Kim Kardashian West Has Great News About Her Psoriasis
Kim Kardashian West has never been shy about sharing all aspects of her life—including her biggest insecurities. Those who follow her on Snapchat and Instagram know this best, where she's painstakingly documented her daily weigh-ins following the birth of her son Saint, or when she opened up on a recent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians about developing body dysmorphia after seeing unflattering paparazzi photos of her on vacation.
Another struggle she's always been transparent about is dealing with her psoriasis, and the great lengths she goes to in order to keep it under control. The chronic autoimmune disease, which is characterized by red, flaky (and sometimes itchy), patches on the skin can be treated, but the condition can also be extremely stubborn with flare-ups triggered by a number of factors, including stress.
While West has previously said in a post on her app that she's just learned to embrace her psoriasis since her diagnosis in 2011, and "doesn't really try to cover it that much anymore," she just gave her followers a post-holiday update on how much the psoriasis patch on her leg has cleared up via her Instagram Story:
Since the disease is so unpredictable, it's totally understandable why West would want to share such a dramatic improvement. “I have been using this light — and I don’t wanna speak to soon because [the psoriasis] is almost gone — but I’ve been using this light [therapy] and my psoriasis is like 60 percent gone,” Kardashian told People earlier this fall. “That’s wild because it hasn’t been gone in years.”
The light in question is the Baby Quasar MD 1 Plus ($595; dermstore.com), an at-home LED light therapy system that stimulates skin's collagen and elastin fibers. West previously said she started using the device to treat her psoriasis during an interview on Into The Gloss in 2015.
And given that it's the most common autoimmune disease in the United States—affecting 7.5 million people—it's nice that someone with such a large platform is consistently so open about struggling with it, and is another example of how talking about her insecurities makes West totally relatable.
This article originally appeared on InStyle.
