ITSAN President Kelly Palace at CSD Gathering
If 95 per cent of skin disease sufferers use steroids, that makes 32 million of them applying topical steroids and perhaps 30 per cent of them get addicted to this potent drug which equates to 9.6 million people suffering from Red Skin Syndrome.
(PRWEB) June 04, 2014
International Topical Steroid Awareness Network (ITSAN) works non-stop to raise awareness around the world of Topical Steroid Addiction and Withdrawal (Red Skin Syndrome). The fast-growing non-profit group got a big boost to this mission when accepted into the Coalition for Skin Diseases (CSD), March 2014.
The active non-profit's President Kelly Palace and board member Mark Palace traveled to Denver, Colorado in March to take part in the meeting with various other skin care organizations. The CSD states that they work closely with other affiliates, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), Dermatology Nurses Association and Society of Investigative Dermatology (SID).
CSD officially incorporated as a 501 C3 in 2008 after a 1986 uniting of five organizations, (Alopecia Areata Foundation, Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Association, the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias, Foundation for Ichthyosis and Related Skin Types and the National Psoriasis Foundation).
The coalition's mission goals are enacted by supporting basic science and clinical research, fostering physician and patient education, generating awareness of skin disease, supporting the growth of member organizations through the sharing of mutual concerns, which may increase the pace of discovery or a cure, while improving the quality of life for those affected.
The mission of the CSD and ITSAN are similar in that they both want to act on behalf of individuals with skin disease. ITSAN's specific mission is to raise awareness of Topical Steroid Addiction and Withdrawal (Red Skin Syndrome), providing education and support.
Kelly Palace who severely suffered Red Skin Syndrome herself, presented facts about what their organization has seen with large numbers of steroid-addicted suffering members and a quote of the serious problem of steroid addiction by Dr. Albert Kligman, published in a 1979 International Society of Topical Dermatology Journal.
She also presented an alarming number of 35 million people in the USA alone that are suffering from eczema. "If 95 per cent of skin disease sufferers use steroids, that makes 32 million of them applying topical steroids and perhaps 30 per cent of them get addicted to this potent drug which equates to 9.6 million people suffering from Red Skin Syndrome."
ITSAN has received hundreds of testimonies from once-addicted members who are now healed, over two million visits to their website in just two years, a children's book called Taming the Scratchy Monster" written by two moms in the group and a new forum launched September 2013, with over 1200 members already.
ITSAN is taking this message viral with the help of CSD and hopes more in the medical community will follow. View a short video clip of Kelly speaking at the gathering in Colorado here.
