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Monday 2 May 2011

Addiction

Addiction can be a terrible thing, the desire, the need for that one thing that will take the addiction away.

I'm not talking about alcohol, smoking or drugs.

I'm talking about Coca Cola! Beautiful, ice cold Coca Cola!

I am a cola addict. It started years ago, I can't really remember when but it was when the children were small. I could quite easily consume 3 litres of cola in a day.

I kept a bottle by the bedside so that I'd have a drink if I woke during the night and would often buy a 500ml bottle if out during the day.

So, why am I telling you this?

I recently read this post by a twitter friend of mine and decided that something needs to be done about the fact that the makers of Coca Cola don't tell people how addictive and dangerous their product is!

I developed psoriasis quite a few years ago, it was shortly after I went to Florida with the family in 2005 and was told it was stress related. I was even referred to a dermatologist.

I tried all different creams or potions, emollients and treatments, but one of the baffling things was that my legs (the worst hit places) didn't really itch much during the day.

But at night.....I would start itching early evening and scratch most of the evening and half the night too.

It was driving me absolutely bananas! I was also causing my legs to bleed and scar.

After a year or so, things got a bit financially tight and we had to cut back on takeaways and unnecessary purchases for a while. I also wanted to lose some weight, so cut out the cola.

I didn't really notice anything at first.

Until we decided to splurge one evening on a takeaway from the kebab shop. We all ordered what we wanted and got a couple of bottles of cola.

Within half an hour of eating the meal, my skin was crawling with itchiness!

I did some judicial testing over the next few months and discovered that Coca Cola was the cause of the itching! If I avoid it, I don't itch and my psoriasis calms right down. If I drink it, I can guarantee that I will be scratching later that day!

Now, thankfully my reaction isn't anywhere near as bad as Jackie's and I hope her headaches continue to improve, but as I told her in the comments section of her blog; I found coming off the cola quite hard.

There is a lot of sugar in carbonated drinks and that is what people get addicted to. I found that I suffered headaches for a good couple of months after quitting it, but eventually they did cease.

But I know the lure of the cola - it's strong, especially Cherry Coke! An ice cold can of Cherry Coke on a hot day, or after a spicy meal is just fabulous. I have to avoid Poundland as they sell 3 for £1 :(

Coca Cola is addictive and very bad for you!

If you drink it (or any other carbonated drink/soda - I can't drink Dr Pepper either!) and you suffer from something that the medical people can't explain or treat - try cutting the soda's out for a while...at least 2 months....to see if it helps.

Please spread the word too, these kind of sugary drinks don't just rot your teeth, they rot your entire body!

3 comments:

  1. My other half has psoriasis and drinks loads of fizzy drinks. Will have to mention it to him!

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  2. Wow, who would have thunk it, huh? I just did a quick google search and it seems that sugar is a fairly common trigger for psoriasis. Of course, I'm sure no doctor would ever mention that. They just want to push pills and creams, right?

    My big shocker in my story is how LONG it takes for symptoms to go away, particularly when doing diet soda and trying to get rid of artificial sweeteners from your diet. 2 months is definitely a good suggestion. I initially quit for a week and nothing improves, so I assumed that wasn't it. It really does take 30-60 days to see an improvement. And I've read that for some people it can take up to TWO years to get completely back to normal. Insane!

    Thanks for the PSA (and the link to my blog post). Hopefully we can help someone else with weird, phantom symptoms.

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  3. Cola contains caffeine, thats an addictive substance. It also inhibits the absorption of certain nutrients, which could have an impact on the psoriasis, as some believe that omega oils, vits D and E can help.

    Too many carbonated drinks in your lifetime (if for examply it was the only thing you drank) can also lead to osteoporosis, as the calcium is leached out of the bones.

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