scaly patches felt softer and not so rough, especially the ones on my knees and elbows.
“I saw the most dramatic improvements in my facial psoriasis, which after a month had significantly decreased.”
Within one month, Mohammed’s skin had largely cleared up and he believes the serum, alongside his vegan diet and exercise programme, is to thank.
He said: “During more recent times where I’ve not been able to get to the gym or out as much as I would do, Oregon Intensive Rescue Serum has been a real saviour and has helped compensate for the lack of vitamin D I would be getting from sunlight, which is vital for helping to control psoriasis.”
He has increased his use of the cream to 2-3 times daily and has also cut gluten from his diet to help aid in his skin recovery.
While he finds it more difficult to manage his psoriasis during the winter months, he is careful to moisturise regularly to make sure it doesn’t deteriorate again.
Now, the fitness buff is almost unrecognisable, with his face almost totally clear of the condition, and much of his body recovered too.
Mohammed added: “During seasonal large gatherings I do find people who I don’t see on a regular basis like distant family or relatives ask me about my psoriasis and how it’s going, and I used to feel low about expressing myself with psoriasis but not the case anymore.
“Now I just tell them I am practicing a natural approach figuring things out and that this is a journey not a marathon.”
In other news, check out how a vegan bodybuilder cured his heartbreak..
