A ridiculous amount of money and access to every beauty regiment on Earth will keep a major chronic illness a total secret, even from millions of fans. For most people, the issue that Kim Kardashian has dealt with since 2011 is something that plagues their lives. It's an ever-present reminder that something's not right. But not for Kim. While she's secretly been living with an illness for a good chunk of her life, most of her fans have absolutely no idea...
Kim's Struggled With An Unflattering Chronic Condition
While Kim has said she relates to Cher from Clueless, it turns out that she can also relate to characters from Running With Scissors as she has a condition called psoriasis. Now, some of Kim's die-hard fans might already know this about it. After all, she has posted a couple of images on her social media of her red skin flare-ups. Additionally, she has written a 1000-word essay about her battle with the chronic condition. But mostly she's as silent about it as much as she is about her former relationship with Paris Hilton.
A lot of this has to do with the fact that she has a certain image to keep up. After all, she's built most of her career on her physical appearance. Then again, she also has made a ton of money off of letting fans into her personal life (as curated as much of that content actually is). This is why she addressed her psoriasis and psoriasis arthritis on Keeping Up With The Kardashians in 2011.
For those who don't know, psoriasis is an autoimmune condition that appears on the skin in the form of red, scaly patches that can itch and even bleed in the more severe circumstances. It can be a fairly unnoticeable condition or it can completely alter someone's life.
Psoriasis is not contagious but can be very uncomfortable for those who deal with it. The reason the skin reacts in such a way has to do with faulty signals the immune system sends out to speed up skin cell growth. It's treatable, but only over time with a variety of techniques. Luckily for Kim Kardashian, she has all the money and access in the world to handle it. Psoriasis is an incredibly common disease and affects about 7.5 million Americans, according to psoriasis.org.
How Kim Handles Her Psoriasis
Over the years, Kim has let her fans in on some of the ways she manages her psoriasis outbreaks. By the looks of her social media accounts, it appears as though she manages these outbreaks really well. But that's not to say it can't be a challenge for her.
"Even though I always grew up with my mom having psoriasis and hearing her talk about her struggle, I really had no idea what my life would be like dealing with an autoimmune disease myself," Kim wrote in an essay published by Poosh. "Getting UV rays directly on the spots really helped my mom. For me, however, that remedy would burn the areas and cause them to itch, so I always felt helpless. I am the only child my mom passed down her autoimmune issue to. Lucky me, lol."
Kim was 25 when she had her first psoriasis flare-up, which was triggered by a bad cold. The spots were all over her legs and stomach. To deal with it, she got a cortisone shot which cleared up the issues for five whole years. By her early thirties, however, the issues returned.
Ever since then, she's been managing it continuously without her fans knowing the full details until her brief Poosh article in 2019.
"For the past eight years, although the spots are unpredictable, I can always count on my main spot on my right lower leg, which consistently stays flared up. I have learned to live with this spot without using any creams or medication—I just deal. Sometimes I cover it up and sometimes I don’t. It doesn’t really bother me. When I got pregnant both times, it fully went away. That was amazing, but then it came back again. Earlier this year is when it got extremely bad—it covered my whole face and a majority of my entire body."
To make matters worse, Kim's psoriasis has also triggered psoriatic arthritis which makes her outbreaks physically painful.
"I woke up that morning and I still couldn’t pick up my phone. I was freaking out—I couldn’t even pick up a toothbrush, my hands hurt so badly," Kim wrote before explaining how she managed it. "Before the arthritis hit, I spent about four months doing everything natural—every ointment, cream, serum, and foam you can possibly imagine and everything from the dermatologist. I even tried an herbal tea that tasted like tar. I tried celery juice for eight weeks. Then I’d do celery juice mixed with the tea. I would do that twice a day. I was just exhausted by everything. I changed my diet to plant-based (which I still follow)."
Luckily for Kim, she had access to every cream and ointment to treatment in the world and even got a light machine for her house, something the vast majority of those with psoriasis simply can't do. The vast majority of these treatments didn't work 100% for Kim, but she has found ways of managing her issues.
"I’ve become extremely comfortable with my psoriasis. No matter where it is on my body, sometimes I am fine with showing it off and other times I don’t want it to be a distraction, so I cover it up with body makeup," Kim claimed. "I live a healthy life and try to eat as plant-based as possible and drink sea moss smoothies. With all the stress in life, I try to make sure I take time for myself so that I am centered and keep my stress to a minimum. I hope my story can help anyone else with an autoimmune disease feel confident that there is light at the end of the tunnel."
