Question

Could you give me some information about Psoriasis. I have it on my elbows, knees and scalp…but not as bad as some people. I always get medication…but it really doesn’t work. Most say that it’s nerves/stress but I don’t really feel that. I’ve had it for many years but don’t remember it as a child. I have no symptoms that I know of. I know that it’s not much to go on…but I’ve lived with it for a very long time.

Answer

Nutritional Strategies to Improve Skin Health and Overall Health Too.

You’ve given us quite a bit of information to help solve the puzzle of Psoriasis:

  1. It’s on your elbows, knees and scalp – something is not quite right with your skin.
  2. Medication doesn’t solve the problem – it’s not an outside problem, it’s and inside job.
  3. You don’t feel it’s caused by ‘nerves’ or stress – you intuitively know it’s a nutrition problem because you asked this question on my healing nutrition blog. This is key because we always have innate wisdom about ourselves. Intuition is always right, as long as it’s not driven by fear, then it is most likely not correct.
  4. You never had it as a child – it’s something that has happened, not a problem you were born with. Even when people are born with disorders, syndromes, or symptoms they may be caused by environmental factors, meaning something outside the cells. This can oftentimes be reversed with functional nutrition, nutrition that heals and nourishes. Most of the time we are talking about nutritional deficiencies and toxicities.
  5. You are not sure if you have other symptoms – there is a possibility that you do have other symptoms.

What is Psoriasis?

When we first think of a skin condition like Eczema or Psoriasis, we attempt to treat it outwardly by applying bandaids in the form of medicated creams and lotions.

Psoriasis itself is a symptom. Symptoms are like messages from our bodies. Before we try to cover up or physically remove an outward symptom it’s helpful to understand why the symptom is manifesting in the first place.

Here’s a word cloud to describe Psoriasis. I’ll explain each term, but the word cloud will give you concrete ideas to relate to as you begin to think about how smooth and healthy your skin will look once healed from the rashy, itchy, burning, painful skin condition.

Psoriasis = Poor fat assimilation = essential fatty acid deficiency = too much solid fat, cooked fat or hydrogenated fat = too much sugar and carbohydrates = liver congestion or toxicity = gall bladder congestion = poor digestion = poor cell wall integrity = skin health mirrors liver and gall bladder health = Psoriasis

This makes the tissues of the body dry and sweet. The liver and gall bladder is overloaded with fat metabolism issues and the body compensates by detoxing through the skin. This causes irritation and inflammation on the skin, making it more susceptible to fungal infections.

How To Reverse Skin Damage Caused by Psoriasis and ECZEMA

There are four issues and four main steps to reverse the internal environment that causes the symptom of Psoriasis. We’ll talk more about them in a minute.

1. Issue: Essential fatty acid deficiency – Solution: Add back the right types of fat

2. Issue: Toxic accumulation of synthetic and damaged fats – Solution: Remove these fats from your diet

3. Issue: Excess sugar in the blood – Solution: Reduce intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates

4. Issue: Poor absorption and assimilation of nutrients  – Solution: Improve digestion with cleansing, healing foods

 

Step 1: Add Back The Right Types Of Fat to Reverse Essential Fatty Acid Deficiency

Fats are good for us, but they must be the right kind and they must be raw to be fully useable. When we eat the right types of fat, we are happy, our hormones are balanced, our immunity is improved, our appetite is satisfied, our skin is smooth and our hair silky.

Healthy fats come from some of our most delicious and versatile foods which makes it very simple to add them to our diet:

  1. Avocados and bananas.
  2. Virgin cold pressed oils like coconut, flax, hemp and olive.
  3. Nut crusts for desserts with ground raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts and pine nuts.
  4. Pesto with hemp seeds or pine nuts.
  5. Fresh milk, such as Hemp Milk and other seed and nut milks. Cashew milk is creamy and white and delicious in coffee and chai tea. Also good on cereal or oatmeal with a touch of Maple Syrup or unpasteurized honey, or fruit sauce.
  6. To make fruit sauce, simmer your favourite frozen fruit, like strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, or a combination in a touch of water. Add a bit of organic cornstarch or potato starch to cold water. Whisk into fruit. Cook on medium low until thickened.
  7. Dried nut, seed and fruit mix.
  8. Dehydrated breads and crackers with pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, hemp, and flax seeds.
  9. Add hemp seeds, chia seeds and ground flax seeds to smoothies.
  10. Put seeds in your snack mix every day.
  11. Salad dressings with hemp oil, flax oil, sunflower oil, olive oil and/or sesame oil (raw unrefined), see Salad Strategies. Add oils to your food after it is cooked to keep them raw.
  12. Green Smoothies with bananas
  13. Easy Fresh Guacamole with avocados
  14. Slice an avocado in half, twist it apart and remove the seed, sprinkle with unrefined sea salt and eat with a spoon

Step 2: Remove Toxic Accumulation of Synthetic and Damaged Fats

Liver and gallbladder toxicity shows in the skin.

