Broadcaster Ruth Scott has opened up about her experience with psoriasis and her recent light therapy. 

The broadcaster and wedding celebrant has said her psoriasis has been ongoing since she was approximately 15-years-old.

Psoriasis is a skin disease which causes a rash with itchy, scaly patches.

These patches are most common on the knees, elbows, trunk and scalp, but can appear all over your body.

On Lunchtime Live today, Ms Scott said her psoriasis has gotten “really bad” over the last couple of months.

“I think the only place I don't have it [psoriasis] is my mouth, nostrils and eyeballs,” she said.

“I totally realise there's plenty of people with a lot worse, and plenty of people with a lot worse psoriasis than this.

“Now I'm at the stage where… if I wear a skirt, or if I'm going to a black tie thing, I'm wearing a dress with a bit of a slit… I'm all purple, red blotches on my legs.

“I kind of don't mind, but on the other hand, I know myself, if I saw somebody that was covered in a kind of a scaly rash, I'd be like, ‘Oh my God, what has she got? I don't want to catch it.’”

Light therapy

Ms Scott said she that after years of trying different creams, she has just started “light therapy”.

“The first time I went in for this photo therapy, I was in there for 20 seconds,” she said.

“They do all the checks and everything, and they give you a sun sensitivity test, and then it's all your clothes off into what looks like, but is not a standing sun bed.

“It's done in a very dignified way, but it does feel very undignified to be standing there naked, legs spread, arms up.”

'Moderate to severe disease'

Also on the show to offer advice was St Vincent's University Hospital Dublin consultant dermatologist Professor Brian Kirby.

Professor Kirby said psoriasis is quite common amongst approximately 3% of the Irish population with one in five suffering from “moderate to severe disease”.

He said there are certain things that can make psoriasis worse like infections, sore throats, flu, Covid-19, and more.

“Big stresses and big life events can make it worse as well,” he said.

“The problem is then you reach a certain level where the psoriasis starts to add to your stress, and then you can imagine people being in a vicious circle.”

Manageable

Professor Kirby said there is “no cure” for psoriasis but it can be “managed”.

“The goal for modern management of psoriasis is that people would be clear, or almost clear… that they would have minimal skin disease left at a course of treatment, such as the light therapy that Ruth is on and that it's maintained that way,” he said.

“In 2024 the vast majority of people can achieve that goal, either with ultraviolet light, with topical therapies or either with certain medications that are available.”

Professor Kirby said that skin disease is not the type of issue that can be broadly managed through diet.

“The issues are that removing specific pieces from your diet doesn't work, and that's been shown,” he said.

“It's not a lack of something in your diet or too much of anything in your diet, and changing your diet dramatically isn't going to help.”

Sunbed myth

He also mentioned that sunbeds do not work for an issue like psoriasis.

“Sunbeds produce a wavelength of light called high dose ultraviolet a and high dose ultraviolet A is good at giving you a tan and really, very good at giving you skin cancer - and not good at clearing psoriasis,” he said.

“[The treatment that] Ruth is having sounds like it's called narrow band UVB, where it's specifically designed to clear psoriasis, and some people will get a tan afterwards, but it's not a sunbed.

“Sunbeds have no therapeutic role in skin disease, and we would argue, really, have no role at all, apart from giving increasing people's risk getting skin cancer.”

The dermatologist warned that people need to be cautious looking up “anything medical” online.

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Ruth Scott and Andrea Gilligan on Lunchtime Live Image: Bauer Media