DaQuane Cherry was once the kid who wore a hoodie to hide skin flare-ups in school. Now he’s an artist and advocate helping others feel seen. He reflects on his psoriasis journey, the power of small joys, and why loving yourself first isn’t a cliché—it’s essential. Plus, a deep dive into the history of La Roche-Posay’s legendary spring.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I'm Holly Fry and this is season two of Our Skin,
a personal discovery podcast, and it is wonderful to have
you here with us. Connection is what this show is
all about, specifically connecting about things that we're sometimes afraid
to talk about. Today, we're going to be exploring the
ups and downs, past and present, personal and universal troubles
(00:28):
we have with our skin. Our skin is our most
visible organ. What happens on our skin affects the rest
of our lives, especially when dealing with a chronic condition.
Getting diagnosed with one of these, like psoriasis, can be overwhelming,
but you're not alone. Each episode features a personal story
of resilience and grace, but our personal stories are threads
(00:51):
in a larger tapestry, and there are lessons for us
in the history of how we treat our skin and
the progress we've made together. Caring for our skin is
caring for ourselves. Whether you're seeking inspiration for your own
journey or curious about the history of our Skin, you'll
find empathetic, transformative conversations here on Our Skin. Today, we
(01:15):
are joined by someone who brings artistry, advocacy, and authenticity
to everything he does, Daikwon cherry. If you are part
of the online poriasis community, or if you really like art,
you have likely seen Daikon's work. Through bold and beautiful
visual art, vulnerable storytelling, and powerful advocacy, he is changing
(01:35):
how people see poriasis and themselves. Diagnosed in the fifth grade,
Daikwon's early years of living with psoriasis were marked by
confusion and stigma, but after a surprising moment of affirmation
thanks to keeping up with the Kardashians, he found the
courage to speak up. But Daikwon's advocacy is not just
(01:56):
about awareness, it is also about joy. He has talked
openly about reclaiming confidence, celebrating self expression, and building a
life that does not wait for clear skin. In a
world that still treats visible difference as something to hide,
Dayquon flips that script. He shows us we don't need
to be fixed to be whole, and that beauty, power,
(02:18):
and purpose can all coexist with chronic illness. Today, we
are going to talk to Dayquon about his creative journey,
the communities that have lifted him up, and how identity, illness,
and art all intersect in his incredible life. Day Quon,
Welcome to our skin I am so glad you're here.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Thank you for having me everyone, I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Ah, this is the dream. Let's talk about art and
also the purpose of the podcast together. At last, I
want to start at the beginning. Will you take us
back to when you were first diagnosed with psoriasis. What
were those early symptoms like you were just a kid,
and how were you making sense of what was happening.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It was a very troubled time because at that time
I wasn't privy to the knowledge of psoriasis, didn't know
what it was at all.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
My family didn't know what it was.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
We thought it was wingworms actually, because it just popped
up out of no way or my scalp and then
trickled down to my back area. For a very long time,
I felt so self conscious about it because I didn't
know what it was and.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I didn't see a lot of other people with it.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I was the only person, as I thought at the time,
that had this disorder. So I used to hide my
scalp all the time with a hoodie. In school, I
used to get in trouble, but I never told them
why I would do so.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
It wasn't until middle school.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
When I was very heavily involved watching Keeping Up with
the Kardashians, and I saw Kim talk about her diagnosis.
I was like, wait, I have that too. By that time,
we already figured out that I assoriasis through going to
the dermatologists, of course, and being officially die knows something.
When I heard Kim had the same disorder as me,
(04:04):
I'm like, am I a celebrity.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Because I was the only person. I'm like, is this
like the right of passage to become a celebrity?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Like this is the deal you have to make.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
This is the deal I have to make. But I'll
be a celebrity.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
It still took a toll, even in that moment of
seeing like, Okay, someone else does have it, but I
still feel so secluded and alienated.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It was a tough time. But here we are.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Now starting out as a kid going up. Even through
that moment where a celebrity has the same thing, that
is still a very vulnerable time in anyone's life. Was
there a specific moment or a turning point when you
just decided you were going to start sharing this story publicly?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I think there. So there's two different answers to that.
The first answer I will say I started getting more
into skincare in high school.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
You know, high school is a different for the type
of ballgame.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It got more aggressive towards my freshman ye of college
and on my face, which was also again another vulnerable
time in a young adult's life. Freshman year of college
is where you think you're an adult, and then now
I look back, I was still a kid. I got
more comfortable with it. Even in this time, I still
wasn't comfortable. But I did a shoot with a Loure magazine.
(05:25):
They wanted to do a spread about psoriasis, and I
remember looking at the final product seeing when the photos
were out, and I was like wow. I think that's
when it kind of became like a moment because I
had people actually reach out to me from hearing my
story and from that spread, and I was like, wow,
this was once my insecurity and I turned into like
(05:46):
an asset.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
But that's when my confidence kind of boosted.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Was like, Okay, this is once something I kind of
shied away from. It was scared to talk about, and
because I finally said a word about it, it.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Became a voice of read and for so many other people.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I want to talk about your art because I love
art and you are primarily a painter. Yes, your art
is really really beautiful. How did you become an artist?
When did you realize that was also a calling?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I've always drawn since I was a kid. That was
just a thing for therapeutic reasons. And then around twenty sixteen,
I remember I loved telling this story.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
I was in college and my friend had an art class.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Long story short, I did her homework for her. I,
for lack of better words, I did a drawing of
Angelina and Joe.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And I was like, oh wait, really good.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I forgot that same day, I went and maxed out
my credit card and got went to Malmart and just
got a whole bunch of painting supplies. I was like,
you know what, I want to try painting, just for fun,
just for fun. Right.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Moved here to New York around twenty seventeen. A few months.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Later, I thought it was going to be acting and modeling,
like all artists that moved to New York. And then
COVID happened, and then all of my gigs just shut
down for acting and modeling. Honestly, I told myself, I
have all this art supplies, I'm just going to create
until I'm homeless because I don't know what else to do,
(07:17):
there's nothing else to do. But that didn't happen luckily,
and it turned out I just blew up on Instagram
from posting and showing my work and the rest is
history five years later.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Do you work through having a chronic condition in your art?
