How I Cured My Psoriasis By Diet

[alan540]

Hi Caroline. I'm not a believer of the genetic cause of this, after all I only developed this 12 months ago. Up until then I could eat whatever I wanted - in fact I'd go as far to say that I considered myself to have a cast iron gut. Now I'm having to be mindful of what I eat. So for me the link is the gut. In my case I do recall having serious food poisoning when abroad in Italy 6 months prior to this starting. I was very ill for 3 days whilst trying to work at the same time. I think it quite possible that I did some damage to my insides and the psoriasis is a direct result of that. Theories, theories! I'm aware that I might be completely wrong, but I can't think of anything else that may have caused the problem. So far, proceeding on this basis is giving me good results. I don't know anything for certain (that much I'm certain of!) but having had no joy with the medical treatment I received, all that was left for me was to manage my own problem.

I'm pleased with the progress made so far and in that sense the underlying cause is irrelevant, however, the gut connection ticks the most boxes with my own symptoms and experiences of trying to control the disease. Also, gut dysbiosis is notoriously difficult to get back into balance and in that sense it is a chronic condition, much like psoriasis is. Again, theories, theories.

I've read a lot of psoriasis forum posts and a common thread is trigger foods as I mentioned in my initial post. My feeling was, that if many people are posting similar experiences then it's worth investigating. Thankfully it's worked/working for me. The gut link then makes sense only in as much that I never had any food intolerances before. It's a working theory and I've been in contact with some research scientists directly who have been very helpful and provided information to fill in different parts of the jigsaw I seem to have created for myself.

As for fungus, candida exists in the human gut naturally. It is dimorphic, the normal form being yeast like and is harmless when kept in control by the normal gut fauna. If, for some reason, candida grows out of control it changes into a fungal form which is invasive and can cause leaky gut syndrome. Medicine now recognises leak gut syndrome to the extent that researchers mention hyperpermeability of the small intestine and or villous atrophy. In the fungal form candida expresses a protein which mimics gluten. This may explain why gluten is a major aggravating factor for many psoriasis sufferers. Also, other macronutrients may cause problems if they too are permeable through a compromied gut e.g. dairy products. Candida in the fungal form obtains nutrients from the blood supply, so is very resilient and eating sugars or starchy foods just spikes blood sugar feeding it and also feeding the yeast like form still existing in the gut which is a reservoir waiting to morph into the fungal form. In this way it's a hard thing to shift and certainly explains why psoriasis is resilient to treatment.

Jim's link to the historic pictures of psoriasis is interesting. If psoriasis is a gut problem there is no reason to think that it is a modern disease and anyone at any time in history may have suffered from it. It is possible that it is more common as we increasingly live in a sterile environment. A dysbiosis is more likely to occur if we have no way of topping up our good fauna through our normal diet. So, in my mind, historic evidence of psoriasis in no way contradicts my pet theory. In fact, it would be interesting to know how common psoriasis is now compared to when we had a pre-industrial farming/distribution system. I suspect it has gotten more common as we have sanitized our food supply chain, but that's pure guesswork.

[Bill]

What is your plan if the diet stops delivering, Alan? I find it surprising that your medico was not impressed by your efforts. If they have not measured your improvement and commended you for your efforts then they dont sound much chop. I think of diet and medicine as complimentary, not exclusive.

Cheers,

Bill

[alan540]

Hi Bill. I don't have a plan is the simple answer. If diet fails to keep delivering I would have to re-evaluate the medical treatments available. As far as I've been made aware by the hospital, there are several treatment options available to me on the NHS all of which involve systemic drugs and all of which have potentially serious side effects. I would have to be in a very bad way to consider going down that route. Thankfully, 3 months into a restricted diet my symptoms are minor and have enabled me to return to work and most importantly just be able to live a normal life again. Some days I totally forget about the psoriasis, and that's a big change to the way I was prior to adopting this alternative way of curing the problem.

