How I Cured My Psoriasis By Diet

[alan540]

Hi Bill. Don't forget it's the NHS over here. Patients are ten a penny, it's no sweat off her back financially if she never sees a patient again, there are plenty more queueing up to see her. I had to wait 4 months before getting an appointment to see her after being referred by my GP. She was being nice by giving me an open appointment for six months, I don't think she had to do that.

[alan540]

Hi Celia. I meant to add, I also think Crohns/Psoriasis/Eczema are all fundamentally a gut problem - I see them as a variation in severity of the same problem. I've really only concentrated on psoriasis in my reading but the other diseases keep cropping up in passing and I'm convinced they share the same or similar causes. Not that I'm a doctor, but that doesn't mean anything because all you get from the doctors is "We really don't understand the cause of xyz". Cynical me huh? But I tried their treatment and it didn't work so have had to find my own solution. So doctors can have their opinion and I will have mine.

[Celia]

Hi Celia. I meant to add, I also think Crohns/Psoriasis/Eczema are all fundamentally a gut problem - I see them as a variation in severity of the same problem. I've really only concentrated on psoriasis in my reading but the other diseases keep cropping up in passing and I'm convinced they share the same or similar causes. Not that I'm a doctor, but that doesn't mean anything because all you get from the doctors is "We really don't understand the cause of xyz". Cynical me huh? But I tried their treatment and it didn't work so have had to find my own solution. So doctors can have their opinion and I will have mine.

Hi Alan, I agree with you completely. All of the "auto-immune disorders" I personally think have a similar root cause. And I think it has a lot to do with the modern diet. So much processed, dead filler; not much real live food - fuel for our bodies. I'm hoping that adding some lacto-fermented organic vegetables will help even more, especially my daughter. How awful for her, at 26, to have this very frightening disease. My theory is that antibiotic use upsets our natural balance. She had open heart surgery 10 years ago, and of course large doses of antibiotics.
So I'm on a crazy back-to-basics kick, trying to eat like our grandparents did!

[Caroline]

Hi Alan,

I don't go along with you. I do not think it is a gut problem. It really is an auto immune disease.

But.... I do think that your gut, which is basically an extension of your skin and an outside part of your body, does play a major role in treating this auto immune disease. So I do think that your approach is a good one and it really also proves itself to be,

[alan540]

Couldn't agree more Celia. If we all ate clean natural unprocessed foods like our grandparents I think we'd be a lot healthier as a population. At work today chatting to one of the radiographers and she mentioned one of her colleagues had been suffering from eczema for a long time and 2 weeks ago decided to cut out wheat and dairy and has had a massive improvement. All anecdotal, as with me. When does anecdotal start to become accepted as worth investigating by the medical establishment I wonder? Maybe never because there's no money to be made that way?

[Caroline]

Couldn't agree more Celia. If we all ate clean natural unprocessed foods like our grandparents I think we'd be a lot healthier as a population. At work today chatting to one of the radiographers and she mentioned one of her colleagues had been suffering from eczema for a long time and 2 weeks ago decided to cut out wheat and dairy and has had a massive improvement. All anecdotal, as with me. When does anecdotal start to become accepted as worth investigating by the medical establishment I wonder? Maybe never because there's no money to be made that way?

RE: How I Cured My Psoriasis By Diet

[alan540]

Hi Caroline. We'll have to agree to differ. Whatever works is the important thing. As I mentioned to Jim Fumaderm is an anti-fungal. That's your treatment of choice and I hope it works well for you. My treatment of choice is also anti-fungal but from a diet angle. If the NHS was faster in referring me to a dermatologist then its entirely possible I would have been treated with one of the systemic drugs, but being forced to wait I stumbled upon the approach I've now adopted, and am very happy with the results.

[alan540]

Couldn't agree more Celia. If we all ate clean natural unprocessed foods like our grandparents I think we'd be a lot healthier as a population. At work today chatting to one of the radiographers and she mentioned one of her colleagues had been suffering from eczema for a long time and 2 weeks ago decided to cut out wheat and dairy and has had a massive improvement. All anecdotal, as with me. When does anecdotal start to become accepted as worth investigating by the medical establishment I wonder? Maybe never because there's no money to be made that way?