Does it manifest?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
For sure?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I did a series recently and it was dedicated to women,
but the whole idea and the foundation of it was
femininity and the nurturing of femininity and really being vulnerable
because all the women had their backs turned away from
the paintings, and it was kind of like a symbolic
(07:57):
journey of my psoriasis. And I did a whole like
talk about it about how sometimes I just feel like
the world is watching over me and I'm kind of
scared to look back and see it. But instead of
showing it face forward, I showed my back, which is
like my I guess, most vulnerable space of my psoriasis,
and I let the world see that side of me.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So I think it definitely shows up in my work heavily.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
No matter how much inner work and advocacy you're doing,
there are still going to be bad days. So how
do you manage those moments like when you have a
psoriasis flare and maybe your confidence falters a little bit.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I like to be so transparent sometimes when I do
have those moments of major flare ups, I don't want
to be around people. I don't feel as confident, but
I of course still show up because I know like
it's almost like an ode to my younger self. I'm
like talking to him, and he's not always happy or confident. However,
(08:59):
I got to so I'm like, okay, well, we still
have to get up and tackle this day on. Let's
do it together. I recently saw something that kind of
helped me too. It said, when you listen to a
love song for now on sing it as if you're
singing it to yourself.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
It helps you change the lyrics in the way like.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Oh, you know how usually we listen to us, we
listen to a dell think about our lovers. It's like, no,
go easy on me, go easy on me, like as
me talking to me, go easy on yourself.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I love this. This ties in also to an aspect
of your self care that I know you've talked about before,
which is that you do things like massages, and you
really really prioritize those gentle ways of taking care of yourself.
What are those moments of calm? What do those do
(09:51):
for your general well being as well as for your flares.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Stress is a major indicator of a lot of PSORAC
outbreaks and flair ups. Maintaining that stress, which sometimes is
so hard to be like, oh, don't stress, okay.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That phrases like such a stress maker.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Like now I'm stressed, you tell me how to Now
I'm even stressed, even boring the gym nature. I live
by a beautiful park. I love what summertime. The beach
is my best friend. Not only is it my best friend,
is my Pariasi's best friend when it comes to the
dead sea salt and the vitamin D from the sun
where your sunscreen still though, but it does definitely help trying.
(10:33):
And these are my ways. Anybody, everyone out there that's listening,
find your way of calming your brain, whether that is painting,
whether it is drawing, something that also benefits your health,
because there are other ways that you can calm yourself
down that may not benefit your help, but hanging out
(10:53):
with friends, laughing, finding ways to find joy in the day.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
You're gonna have stressful moments.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Those are never gonna go away, but it's easier for
us as human beings to highlight the stresses over the
enjoyment of life.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Try to reverse that psychology in your brain.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
And use the joy as your main factor of the
day versus distress, and that in a way helps your
flare ups so much more than and yes, sty'll go
to your dermerentologists, but I'm telling you mental health is
just as equally important.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
For listeners who are newly diagnosed or who are even
struggling with the idea of having that conversation with maybe
a physician or a community. What advice do you offer
them about finding and building a community around them that's
gonna help with all of these mental health issues as
well as, you know, getting their diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I think it takes time, but I will say I
don't know, maybe because I'm more in the world of
advocacy now. I feel like there's so much out there,
just so much advocacy and research and nonprofit organizations that
are out there. There's so many different avenues now to
(12:10):
find your community in this world. Once you are diagnosed
or like you said, having those symptoms and you're trying
to figure out if you have it.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I think it is best to find those.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Communities to feel seen because at times a lot of
people are scared to talk about it. So your neighbor
might have it, a friend of yours might have it,
but they're too scared to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
You have built a really incredible platform where you share yourself,
but other people also feel seen and supported, and it's
also very inspiring. So I'm curious what's next for you.
Are there new projects and new goals on the horizon,
both for your advocacy and your art.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So actually next week I will be doing the commit
to kre gala for the National Sorietes Foundation, which I'm
very excited to be volunteering for. As far as art,
I have a few art shows coming up, actually one
next week and in one this Friday. I'm very excited
to share space with different artists. They're both group shows.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I'm just being my usual artistic self.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
This is like how I usually roll, and I just
I'm painting and advocating and being visible and sometimes itchy,
sometimes dry.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
That's multitasking. We are going to take a quick break
and when we come back, we're actually going to time
travel to the fourteenth century to France to learn the
origins of one of the most famous bodies of water
in the world, and that is the spring at Laroche,
pose in the rolling countryside of Turin, France. The little
(13:59):
town of Laroche is famous today among dermatologists, but its
renown actually began with a legend. In the fourteenth century.
A French knight named Bertrand de gue Clan stopped at
a warm spring there to water his horse and himself,
and according to this tale, du gue Clin's horse was
suffering from some sort of serious skin issues. We don't
(14:21):
know specifically, but the best guess is that it's likely
from toiling under a heavy military saddle for years of battle.
But after falling into the thermal waters, the animal emerged
allegedly fully healed, and word of this miraculous cure spread
very far and wide. So peasants and nobles alike found
this tale pretty compelling. In an age when skin diseases
(14:44):
had absolutely no known cure, any hint of relief was
very precious, so it got a lot of attention, and
this story became local lore, and it guaranteed that travelers
started to seek out this spring not just to quench
their thirst, but all so to bathe and drink in
hopes of relief. This of course also gets into questions
(15:04):
of like drinking the water that people are bathing in.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
But yeah, we're not another time.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
That was a time, you know, we're going to put
that aside. In time, laroche Pose's simple spring actually became
a pilgrimage site for the afflicted, and it piggybacked on
the very real medieval fascination with this concept of healing waters,
and we are going to talk about that more. By
the seventeenth century, though, the spring's fame had captured the
(15:31):
interest even of very well established and respected physicians. The
French royal doctor Pierre Milon, who treated kings Henry the
fourth and Louis the thirteenth, visited laroche Pose to analyze
its waters and lo and behold. Milon found that the
water was rich in selenium minerals and trace elements known
(15:52):
to soothe the skin. So he wrote up this report
on this and the thermal spring waters at laroche Pose.
That's the real deal. He was absolutely right. They are
indeed naturally high in selenium, mineral salts and trace elements.