Your liver stores and processes fats. Solid or saturated fats are used by your liver to manufacture steroid hormones, like estrogen and testosterone. Too many solid fats and especially fats damaged by hydrogenation and high heats can congest and compromise the function of your liver and gall bladder. The fat literally gets stored in pockets, which if left too long can accumulate and be diagnosed as “fatty liver”. This is a dangerous condition, leading to gallstones, poor digestion, nutrient deficiencies, acid accumulation and can even lead to death if not addressed.

Cooked fats are most problematic, as heating fat molecules, crisps them up and changes their shape so they are no longer useable. Your body cannot use fats which have been damaged in this way and must detoxify and remove them. Regular consumption of cooked fats causes stress on your liver and gallbladder.

Hydrogenated fats are liquid fats, which have been artificially saturated with atoms from hydrogen gas. This causes the nice liquid u shape of the fat molecule to straighten out and become very sticky, making white, greasy, shortening with a shelf life that is practically endless. Shortening, partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated fats are not food any more. They are toxins which should never be eaten. I believe they should be banned. These synthetic fats clog your arteries, liver and gallbladder and release single hydrogen atoms, or free radicals which damage tissues all over your body, increasing your cancer risk substantially.

All cell walls are made of essential raw fats, which are slippery, alive and able to carry electrical charges.

If you are eating cooked, fried and synthetic sticky fats and not eating the fats used to create and repair cell walls, what will your cell walls be created and repaired with? Will the integrity of your cell walls be compromised? Will they be unable to properly remove waste and let nutrients in? Yes!

If your liver and gall bladder are clogged with cooked, fried and synthetic fats, how will their detoxification processes not be compromised? Will your skin be used to remove excess sugars, acids and toxins? Will this cause inflammation, itchiness and cell damage on your skin? Yes!

Step 3: Reduce Refined Sugars and Carbohydrates

As a transition, think of replacing sweets with raw and dried fruits. Add golden raisins, naturally dried apricots, cranberries, dates, figs, Thompson raisins or Sultana raisins, coconut flakes, dried banana, mango or papaya chips. Then work to reduce your sugar intake overall, including fruits until you feel better.

Add more fresh, raw vegetables any way you can think of; there are plenty of ideas on this site in the Recipes section.

Eliminate white flour and white rice and replace them with whole grain flour products and brown rice. When you’ve got that under your belt, reduce the amount of grains you eat in general. Grains are sweet carbohydrates, they feed yeast and other pathogens, including cancer cells. Don’t be afraid of grains, just eat them in very small amounts.

These changes can not only eliminate the symptom of Psoriasis, but adding back these natural foods will also give you high quality protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that may be missing from your diet.

 

Step 4: Improve digestion with cleansing, healing foods, and medicinal herbs

Improve digestion with simple whole food meals and high amounts of raw vegetables and fruits.

A welcome herb for the liver is Chinese Gentian, known for its use in sluggish liver.

An herb that is useful for detoxifying and rebuilding your liver cells is Milk Thistle.

An all around, excellent blood cleanser, and anti-fungal is burdock root tea. You can purchase in pill form, or tea bags, or bulk for tea.

 

Topical Relief

Because of burdock’s anti-fungal properties it is excellent used therapeutically, to relieve symptoms. This means you can soak a piece of flannel or cotton in cooled burdock root tea and place it directly over the affected area. Leave for as long as possible, and refresh as needed.

I recommend people purchase their herbs in bulk from a master herbalist, and make medicinal teas the same way you make other teas. The bulk herbs require a teapot with a strainer, which are easy to find. Use 1 teaspoon of dried herb to a cup of boiled water. Drink 2 cups of herbal tea daily. Steep the tea longer than normal, up to 20 minutes, to fully extract the properties from the herbs (especially when using to soak cloth for an external compress).

All this change will take some time, so don’t be stressed, slow and steady is the best way to approach it. Keep moving forward, especially after taking a step back. Bookmark this post or print it and refer back to it when you need to remember certain things.

Good luck and please let us know how you make out!