Healing Psoriasis

I want to share the story of a case of Psoriasis I treated recently.  There were improvements not only in the condition of the skin, but also in other areas of health.  And most importantly, there were no negative side-effects.

For those who are not familiar, psoriasis is a dermatological condition in which the body makes too many skin cells too quickly, resulting in thick, dry, cracked and scaly patches of skin which can itch and bleed. There are a number of different types of psoriasis (plaque, guttate, pustular, etc.), and each of these has a specific symptoms which help to differentiate it from other types. I won’t be getting into the specifics in this article. It’s considered by western medicine to be a problem with the immune system of which there is no known cause. It can flare up for various reasons such as weather (often worsens in the cold, and can improve with warm weather), alcohol consumption, and other environmental or lifestyle factors.

According the the Mayo Clinic, psoriasis has “no cure”. According to TCM and my experience, we can treat and resolve the symptoms successfully in most cases. (I do not say cure, because according to the FDA, only drugs are legally allowed to claim they cure a disease.)

Western medical treatment for psoriasis is often comprised of topical and internal drugs such as steroids and other medications which block inflammation, which is part of the body’s immune response (immunosuppression).  Similar to shutting off the alarm bell that keeps ringing, immunosuppressants will stop the symptoms from showing, giving much needed relief.  When the medications are stopped, the symptoms will usually return.

This is the story of someone in her mid 30’s who told me that she has had skin issues “all her life”. She was told by her physician that it was something she had to learn to live with.  It was simply her immune system gone awry.  There was no known cause as to why it happened to her.  She could never conceive that her skin could clear, or her overall health could improve.

Her symptoms included scaly skin with raised patches that had thickened and crusted over the years. The lesions covered her arms, legs, backs of her ears, and scalp hairline – “Pretty much all over!” as she described it. In addition, the skin was itchy, and she was regularly scratching the sore spots.

In addition, she experienced the following issues on a regular basis:

• Bowels – bloating
• Anxiety – chronic and sometimes severe. (Was on medication, but it wasn’t helping and she was able to stop.)
• Urination – frequent
• Allergies – nasal congestion

In my training and experience, these are all related to the psoriasis. The skin, and the respiratory and digestive systems are all connected from an immune perspective. We know today that gut-health can affect emotional health and that 95% of the body’s serotonin is found in the gut.

Diagnosis:

In TCM, once a diagnosis is made and treatment begins, patients can expect their symptoms to resolve over a period of time. Though skin conditions can typically take 3-6 months or longer to completely resolve, a patient can often expect some symptoms to start improving by 1 month, and other symptoms to follow.

I knew from her history that her lifestyle was a factor in causing the psoriasis. The TCM pattern I diagnosed was, dampness in the channels with, heat in the blood. The treatment plan was, to resolve the dampness, and to cool the blood-heat. In this case we used a combination of herbal medicine, and lifestyle modifications.

One major change the patient had to do to support the treatment and to remain healthy once the treatment was done was change her food choices.

Principles of TCM dietary therapy are used to diagnose which foods she should add to her diet, and which foods she should remove for optimal health and healing.   It was mostly food and drink choices which got her here, and it is food which will help to heal her.

“Let food be thy medicine ….”
– Hippocrates

Alcohol, fast food, high-carb diet (sugar, and other empty calories), and processed foods will put the body in a chronic state of inflammation. In this case, the body expressed the inflammation as a skin issue. In someone else, it may be arthritis, chronic pain, digestive issues (IBS, crohn’s, etc.), or more. Emotional stress can play a large part in triggering the immune system to react negatively.

Progress Photos:

Not all cases are food related, but in this case it was a major factor. Her symptoms would have improved faster, but there were some setbacks when she changed back to her old eating and drinking patterns.  Fortunately she saw the immediate worsening of her symptoms and clearly saw that the treatment was working and that food was the factor.  She was then able to motivate herself to go back to eating healthy.

In the end, the patient not only resolved her skin issues, but also saw improvement in her allergies, sinus congestion, and anxiety, and happily lost weight in the healing process. The body is always trying to heal itself. We just need to give it the right conditions and it can usually bring you back to health.