[Bill]

Sticking with what works is the way to go, Alan, but I cannot understand the lack of enthusiasm and support for your success. In my case I have had good support for the simple reasons that I have almost no visible disease, good health otherwise, and I am very open about what I am doing. You need to ask your doctor directly what is wrong with what you are doing. If you present your case history and show that you have had an outcome better than would be expected with other treatments, then what objection could there be? Very puzzling indeed.

Cheers,

Bill

[Caroline]

Well the objection could be that nobody could earn anything on that treatment...

[Bill]

Caroline, if you went on a diet and managed your disease to the extent that you needed no drugs, I think that your specialist would say "Well done!" If you did not get commended it might be a case of a difference of opinion. You are being far too cynical, especially for someone on holidays.

[Caroline]

Caroline, if you went on a diet and managed your disease to the extent that you needed no drugs, I think that your specialist would say "Well done!" If you did not get commended it might be a case of a difference of opinion. You are being far too cynical, especially for someone on holidays.

I agree Bill. But it is explainable. It is, because on the day I went on holidays, I got a signal from someone who pointed me to an article in De Volkskrant, one of the better papers in the Netherlands. This article highlighted the relation between pharmacy and doctors. It published a list of rheumatologists, dermatologists etc. Who were receiving money from pharmaceutical companies. For this money they were doing presentations, visited seminars, meetings etcetera. Anyway, because of this relations you cannot expect doctors to be objective anymore, this will always will create some link, some dependency if you accept the money. In between this list was the leading dermatologist in the Netherlands who received € 26.000 a year. This made me a bit cynical.

[Celia]

It's hard not to eat bread!! It really is. And my kids still live on bread, pizza, cookies - all the good stuff that i can't have.
They're apologetic, but not about to give any of it up, so I just have to chin up and remind myself how much better I feel, and how much better my skin feels when I stick to my veggies, rice, meat and nuts!  
What I'm really missing the most is cheese. I have a theory that in my case it's more about the fungus/mold/yeast reaction in my body than anything else.
Of course this has all been trial and error for years. But this particular trial seems to be giving good results so far... fingers crossed!

here I am, yikes! see how my elbows are red - 2 months go they were thick crusty white scales and itching like crazy.
I don't know if it's diet, or lower stress levels, or menopause, or weight loss....  whatever it is, I'm hoping it keeps progressing!!!

[jiml]

It's hard not to eat bread!! It really is. And my kids still live on bread, pizza, cookies - all the good stuff that i can't have.
They're apologetic, but not about to give any of it up, so I just have to chin up and remind myself how much better I feel, and how much better my skin feels when I stick to my veggies, rice, meat and nuts!  
What I'm really missing the most is cheese. I have a theory that in my case it's more about the fungus/mold/yeast reaction in my body than anything else.
Of course this has all been trial and error for years. But this particular trial seems to be giving good results so far... fingers crossed!

[img][/img]


here I am, yikes! see how my elbows are red - 2 months go they were thick crusty white scales and itching like crazy.
I don't know if it's diet, or lower stress levels, or menopause, or weight loss....  whatever it is, I'm hoping it keeps progressing!!!

You're looking good Celia wow the arms look great. And can I say you're looking very trim
Whatever you are doing it's certainly working  

[Celia]

It's hard not to eat bread!! It really is. And my kids still live on bread, pizza, cookies - all the good stuff that i can't have.
They're apologetic, but not about to give any of it up, so I just have to chin up and remind myself how much better I feel, and how much better my skin feels when I stick to my veggies, rice, meat and nuts!  
What I'm really missing the most is cheese. I have a theory that in my case it's more about the fungus/mold/yeast reaction in my body than anything else.
Of course this has all been trial and error for years. But this particular trial seems to be giving good results so far... fingers crossed!

[img][/img]


here I am, yikes! see how my elbows are red - 2 months ago they were thick crusty white scales and itching like crazy.
I don't know if it's diet, or lower stress levels, or menopause, or weight loss....  whatever it is, I'm hoping it keeps progressing!!!

You're looking good Celia wow the arms look great. And can I say you're looking very trim
Whatever you are doing it's certainly working  

Thank you! I think it has to do with the lack of potatoes and bread hahaha!