That will help soothe and heal the skin. So this
medical cosign, having a doctor actually say no, this water's
legit was very important because then the royal court and
(16:15):
other medical elite started to see this spring not just
as a folk tale but as a potential actual therapy.
Over the sixteen hundreds and seventeen hundreds, the reputation of
laroche Pose's waters kept growing in France. It attracted patients
for treatment of everything from egzma, psoriasis, and other skin conditions.
(16:37):
Here's the thing we talked about this in season one.
At the time, everything that looked to anybody unpleasant on
somebody's skin kind of went under the umbrella of leprosy
or it was assumed to be the work of bad
humors or in some cases, even evil spirits. Can you
imagine if someone told fifth grade ye, I'm sorry, you
(16:57):
have an evil spirit.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yeah, we get like not to that degree, but I say, oh,
it's contagious or right, or like, uh does it hurt?
And of course it was just kids being kids out
of curiosity like oh, I'm curious what that is. But
also as a kid you take that as bullying, like
I don't know, this is either leave me alone.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Maybe you should have told them you had an evil spirit. Maybe,
And it will get you if you don't leave you alone.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
If you don't leave me alone.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Today, of course, we know that psoriasis is actually an
autoimmune condition, and external treatments, whether that's mineral springs, moisturizer,
anything topical, it's not going to get to the root
of the flare ups. But I'm sure De Kwan that
you can relate to people, especially when they don't understand
what's going on, just on the hunt for a miracle cure.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Of course, not necessarily just with psoriasis, like we all.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Had our acne moments, our teenage acne you know, yea eras,
even adult acne eras, where it's just like, Okay, I'm
going to try everything under the sun, no point intending, Yeah,
to really try to cure this bad boy and get
it out the way.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, we're about to get to the most dramatic chapter
of laroche Pose's history that happened around the turn of
the nineteenth century. And that's because when he was returning
from his Egyptian campaign in the late seventeen nineties, General
Napoleon Bonaparte was actually really interested in using these waters
in a more practical way, so he actually assigned doctors
(18:26):
to be there all the time. He made sure it
was well supplied. And this was also that veterans that
had stubborn wounds or rashes or other skin problems after
the campaign could go bathe in this spring. And then
almost one hundred years later, in eighteen ninety seven, now
we're getting kind of into more modern stuff, the French
Academy of Medicine formally recognized laroche Pose's reputation and in
(18:50):
nineteen oh five they opened the first thermal center there
dedicated to skin disorders. You have spent time in France,
did you know about laroche Pose and this potential?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I knew about the brand of skincare.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I never knew this history behind the brand itself, which
is kind of beautiful.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
This also brings up the question of like why people
believe so strongly in this idea of healing waters in
medieval Europe, So for a long time, mineral springs and
thermal baths have been prized for health benefits, particularly skin health. Right,
we know that ancient Greeks and Romans bathed in sulfurous
springs to treat things like skin ulcers and arthritis, and
(19:30):
then in Europe bathhouses were common. I am sure you
have heard this right. We've all heard the people didn't
bathe in the Middle Ages thing. Mm hmm, Yeah, that's
not true. There are writings that show that people in
the Middle Ages actually loved bath time.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So that's why I love the beach so much.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah, just like literally, like summertime is when my skin
flourished the best, because I'm always.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Out of beach. I haven't been yet.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
We'll hurry this up so you can dart out the door.
There is a document called the regemen sanatata si learntanum.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Say that three times fast if you paid me.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
That was an eleventh to twelfth century medical poem, and
it actually instructs people that they should do daily washing
and bathing as part of maintaining well being. So this
was not a mystery to anybody in the Middle Ages.
In the thirteenth century, there were texts like Peter of
Abulis de balnat Pucciolanis. This was a lavish series of
(20:27):
odes to Italian bath spas, showing nobles and commoners soaking
and steam bathing, drinking the waters, carrying them off in
barrels for home use. There's plenty of folklore where such
springs are tied to the idea of youth and renewal.
This gets into art because we've seen a lot of
medieval art depictions of pilgrims looking for the fountain of youth,
(20:50):
and it's all part of this bigger idea that humans
collectively seem to have that water is restorative for the body.
You have featured water, I know in an number of
your paintings. You have a series called the Water Bearer series.
You did a Josephine Baker series that has water in
some of the paintings. Was that a conscious choice related
(21:10):
to this idea of water and both the joy and
healing it brings you. I mean, when you talk about
the beach, it's almost spiritual, how much you love it.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
The overall foundation of The Water Bearer was about the
vulnerability of emotions from a man through tapping into his
masculinity in femininity through ballet through water. And I always
said ballet as art former you have to be very
specific with the poses, but freeing of the body, so
it's kind of the same thing with being in the water.
(21:39):
The water symbolized the emotions of vulnerability. Underwater was a
subconscious mind, and above water in the series was the
conscious mind of just tapping into that vulnerability, and during
that time my own journey of trying to tap into
my own vulnerability and being grounded. I was at the
beach the entire time during that series. Some of the
(22:00):
pieces have actual sand in rocks embedded in the paintings
from my beach journeys. So yes, water is like, that's
my it's my grounding. I mean me myself as an aquarius.
We are air signs, but we are water bearers.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I love it. It's so present in all of your art.
It's really beautiful. I also want to talk about the
practice of what's called balneotherapy, which is really just thermal
bath therapy, because this is also part of human history.
It's been documented for thousands of years. Laroche Pose was
just one node in this global network of cure seekers,
(22:39):
so a place where legend met the earliest pieces of science.
Regarding spa medicine. We have talked a little bit about
this idea of stigma, and part of why baths like
laroche Pose really offered a beacon of hope is the
heavy stigma historically attached to skin diseases, So in past eras,
any visible skin conditions, whether it was anything like sorias's
(23:03):
all the way to leprosy, were deeply misunderstood and feared.
That's not entirely historical. Long before doctors distinguished soriasis as
a separate disease, people that had it were often conflated
with lepers or as you mentioned in talking about fifth
grade kids, they were assumed to be unclean or have
some sort of contagion issue. We talked about this also
(23:26):
in season one. In some societies, people with chronic rashes
were even forced to carry bells or wear special garments
to warn others about their perceived contagion. And of course
this only compounds people's misery. Can you imagine having to
carry a bell around so people knew you were having
a flare?
