For more information about Dead Sea salt therapy for psoriasis and eczema please call 866-4

2 national psoriasis Foundation® pSORiaSiS aDVanCe | november + December 2008 | REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION

n the 1990s, when Richard Strezo was living in England, a British colleague noticed psoriasis lesions on his wrist. She told him that she too had psoriasis. “I was surprised. I looked at her and she had perfect skin,” he remembers.

His colleague said she had vacationed at a spa at the Dead Sea two years before, and her psoriasis had been in remission since. Richard was intrigued. “It just lodged in my mind, that Dead Sea thing, and I thought, ‘Someday I’ll go there.’ ”

For millennia, people with psoriasis and other disor-ders have made pilgrimages to the Dead Sea, where the waters, 10 times as salty as the ocean, are rich in magnesium and other minerals. The ancient lake lies 1,200 feet below sea level. Atmospheric density there blocks harmful radiation, extending the amount of time it is safe to lie in the sun. The increased oxygen in the air, aficionados say, calms the nerves and relaxes the mind.

Off to the spaA decade after his conversation with his colleague, Richard Strezo was living in West Chicago. Psoriasis lesions on his back, knees, legs and arms weren’t responding to steroids or topical treatments. He had stopped wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts.

By Amy Stork

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For some psoriasis/psoriat ic arthr it is pat ientsSpa therapy—

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National Psoriasis Foundation® PSORIASIS ADVANCE | November + December 2008 | REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION | For more information, please call 866-4-MAVENA

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When he saw an advertisement for a new spa that used Dead Sea salt

baths and narrow-band ultraviolet light B (UVB) therapy to treat psoriasis, “it was like something clicked in my brain.”

Richard began driving the 25 miles to Des Plaines, another Chicago suburb, three times a week for treatment at the Mavena Derma Center, a therapeutic spa that offers “balneo-phototherapy,” a treatment that uses extremely high concentrations of Dead Sea salts. The treatment mimics the Dead Sea regimen by combining brine baths with narrow-band UVB light treatments.

The therapy works, says Mavena Vice President Jerri McGinnis, because minerals in the salts help the skin trap hydration, softening the skin and breaking down thick plaques that characterize psoriasis. UV rays applied immediately after the brine soak are then able to penetrate more easily. After 25 to 30 treatments, most patients are 85 to 90 percent clear of psoriasis and stay that way for about six months without further treatment, McGinnis says. Many patients adopt a less intensive maintenance schedule to prevent remission.

Spa hot spotsThe Mavena center is one of several places psoriasis patients can go for some form of balneotherapy—a general term for therapy that involves mineral waters.

Soap Lake in Central Washington state has been a popular health destination since the early 1900s. Its mineral-rich waters and mud are thought to be curative for a number of skin diseases. Today, there

For Claire Wolf Smith, who’s had psoriasis for 18 years, the trip last April to Iceland’s famed Blue Lagoon to treat her psoriasis was “a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime vacation that no one in my family will ever forget.”

Claire, who lives in New York City, won the all-expenses-paid trip by participating in the Psoriasis Foundation’s National Psoriasis Walk for Awareness in New York in April 2007. Claire was the first of six contestants to win a trip to the Blue Lagoon over the past 18 months in drawings held during Walk for Awareness events around the country. (See www.psoriasis.org/walk for more information about the contest and winners.) Contest sponsors Icelandair and Blue Lagoon donate the flight, lodging, meals and psoriasis treatment.

One year after winning the trip, Claire, her husband Peter and their then-5-year-old son Nathan flew to

Reykjavik shortly after participating in the 2008 walk in New York. They drove through what Claire describes as a “wild and barren and desolate” landscape before arriving at the ultramodern psoriasis clinic.

Water, silica mud provide reliefThe Blue Lagoon is one of Iceland’s most popular tourist destinations. The lagoon itself was formed in the 1970s to harness its geothermal energy. Visitors soon discov-ered that bathing in the warm waters and applying the lagoon’s silica mud to their skin helped relieve psoriasis.

Psoriasis walk leads to the Blue Lagoon

Claire, Nathan and Peter Wolf Smith

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are several small spas in town and visitors can be seen bathing in the lake or applying mud to their skin.In Saskatchewan, Canada, Manitou Beach is also known for its mineral-rich waters. A resort spa there includes indoor tubs and luxury services.

Several French spas, including the Avène Spa Centerin the south of France and the La Roche Posay spa near Poitiers, about 185 miles from Paris, provide therapy from thermal springs. These therapies often combine bathing with drinking the water, sunlight and other treatments.

Other sites with healing waters include cities along the coast of Egypt’s Red Sea and Iceland’s famed Blue Lagoon which has a clinic that specifically treats psoriasis.

More study neededWhich component of spa therapy works on psoriasis hasn’t been adequately studied, says Dr. Alexa Kimball, associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School.

“It’s difficult to interpret the efficacy of these treat-ments without a control group,” she says. “There are many factors, including hygiene effects and emollients potentially in the waters. It’s not clear whether even the Dead Sea effect, which is well-documented, is due to the water or more to the sunlight at that location. ”Though the phenomenon requires more study, Dr. Kimball says that spa therapies do work for some people and should be substantially safe. She cautions that UVB therapy of any kind should be monitored by a physician.

For Richard Strezo, the evidence is his own skin. Over the course of 25 sessions, his psoriasis improved significantly and is now nearly gone. He continues to get treatment two or three times a month and uses the spa’s topical products. Spa therapy, he says, has made his life better.

At the clinic, psoriasis treatments begin with washing with Blue Lagoon products, then soaking for two hours a day in the lagoon and applying the lagoon’s silica mud to psoriatic skin. Often, the treatment is followed by ultraviolet light therapy. Nurses supervise the entire process.

For Claire, whose psoriasis is relatively mild, the soaking brought changes to tough spots that don’t respond to the topicals she typically uses. “My complexion looked unbelievably great and it lasted a few weeks,” she says.

The clinic staff, she says, was welcoming and accom-modating—even cooking kosher meals for Claire’s husband. Outings to nearby cities and strolls through

the dramatic land-scape rounded out an “unbelievably nice” experience.

- Amy Stork

and is now nearly gone. He continues to get treatment two or three times a month and uses the spa’s topical products. Spa therapy, he says, has

Photos courtesy of the Blue Lagoon

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Stones photo © istockphoto.com/Ernesto Solla


National Psoriasis Foundation® PSORIASIS ADVANCE | November + December 2008 | REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION | For more information, please call 866-4-MAVENA National Psoriasis Foundation® PSORIASIS ADVANCE | November + December 2008 | REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION | For more information, please call 866-4-MAVENA

For more information about Dead Sea salt therapy for psoriasis and eczema please call 866-4

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