RE: How I Cured My Psoriasis By Diet

We're in agreement on something!

[Bill]

I think that the medical establishment would be very interested in simple and effective management of any chronic ailment, especially the NHS with its financial challenges. The catch is that it has to work for a large number, not just a few. Speculations about psoriasis are fun, but all I can say of mine is that they are nearly always wrong. Where I have made progress is empirically in small experimental increments from a proven therapeutic basis, and in conjunction with conventional medical care. Suggesting that drinking unpasteurised milk can help is speculative, more than likely wrong, and potentially dangerous. Pasteurisation caught on because of the death and illness the process prevented.

Cheers,

Bill

[alan540]

Hi Bill. I'm happy with my results to date using a diet based approach as you know. Conventional treatment didn't help me. That's my experience, which is all I can go by. At then end of the day it's about personal choice and what works for the individual. I'm posting here because I want to share my experience with anyone who's interested, but totally accept that it may not be the best option for all (as I stated in my original post), and certainly would not try to suggest that anyone should eschew any medical treatment that works for them. The only reason I have is because it wasn't working. Thankfully I found a way of managing the problem.

My GP was not in the slightest bit interested in how I had improved my skin which I found frustrating, whereas the dermatologist did show some curiosity, which was nice. I don't, however, share your faith in the medical establishment. Initially, I fully expected to see my GP for what I thought was a simple rash and come away with some advice and or medicine, and that it would clear up relatively quickly. It didn't. It progressed. Subsequent visits did me no better, eventually leading to a referral to a dermatologist. My hopes were high prior to the consultation as my psoriasis was crippling me at that point. Consultation arrives, and the recommendation was yet more steroids and a course of PUVA. So more of the same that hadn't worked over the previous 8 months, but I persevered but with no results. I was repeatedly told that diet was not the cause. Only after a bad outbreak following a long weekend eating plenty of junk - toast, pizza, sandwiches etc. - did I suspect that that was wrong information and that diet really did matter. So I came on here and other forums and read a shed load of posts, coming to the conclusion that a significant number of people reported that knocking out certain foods helped them immensely. I can only but agree, because it has helped me clear this up to the point where I forget about it a lot of the time. So, if I can find a simple solution that works for me why didn't my healthcare provider inform me of this option?

As for pasteurization, I agree it has it's place in ensuring dairy products are safe for mass consumption within a commercially driven low cost food industry. However, that does not mean that it is a healthier product, in fact quite the opposite. Pasteurization denatures milk, destroying beneficial enzymes and vitamins which help the body digest it and get the most out of it. It really is of most benefit to producers and distributors in guaranteeing a safe product for mass distribution, and of course to us the consumer. However, if milk producers and distributors always used best practice there would be no need to pasteurize because the product would not need it. This was the case before mass distribution - after all word would spread very quickly that Farmer Joe's milk makes you sick, and he would go out of business or clean his act up. Mass distribution adds to the problem - further distances and increased time from production to table so more chance of the milk fouling. Also, milk is used from many different suppliers - a bad batch can then spoil others when added to it for transport or storage prior to bottling or processing. But, pasteurization is a sledgehammer to crack a nut. All milk is assumed to be potentially dangerous and must, therefore, be heat treated. Why? Surely one simply tests a sample from each batch before being accepted from the producer. The reason this is not done is, I suspect, simply to cut costs.

I trust the farmer whom I use for my dairy products, he is passionate about what he does. All his produce is organic, which I appreciate - we have too much exposure to chemical additives and fillers in our food. If I got food poisoning from his produce he'd know about it and I wouldn't be going back in a hurry.

As for whether raw milk is good for psoriasis, I don't know, all I can say is I've had no reaction to it so far - but early days for me - a couple of weeks drinking kefir and a few days of milk. My suspicion is that it probably is helpful (see my earlier comment to Celia) simply due to it being a good source of probiotics. Food companies advertise that probiotics are good for us all the time.

Unpasteurised milk has the potential to be dangerous - just like any food. It spoils as quickly as raw fish. We are able to buy fresh fish, it's a shame we can't buy raw milk in supermarkets in the UK. At least we can buy directly from the farm.

Finally, it's all about personal choice, I'm not saying my way is the only way. You're not saying your way is the only way. I think we would both agree that whatever works is the best way.