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, that's crazy. It's even here.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, Hi, stay away from me, Stay away from me.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
You know what.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
I would use that bell for may the whole time
I don't have a flare up. I was like, wait,
hold on. When I said that, it's like wait bingo.
I would use it whole time I didn't have a
flare up, just like this leave me alone today, I'll
leave me alone Bill.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
A spa that could potentially cure someone, of course, held
tremendous cultural weight. We've talked about how for years, centuries
this persisted. This idea of relief from itching, scaling, or
disfigurement also could mean a return to normal life and society.
That too, is not just historical right, and that is
(24:23):
also why advocacy is so important today. People still need
to learn these lessons, and at the town of Laroche Pose,
the very idea of a horse's rash clearing in minutes
had tapped into this deep longing for normalcy, and over
the centuries, spa doctors often promised patients at least a respite,
(24:44):
if not a cure, and indeed, once clinical dermatology emerged
in the nineteenth century, conditions like psoriasis started to be
identified and treated scientifically, but there were generations where people
place their faith in natural remedies wherever they could. Street
is of course full of wild and perhaps earnest, but
(25:04):
misguided cures for skin conditions. Medieval and ancient texts even
include advice for everything from literal snake oil to mud poultices.
The Egyptians I don't know if you've ever heard this
made poultices that were made from lizard blood, crushed mice,
(25:24):
and even animal dung to dream sores.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Oh no, and here that one listen.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Some of these ingredients do have antimicrobial properties.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
But like crowd pass, I say yeah, I'm okay.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah. So when lavroche pose spring offered this option that
was comparatively benign, that was a huge moment and its
value to the French people and people seeking a little
spa time with an ancient pedigree that all remained strong
to this day. By decree of the Council of State
in France on August third, twenty eighteen, the thermal resource
(26:00):
of laroche Pose was officially declared a public utility. So
that is a designation that will safeguard that spring going
forward for medical and therapeutic use. That is a really
strong affirmation in our era of high tech medicine. This
medieval spring that healed a warhorse still has something to
offer modern science and suffering skin. Laroche Pose is nestled
(26:23):
in this really beautiful quiet corner of Nouvelle Aquitaine. It's
in western central France, and the spot offers medical and
wellness focused baleotherapy treatments using the town's naturally selenium rich water.
It still bubbles up from that same exact spring that
legendarily cured that horse whose name in my heart is clumsy.
(26:44):
We have talked already about the skincare brand laroche Pose,
and their ties actually go way deeper than just sharing
this name. Laroche Pose, La Bretois dermatol Jique was founded
in nineteen seventy five by a French pharmacist named Rene Leve,
and in nineteen eighty nine Laureal acquired laroche Pose A
and this brand is of course recognized worldwide. As the
(27:07):
brand states their water remains quote a core ingredient in
most of our products and central to our story. So today,
if you are a guest at the thermal center, you
can undergo personalized programs that might include things like high
pressure showers, mineral rich compresses, soothing sprays, immersion bads. The
(27:29):
atmosphere is a little bit more of a clinic than
an indulgent spa experience, but in the best way you
can combine dermatological care with healing in this natural, serene
and pastoral setting. It's one of the few places in
the world that has that combination for people that are
more focused on relaxation than a treatment. There is also
(27:50):
everything you would expect in a high end spot, so
you can get facials, body wraps, massages, all infused with
that signature magical thermal water. And it's housed in this
beautiful tranquil space, in the midst of gardens and walking paths.
It's really lovely and peaceful. This town has. I mean,
this town is like picturesque. It's it's got cafes, there's
(28:12):
a romanesque church. Listen, if you want to party a little,
there's a little casino.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
I sort of went when I was there.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
You could go play a round of golf. Right, the
water is still the draw, but there is this whole
cute little town town that you could just go have
a lovely time in. Visitors often describe going there as
being both physically and emotionally restorative, so not just a
retreat for the skin, but for the self. And so
in this way, this town, this little, once very quiet town,
(28:41):
continues to fulfill its oldest promise, not to erase every symptom,
but to offer relief and respite and perhaps even a
little hope. So let's book it.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I'm ready now, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yeah. I think we can all relate to this idea
of people wanting to make a pilgrimage to a magical spring.
We're ready to, you know, head out to the airport.
Anytime you're feeling ill, whether it's with a skin condition
or anything, especially if it's persistent, the proclivity is to
go to great lengths to give yourself some relief. And
I know even today the journey to getting treatment for
(29:15):
sariasis can actually be a long and arduous one. How
have you found that you've needed to advocate for yourself
in regards to getting ongoing care for your piasis?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
They're hoops, definitely, But I will say I am blessed
and lucky that I have surrounded myself with people that
if I didn't know the answer, they knew where to
find the answer.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
It's all about community.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
I think it's definitely best to try to ask someone
for help when it comes to that if you can't
find it yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
You make a great point about how community provides maps
essentially right there, no matter what you're dealing with, someone
out there has dealt with the same thing, and they
can probably be a guide to you, which is important
to remember, especially when you're dealing with something that does
make you feel rather isolated and alone. So thank you
for making that point. Dea Kon. We usually ask a
(30:09):
couple of questions at the end of every episode. First,
is I want to know from your perspective, what suggestions
do you have for people who maybe don't have psoriasis themselves,
but they love someone who does and they want to
be supportive and helpful.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
I mean, it's that about what you say, it's how
you say it. So in the midst of a curiosity,
ask yourself, because this question, in this certain type of
tone or the way I word it, potentially hurt the
person I'm curious about.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I think it's very important to know that person's.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Language overall with their disorder and understand that, especially if
you see that they're also trying to figure it out,
give them some like space and grace, but also some
love because they're already not probably feeling it in that
moment with it themselves.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I think that's beautiful. And then, last, but not least,
if you could send one message to any of our
listeners who might be grappling with their own diagnosis and
seeking out those guideposts. What would it be?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I always tell people you are your longest and your
strongest relationship, so therefore love on you first, because if
you a cup is not filled, you can't pour to
someone else.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
So wise, dick onom thank you so much for this.
This has been really, really lovely.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I really appreciate it, and I love that history lesson.
