Good morning HartsSpace! Today I’d like to discuss another skin disorder that affects millions of Americans every year… Psoriasis. This is a typically chronic auto immune disorder in which the immune system incorrectly identifies the skin cells (or some of the patient’s skin cells) as foreign objects that need to be attacked. When the immune system attacks these cells, they change the function of these cells and NOT for the better. Instead of these skin cells continuing their natural life cycle of reproducing and sloughing off, they begin hyper producing skin cells in the affected area without sloughing off. This produces excessive skin (or thick skin) which then triggers and inflammatory response which makes the skin red and swollen. Sometimes the psoriasis patient can even develop white looking plaques on top of the red rash. This disorder is unfortunately quite uncomfortable for the patient and sometimes  painful.

The causes of psoriasis are not known with 100 % certainty yet, but scientists do believe there is a genetic component. They also suspect there to be environmental factors that trigger the immune system to over react causing a psoriasis flare up. For example, it is fairly common for children to develop at least a temporary psoriasis episode when they have strep throat. Some other reported triggers of psoriasis are stress, certain medications, surguries, and potentially allergies both dietary and environmental.

Conventional treatments to treat psoriasis are topical creams like corticosteroids to fight the surface inflammation, and there are also some light treatments that can help those who are not helped by topical creams. The light therapy can be a UVB treatment at the doctor’s office, a UVB lamp at home, or a laser treatment at the doctor’s office. Sunlight is another potential way for psoriasis patients to get some UVB light, however sunlight can also present some sunburn hazards… so this treatment regime needs to be discussed with a doctor.

So what about food? Just like we discussed in yesterday’s blog, an anti inflammatory diet is recommended to any one suffering from any kind of inflammatory condition. In fact, an anti inflammatory diet is recommended to everyone since there will most often be some inflammation going on inside your body regardless of whether or not you are aware of it. In addition to an anti inflammatory diet, it is quite important for those who suffer from psoriasis to rule out whether or not they have a food allergy that is triggering this. Gluten in particular tends to be a food allergy associated with psoriasis. One study out of europe found significant improvement in psoriasis after patients embarked on three months of a gluten free diet (1). As we discussed yesterday, the elimination diet (which eliminates about 12 common allergen foods) is one way to determine which of those 12 common allergens is aggrivating your psoriasis. Not every patient is the same, and not everyone has the same triggers. However, if you are not quite ready for a full elimination diet, perhaps a gluten free diet is worth a shot. HartsSpace is happy to help you design and implement a gluten free diet for you… Please give us a call today if you’d like some help!

Have a healthy, un-inflammed day

1)

”Acta Dermato-Venereologica”; Gluten-Free Diet in Psoriasis Patients with Antibodies to Gliadin Results in Decreased Expression of Tissue Transglutaminase and Fewer Ki67+ Cells in the Dermis; G.Michaelsson, et al.; 2003