What is psoriasis and how can you treat it?

Psoriasis is a skin condition which looks like flaky, crusty patches of skin, often found on the elbows, knees and scalps in small spots and can itch and be very sore.

Commonly people have psoriasis from childhood and the patches can either disappear as you age or get worse as the stresses of life take hold. Psoriasis is a chronic auto-immune disease which overproduces skin cells as a protective reaction to chronic inflammation. This protective reaction can be triggered by genetic or environmental factors; such as the food you eat, products placed on the skin or stressful events.

Doctors prescribe creams and lotions that can be applied to the skin to reduce the inflammation response (the redness, pain and heat). Unfortunately, these steroid-based type creams don’t address the auto-immune response, they only treat the inflammation, not the cause of the overproduction of skin cells. Our customers have found that Skin Perfecting Complex can help to alleviate inflammation.

As a nutritional therapist, it is common to find psoriasis on clients who are also presenting signs of gut flora dysbiosis and high histamine reactions. Gut flora dysbiosis is when the integrity of the cells in the gut lining are persistently disrupted by chronic inflammation – similar to psoriasis but inside your gut.

[Ref] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30222202

[Ref] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23814966

Therefore it is essential to understand how the food you eat and lifestyle choices (alcohol, medications and stress) impact the auto-immune response in your gut flora, as this is the route cause of psoriasis flare-ups.  It is your body’s way of trying to tell you something is wrong on the inside.

Here are 5 simple actions you can do start to address your psoriasis.

Stomach Acid – Gut pH balance

An essential part of your gut flora is your stomach acid and is the best place to start when looking to improve gut and skin health. If your stomach acid levels are either too high or too low, this will reduce the ability to absorb any nutrients. Try taking 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in 250ml water 30 minutes before your meals to help balance your stomach pH levels.

Cleanse Your Liver

We all know the liver is affected by alcohol, but did you know medication (paracetamol and NSAID) sugar and stress also affect the liver ability to clean out toxins presented to the body. These toxins cause inflammation within the cells and need to be removed. It sounds simple, but so many people do not drink sufficient amounts of water to support the liver function. The aim should be 35ml per kg of your body weight so if you weigh 60kg you need to be drinking at least 2 litres of just water per day (coffee and tea are extra).

Balance Blood Sugars

Balancing our hormones influences the reaction to stress and inflammation. The most effective place to start when balancing hormones is sugar (even in fruit)! Look at the glycaemic load [aim for 20 GL] of your meals and how often you eat each day. The typical approach is to keep eating every 3 hours, but does that work for you? Try just three meals per day and allow your natural sugars to balance using the Re-set supplements as you have energy in your liver and body you just need to gain access to it.

Make New Gut Bacteria.

We hear so much about probiotics.. however, have you considered pre-biotics? These are the foods that cause the gut to produce good bacteria. Rather than drinking probiotic milky drinks, which affect your blood sugars, try eating the pre-biotic foods instead such as; mushrooms, garlic, onions, leeks and cabbages. You could try adding Immune Complex and Protein Smoothies.

Repair Gut Lining

If you have identified that certain foods and stress cause the flare-up on your skin then look to dampen down the fire with Collagen Shots It helps to reduce the inflammation, which will allow the cells to absorb the nutrients from the collagen shot to heal your gut lining too.