Oh my goodness, my brain is overstimulated in the best way.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Our Skin is hosted by myself, Holly Frye, and executive
produced and engineered by Ryan Martz. Our executive producer and
writer is Meredith Barnes. If you enjoy the show, share
it with your friends. You can also listen and fallo
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
I'm Holly Fry and this is season two of Our Skin,
a personal discovery podcast, and it is wonderful to have
you here with us. Connection is what this show is
all about, specifically connecting about things that we're sometimes afraid
to talk about. Today, we're going to be exploring the
ups and downs, past and present, personal and universal troubles
(00:28):
we have with our skin. Our skin is our most
visible organ. What happens on our skin affects the rest
of our lives, especially when dealing with a chronic condition.
Getting diagnosed with one of these, like psoriasis, can be overwhelming,
but you're not alone. Each episode features a personal story
of resilience and grace, but our personal stories are threads
(00:51):
in a larger tapestry, and there are lessons for us
in the history of how we treat our skin and
the progress we've made together. Caring for our skin is
caring for ourselves. Whether you're seeking inspiration for your own
journey or curious about the history of our Skin, you'll
find empathetic, transformative conversations here on Our Skin. Today, we
(01:15):
are joined by someone who brings artistry, advocacy, and authenticity
to everything he does, Daikwon cherry. If you are part
of the online poriasis community, or if you really like art,
you have likely seen Daikon's work. Through bold and beautiful
visual art, vulnerable storytelling, and powerful advocacy, he is changing
(01:35):
how people see poriasis and themselves. Diagnosed in the fifth grade,
Daikwon's early years of living with psoriasis were marked by
confusion and stigma, but after a surprising moment of affirmation
thanks to keeping up with the Kardashians, he found the
courage to speak up. But Daikwon's advocacy is not just
(01:56):
about awareness, it is also about joy. He has talked
openly about reclaiming confidence, celebrating self expression, and building a
life that does not wait for clear skin. In a
world that still treats visible difference as something to hide,
Dayquon flips that script. He shows us we don't need
to be fixed to be whole, and that beauty, power,
(02:18):
and purpose can all coexist with chronic illness. Today, we
are going to talk to Dayquon about his creative journey,
the communities that have lifted him up, and how identity, illness,
and art all intersect in his incredible life. Day Quon,
Welcome to our skin I am so glad you're here.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Thank you for having me everyone, I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Ah, this is the dream. Let's talk about art and
also the purpose of the podcast together. At last, I
want to start at the beginning. Will you take us
back to when you were first diagnosed with psoriasis. What
were those early symptoms like you were just a kid,
and how were you making sense of what was happening.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It was a very troubled time because at that time
I wasn't privy to the knowledge of psoriasis, didn't know
what it was at all.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
My family didn't know what it was.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
We thought it was wingworms actually, because it just popped
up out of no way or my scalp and then
trickled down to my back area. For a very long time,
I felt so self conscious about it because I didn't
know what it was and.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I didn't see a lot of other people with it.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I was the only person, as I thought at the time,
that had this disorder. So I used to hide my
scalp all the time with a hoodie. In school, I
used to get in trouble, but I never told them
why I would do so.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
It wasn't until middle school.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
When I was very heavily involved watching Keeping Up with
the Kardashians, and I saw Kim talk about her diagnosis.
I was like, wait, I have that too. By that time,
we already figured out that I assoriasis through going to
the dermatologists, of course, and being officially die knows something.
When I heard Kim had the same disorder as me,
(04:04):
I'm like, am I a celebrity.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Because I was the only person. I'm like, is this
like the right of passage to become a celebrity?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Like this is the deal you have to make.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
This is the deal I have to make. But I'll
be a celebrity.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
It still took a toll, even in that moment of
seeing like, Okay, someone else does have it, but I
still feel so secluded and alienated.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It was a tough time. But here we are.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Now starting out as a kid going up. Even through
that moment where a celebrity has the same thing, that
is still a very vulnerable time in anyone's life. Was
there a specific moment or a turning point when you
just decided you were going to start sharing this story publicly?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I think there. So there's two different answers to that.
The first answer I will say I started getting more
into skincare in high school.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
You know, high school is a different for the type
of ballgame.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It got more aggressive towards my freshman ye of college
and on my face, which was also again another vulnerable
time in a young adult's life. Freshman year of college
is where you think you're an adult, and then now
I look back, I was still a kid. I got
more comfortable with it. Even in this time, I still
wasn't comfortable. But I did a shoot with a Loure magazine.
(05:25):
They wanted to do a spread about psoriasis, and I
remember looking at the final product seeing when the photos
were out, and I was like wow. I think that's
when it kind of became like a moment because I
had people actually reach out to me from hearing my
story and from that spread, and I was like, wow,
this was once my insecurity and I turned into like
(05:46):
an asset.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
But that's when my confidence kind of boosted.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Was like, Okay, this is once something I kind of
shied away from. It was scared to talk about, and
because I finally said a word about it, it.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Became a voice of read and for so many other people.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I want to talk about your art because I love
art and you are primarily a painter. Yes, your art
is really really beautiful. How did you become an artist?
When did you realize that was also a calling?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I've always drawn since I was a kid. That was
just a thing for therapeutic reasons. And then around twenty sixteen,
I remember I loved telling this story.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
I was in college and my friend had an art class.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Long story short, I did her homework for her. I,
for lack of better words, I did a drawing of
Angelina and Joe.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And I was like, oh wait, really good.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I forgot that same day, I went and maxed out
my credit card and got went to Malmart and just
got a whole bunch of painting supplies. I was like,
you know what, I want to try painting, just for fun,
just for fun. Right.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Moved here to New York around twenty seventeen. A few months.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Later, I thought it was going to be acting and modeling,
like all artists that moved to New York. And then
COVID happened, and then all of my gigs just shut
down for acting and modeling. Honestly, I told myself, I
have all this art supplies, I'm just going to create
until I'm homeless because I don't know what else to do,
(07:17):
there's nothing else to do. But that didn't happen luckily,
and it turned out I just blew up on Instagram
from posting and showing my work and the rest is
history five years later.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Do you work through having a chronic condition in your art?
Does it manifest?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
For sure?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I did a series recently and it was dedicated to women,
but the whole idea and the foundation of it was
femininity and the nurturing of femininity and really being vulnerable
because all the women had their backs turned away from
the paintings, and it was kind of like a symbolic
(07:57):
journey of my psoriasis. And I did a whole like
talk about it about how sometimes I just feel like
the world is watching over me and I'm kind of
scared to look back and see it. But instead of
showing it face forward, I showed my back, which is
like my I guess, most vulnerable space of my psoriasis,
and I let the world see that side of me.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So I think it definitely shows up in my work heavily.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
No matter how much inner work and advocacy you're doing,
there are still going to be bad days. So how
do you manage those moments like when you have a
psoriasis flare and maybe your confidence falters a little bit.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I like to be so transparent sometimes when I do
have those moments of major flare ups, I don't want
to be around people. I don't feel as confident, but
I of course still show up because I know like
it's almost like an ode to my younger self. I'm
like talking to him, and he's not always happy or confident. However,
(08:59):
I got to so I'm like, okay, well, we still
have to get up and tackle this day on. Let's
do it together. I recently saw something that kind of
helped me too. It said, when you listen to a
love song for now on sing it as if you're
singing it to yourself.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
It helps you change the lyrics in the way like.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Oh, you know how usually we listen to us, we
listen to a dell think about our lovers. It's like, no,
go easy on me, go easy on me, like as
me talking to me, go easy on yourself.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I love this. This ties in also to an aspect
of your self care that I know you've talked about before,
which is that you do things like massages, and you
really really prioritize those gentle ways of taking care of yourself.
What are those moments of calm? What do those do
(09:51):
for your general well being as well as for your flares.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Stress is a major indicator of a lot of PSORAC
outbreaks and flair ups. Maintaining that stress, which sometimes is
so hard to be like, oh, don't stress, okay.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That phrases like such a stress maker.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Like now I'm stressed, you tell me how to Now
I'm even stressed, even boring the gym nature. I live
by a beautiful park. I love what summertime. The beach
is my best friend. Not only is it my best friend,
is my Pariasi's best friend when it comes to the
dead sea salt and the vitamin D from the sun
where your sunscreen still though, but it does definitely help trying.
(10:33):
And these are my ways. Anybody, everyone out there that's listening,
find your way of calming your brain, whether that is painting,
whether it is drawing, something that also benefits your health,
because there are other ways that you can calm yourself
down that may not benefit your help, but hanging out
(10:53):
with friends, laughing, finding ways to find joy in the day.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
You're gonna have stressful moments.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Those are never gonna go away, but it's easier for
us as human beings to highlight the stresses over the
enjoyment of life.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Try to reverse that psychology in your brain.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
And use the joy as your main factor of the
day versus distress, and that in a way helps your
flare ups so much more than and yes, sty'll go
to your dermerentologists, but I'm telling you mental health is
just as equally important.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
For listeners who are newly diagnosed or who are even
struggling with the idea of having that conversation with maybe
a physician or a community. What advice do you offer
them about finding and building a community around them that's
gonna help with all of these mental health issues as
well as, you know, getting their diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I think it takes time, but I will say I
don't know, maybe because I'm more in the world of
advocacy now. I feel like there's so much out there,
just so much advocacy and research and nonprofit organizations that
are out there. There's so many different avenues now to
(12:10):
find your community in this world. Once you are diagnosed
or like you said, having those symptoms and you're trying
to figure out if you have it.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I think it is best to find those.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Communities to feel seen because at times a lot of
people are scared to talk about it. So your neighbor
might have it, a friend of yours might have it,
but they're too scared to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
You have built a really incredible platform where you share yourself,
but other people also feel seen and supported, and it's
also very inspiring. So I'm curious what's next for you.
Are there new projects and new goals on the horizon,
both for your advocacy and your art.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So actually next week I will be doing the commit
to kre gala for the National Sorietes Foundation, which I'm
very excited to be volunteering for. As far as art,
I have a few art shows coming up, actually one
next week and in one this Friday. I'm very excited
to share space with different artists. They're both group shows.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I'm just being my usual artistic self.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
This is like how I usually roll, and I just
I'm painting and advocating and being visible and sometimes itchy,
sometimes dry.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
That's multitasking. We are going to take a quick break
and when we come back, we're actually going to time
travel to the fourteenth century to France to learn the
origins of one of the most famous bodies of water
in the world, and that is the spring at Laroche,
pose in the rolling countryside of Turin, France. The little
(13:59):
town of Laroche is famous today among dermatologists, but its
renown actually began with a legend. In the fourteenth century.
A French knight named Bertrand de gue Clan stopped at
a warm spring there to water his horse and himself,
and according to this tale, du gue Clin's horse was
suffering from some sort of serious skin issues. We don't
(14:21):
know specifically, but the best guess is that it's likely
from toiling under a heavy military saddle for years of battle.
But after falling into the thermal waters, the animal emerged
allegedly fully healed, and word of this miraculous cure spread
very far and wide. So peasants and nobles alike found
this tale pretty compelling. In an age when skin diseases
(14:44):
had absolutely no known cure, any hint of relief was
very precious, so it got a lot of attention, and
this story became local lore, and it guaranteed that travelers
started to seek out this spring not just to quench
their thirst, but all so to bathe and drink in
hopes of relief. This of course also gets into questions
(15:04):
of like drinking the water that people are bathing in.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
But yeah, we're not another time.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
That was a time, you know, we're going to put
that aside. In time, laroche Pose's simple spring actually became
a pilgrimage site for the afflicted, and it piggybacked on
the very real medieval fascination with this concept of healing waters,
and we are going to talk about that more. By
the seventeenth century, though, the spring's fame had captured the
(15:31):
interest even of very well established and respected physicians. The
French royal doctor Pierre Milon, who treated kings Henry the
fourth and Louis the thirteenth, visited laroche Pose to analyze
its waters and lo and behold. Milon found that the
water was rich in selenium minerals and trace elements known
(15:52):
to soothe the skin. So he wrote up this report
on this and the thermal spring waters at laroche Pose.
That's the real deal. He was absolutely right. They are
indeed naturally high in selenium, mineral salts and trace elements.
That will help soothe and heal the skin. So this
medical cosign, having a doctor actually say no, this water's
legit was very important because then the royal court and
(16:15):
other medical elite started to see this spring not just
as a folk tale but as a potential actual therapy.
Over the sixteen hundreds and seventeen hundreds, the reputation of
laroche Pose's waters kept growing in France. It attracted patients
for treatment of everything from egzma, psoriasis, and other skin conditions.
(16:37):
Here's the thing we talked about this in season one.
At the time, everything that looked to anybody unpleasant on
somebody's skin kind of went under the umbrella of leprosy
or it was assumed to be the work of bad
humors or in some cases, even evil spirits. Can you
imagine if someone told fifth grade ye, I'm sorry, you
(16:57):
have an evil spirit.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yeah, we get like not to that degree, but I say, oh,
it's contagious or right, or like, uh does it hurt?
And of course it was just kids being kids out
of curiosity like oh, I'm curious what that is. But
also as a kid you take that as bullying, like
I don't know, this is either leave me alone.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Maybe you should have told them you had an evil spirit. Maybe,
And it will get you if you don't leave you alone.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
If you don't leave me alone.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Today, of course, we know that psoriasis is actually an
autoimmune condition, and external treatments, whether that's mineral springs, moisturizer,
anything topical, it's not going to get to the root
of the flare ups. But I'm sure De Kwan that
you can relate to people, especially when they don't understand
what's going on, just on the hunt for a miracle cure.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Of course, not necessarily just with psoriasis, like we all.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Had our acne moments, our teenage acne you know, yea eras,
even adult acne eras, where it's just like, Okay, I'm
going to try everything under the sun, no point intending, Yeah,
to really try to cure this bad boy and get
it out the way.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, we're about to get to the most dramatic chapter
of laroche Pose's history that happened around the turn of
the nineteenth century. And that's because when he was returning
from his Egyptian campaign in the late seventeen nineties, General
Napoleon Bonaparte was actually really interested in using these waters
in a more practical way, so he actually assigned doctors
(18:26):
to be there all the time. He made sure it
was well supplied. And this was also that veterans that
had stubborn wounds or rashes or other skin problems after
the campaign could go bathe in this spring. And then
almost one hundred years later, in eighteen ninety seven, now
we're getting kind of into more modern stuff, the French
Academy of Medicine formally recognized laroche Pose's reputation and in
(18:50):
nineteen oh five they opened the first thermal center there
dedicated to skin disorders. You have spent time in France,
did you know about laroche Pose and this potential?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I knew about the brand of skincare.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I never knew this history behind the brand itself, which
is kind of beautiful.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
This also brings up the question of like why people
believe so strongly in this idea of healing waters in
medieval Europe, So for a long time, mineral springs and
thermal baths have been prized for health benefits, particularly skin health. Right,
we know that ancient Greeks and Romans bathed in sulfurous
springs to treat things like skin ulcers and arthritis, and
(19:30):
then in Europe bathhouses were common. I am sure you
have heard this right. We've all heard the people didn't
bathe in the Middle Ages thing. Mm hmm, Yeah, that's
not true. There are writings that show that people in
the Middle Ages actually loved bath time.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So that's why I love the beach so much.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah, just like literally, like summertime is when my skin
flourished the best, because I'm always.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Out of beach. I haven't been yet.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
We'll hurry this up so you can dart out the door.
There is a document called the regemen sanatata si learntanum.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Say that three times fast if you paid me.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
That was an eleventh to twelfth century medical poem, and
it actually instructs people that they should do daily washing
and bathing as part of maintaining well being. So this
was not a mystery to anybody in the Middle Ages.
In the thirteenth century, there were texts like Peter of
Abulis de balnat Pucciolanis. This was a lavish series of
(20:27):
odes to Italian bath spas, showing nobles and commoners soaking
and steam bathing, drinking the waters, carrying them off in
barrels for home use. There's plenty of folklore where such
springs are tied to the idea of youth and renewal.
This gets into art because we've seen a lot of
medieval art depictions of pilgrims looking for the fountain of youth,
(20:50):
and it's all part of this bigger idea that humans
collectively seem to have that water is restorative for the body.
You have featured water, I know in an number of
your paintings. You have a series called the Water Bearer series.
You did a Josephine Baker series that has water in
some of the paintings. Was that a conscious choice related
(21:10):
to this idea of water and both the joy and
healing it brings you. I mean, when you talk about
the beach, it's almost spiritual, how much you love it.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
The overall foundation of The Water Bearer was about the
vulnerability of emotions from a man through tapping into his
masculinity in femininity through ballet through water. And I always
said ballet as art former you have to be very
specific with the poses, but freeing of the body, so
it's kind of the same thing with being in the water.
(21:39):
The water symbolized the emotions of vulnerability. Underwater was a
subconscious mind, and above water in the series was the
conscious mind of just tapping into that vulnerability, and during
that time my own journey of trying to tap into
my own vulnerability and being grounded. I was at the
beach the entire time during that series. Some of the
(22:00):
pieces have actual sand in rocks embedded in the paintings
from my beach journeys. So yes, water is like, that's
my it's my grounding. I mean me myself as an aquarius.
We are air signs, but we are water bearers.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I love it. It's so present in all of your art.
It's really beautiful. I also want to talk about the
practice of what's called balneotherapy, which is really just thermal
bath therapy, because this is also part of human history.
It's been documented for thousands of years. Laroche Pose was
just one node in this global network of cure seekers,
(22:39):
so a place where legend met the earliest pieces of science.
Regarding spa medicine. We have talked a little bit about
this idea of stigma, and part of why baths like
laroche Pose really offered a beacon of hope is the
heavy stigma historically attached to skin diseases, So in past eras,
any visible skin conditions, whether it was anything like sorias's
(23:03):
all the way to leprosy, were deeply misunderstood and feared.
That's not entirely historical. Long before doctors distinguished soriasis as
a separate disease, people that had it were often conflated
with lepers or as you mentioned in talking about fifth
grade kids, they were assumed to be unclean or have
some sort of contagion issue. We talked about this also
(23:26):
in season one. In some societies, people with chronic rashes
were even forced to carry bells or wear special garments
to warn others about their perceived contagion. And of course
this only compounds people's misery. Can you imagine having to
carry a bell around so people knew you were having
a flare?
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, that's crazy. It's even here.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, Hi, stay away from me, Stay away from me.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
You know what.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
I would use that bell for may the whole time
I don't have a flare up. I was like, wait,
hold on. When I said that, it's like wait bingo.
I would use it whole time I didn't have a
flare up, just like this leave me alone today, I'll
leave me alone Bill.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
A spa that could potentially cure someone, of course, held
tremendous cultural weight. We've talked about how for years, centuries
this persisted. This idea of relief from itching, scaling, or
disfigurement also could mean a return to normal life and society.
That too, is not just historical right, and that is
(24:23):
also why advocacy is so important today. People still need
to learn these lessons, and at the town of Laroche Pose,
the very idea of a horse's rash clearing in minutes
had tapped into this deep longing for normalcy, and over
the centuries, spa doctors often promised patients at least a respite,
(24:44):
if not a cure, and indeed, once clinical dermatology emerged
in the nineteenth century, conditions like psoriasis started to be
identified and treated scientifically, but there were generations where people
place their faith in natural remedies wherever they could. Street
is of course full of wild and perhaps earnest, but
(25:04):
misguided cures for skin conditions. Medieval and ancient texts even
include advice for everything from literal snake oil to mud poultices.
The Egyptians I don't know if you've ever heard this
made poultices that were made from lizard blood, crushed mice,
(25:24):
and even animal dung to dream sores.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Oh no, and here that one listen.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Some of these ingredients do have antimicrobial properties.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
But like crowd pass, I say yeah, I'm okay.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah. So when lavroche pose spring offered this option that
was comparatively benign, that was a huge moment and its
value to the French people and people seeking a little
spa time with an ancient pedigree that all remained strong
to this day. By decree of the Council of State
in France on August third, twenty eighteen, the thermal resource
(26:00):
of laroche Pose was officially declared a public utility. So
that is a designation that will safeguard that spring going
forward for medical and therapeutic use. That is a really
strong affirmation in our era of high tech medicine. This
medieval spring that healed a warhorse still has something to
offer modern science and suffering skin. Laroche Pose is nestled
(26:23):
in this really beautiful quiet corner of Nouvelle Aquitaine. It's
in western central France, and the spot offers medical and
wellness focused baleotherapy treatments using the town's naturally selenium rich water.
It still bubbles up from that same exact spring that
legendarily cured that horse whose name in my heart is clumsy.
(26:44):
We have talked already about the skincare brand laroche Pose,
and their ties actually go way deeper than just sharing
this name. Laroche Pose, La Bretois dermatol Jique was founded
in nineteen seventy five by a French pharmacist named Rene Leve,
and in nineteen eighty nine Laureal acquired laroche Pose A
and this brand is of course recognized worldwide. As the
(27:07):
brand states their water remains quote a core ingredient in
most of our products and central to our story. So today,
if you are a guest at the thermal center, you
can undergo personalized programs that might include things like high
pressure showers, mineral rich compresses, soothing sprays, immersion bads. The
(27:29):
atmosphere is a little bit more of a clinic than
an indulgent spa experience, but in the best way you
can combine dermatological care with healing in this natural, serene
and pastoral setting. It's one of the few places in
the world that has that combination for people that are
more focused on relaxation than a treatment. There is also
(27:50):
everything you would expect in a high end spot, so
you can get facials, body wraps, massages, all infused with
that signature magical thermal water. And it's housed in this
beautiful tranquil space, in the midst of gardens and walking paths.
It's really lovely and peaceful. This town has. I mean,
this town is like picturesque. It's it's got cafes, there's
(28:12):
a romanesque church. Listen, if you want to party a little,
there's a little casino.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
I sort of went when I was there.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
You could go play a round of golf. Right, the
water is still the draw, but there is this whole
cute little town town that you could just go have
a lovely time in. Visitors often describe going there as
being both physically and emotionally restorative, so not just a
retreat for the skin, but for the self. And so
in this way, this town, this little, once very quiet town,
(28:41):
continues to fulfill its oldest promise, not to erase every symptom,
but to offer relief and respite and perhaps even a
little hope. So let's book it.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I'm ready now, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yeah. I think we can all relate to this idea
of people wanting to make a pilgrimage to a magical spring.
We're ready to, you know, head out to the airport.
Anytime you're feeling ill, whether it's with a skin condition
or anything, especially if it's persistent, the proclivity is to
go to great lengths to give yourself some relief. And
I know even today the journey to getting treatment for
(29:15):
sariasis can actually be a long and arduous one. How
have you found that you've needed to advocate for yourself
in regards to getting ongoing care for your piasis?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
They're hoops, definitely, But I will say I am blessed
and lucky that I have surrounded myself with people that
if I didn't know the answer, they knew where to
find the answer.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
It's all about community.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
I think it's definitely best to try to ask someone
for help when it comes to that if you can't
find it yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
You make a great point about how community provides maps
essentially right there, no matter what you're dealing with, someone
out there has dealt with the same thing, and they
can probably be a guide to you, which is important
to remember, especially when you're dealing with something that does
make you feel rather isolated and alone. So thank you
for making that point. Dea Kon. We usually ask a
(30:09):
couple of questions at the end of every episode. First,
is I want to know from your perspective, what suggestions
do you have for people who maybe don't have psoriasis themselves,
but they love someone who does and they want to
be supportive and helpful.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
I mean, it's that about what you say, it's how
you say it. So in the midst of a curiosity,
ask yourself, because this question, in this certain type of
tone or the way I word it, potentially hurt the
person I'm curious about.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I think it's very important to know that person's.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Language overall with their disorder and understand that, especially if
you see that they're also trying to figure it out,
give them some like space and grace, but also some
love because they're already not probably feeling it in that
moment with it themselves.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I think that's beautiful. And then, last, but not least,
if you could send one message to any of our
listeners who might be grappling with their own diagnosis and
seeking out those guideposts. What would it be?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I always tell people you are your longest and your
strongest relationship, so therefore love on you first, because if
you a cup is not filled, you can't pour to
someone else.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
So wise, dick onom thank you so much for this.
This has been really, really lovely.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I really appreciate it, and I love that history lesson.
Oh my goodness, my brain is overstimulated in the best way.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Our Skin is hosted by myself, Holly Frye, and executive
produced and engineered by Ryan Martz. Our executive producer and
writer is Meredith Barnes. If you enjoy the show, share
it with your friends. You can also listen and fallo
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.