Psoriasis

[geordy]

I was wondering if anyone else here suffers from this and if you have noticed any improvement in your condition? I have read quite a bit between the connection between gluten and skin problems.

[TrayS]

I've never been diagnosed with psoriasis and know that it gets much worse than the symptoms I've had that have led me to suspect I may (or may not) have some form of it. These symptoms are dry, red, scaly patches on my face and scalp (along with dandruff that didn't go away for 5 years even with the dermatologist-prescribed psoriasis shampoo...)

When I did my Whole 30 (ok so it was more like a Whole 28 but I digress)...... gone. Well a slight bit of itching remaining, but the scaly texture and the dandruff, gone. GONE. Until, that is, I went to Europe and fell face first into bread and cheese, and wine and beer, and....wait what were we talking about?

Oh right. Yeah, now I'm working on clearing it back up. So again, lacking a formal diagnosis, I don't know if what I've experienced is actually psoriasis, but certainly autoimmune in nature and yes, eating this way has DEFINITELY helped clear things up. For my own personal situation I suspect dairy more than gluten as the culprit, but I'm not sure yet. I do notice that it takes 2-3+ weeks to notice any improvement.

[geordy]

That's so encouraging-thanks so much for your reply. I am only on day 11. So far I have noticed no improvement but having suffered for many years- do not expect an overnight cure!

Just stopping the progression would be an improvement as it has gotten a lot worse in the last year or so. And I have read that improvement can take months.

[Susan W]

First..Tray, you are hysterical.

Second..I think I have a mild form of it. I did my first Whole 30 over a year ago and pretty much rarely off road and did my second Whole 30 Sept 1. My symptoms are gone gone gone. When I do off road, I get just a little itch in my scalp and back. It's funny because my HMO doc sent me to a specialist, at $50 a visit and he just kept prescribing meds. None of them worked and while I hated what that shampoo did to my hair, I did kind of like the feeling of the menthol or whatever is in it. Nothing worked!! I thought I had become allergic to myself.

There is hope. I really think it was diet related even though none of the docs even suggested that.

[TrayS]

slw I had a similar HMO experience, primary care doctor just kept sending me to different specialists who had no idea what was wrong. The allergist couldn't find any food allergy so he ran blood tests and when my Rheumatoid Factor came back just outside the reference range he said "eh well that doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong"... "well what about all my symptoms?".....::silence:::. He just didn't know what to tell me because he didn't know himself. Same thing with the dermatologist for the skin issues, and the gastroenterologist for the really bad IBS symptoms I was continuing to experience post-gallbladder removal, and the endocrinologist for the severe fatigue and host of other symptoms that clearly pointed to an underactive thyroid even though my bloodwork didn't quite fit their narrow window for a diagnosis. Even the Rheumatologist wanted to treat my Sjogren's (the only thing close to a diagnosis I ever got) by sending me to an ophthamologist just to treat the dry eyes - the symptom, not the cause. XRays (for my painful finger joints - I'm 31), MRI, exam after exam, and other than the GI doctor running a celiac test not ONCE did these doctor's mention anything about my diet. No suggestion that it may be related to any of these things, no interest in exploring any further once tests came back "normal"(ish). Our health care system is so reactive and not proactive that it infuriates me now. Cutting all the harmful junk out of one's diet should be THE FIRST THING THEY SUGGEST!!!!! Why are most doctors, and our society in general, so ignorant of all this??!!?

Ok rant over...... I'm so grateful I found Whole9. There's so much we can do to better our own health that it's just life changing to come to that realization. yes geordy, give it time, give it plenty of time. I'd be really, really surprised if you didn't see a stop in progression at the very least.

[Laura B]

I have mild psoriasis that I think comes on mostly when I am stressed. I will say that my first W30 helped clear it up, but I don't know if that was food or because I slowed down my life & learned to manage stress better. Probably a combination. I do get spots that show up from stress, but they aren't as big and don't itch as much. I try to put coconut oil on them at night to help.

[Lauren Furia Stanfa]

almost done the 30 tomorrow and my very red/flakey psoriasis that i started out with is comeplete cleared up!

[TrayS]

Lauren that is great! Curious, did you follow the AI protocol or regular W30?

[MJWoo]

I'm into week 4 of the regular Whole 30. Life long suffer of scalp ps, some body spots and a sprinkling of guttate on my lower arms and face. The guttate flattened out some right away but is no where near cleared. Face is worse. Scalp (the regular thick lesions) is unchanged. I'm 63 and wasn't expecting any miracles.

[TurquoiseTiger]

Mine improved so much with my W30, even with a more relaxed paleo lifestyle since then (Oct) it is still good, I actually had comments for the first time ever with people saying how great my skin looked , worked for me.

[penotti]

I have mild psoriasis that I think comes on mostly when I am stressed. I will say that my first W30 helped clear it up, but I don't know if that was food or because I slowed down my life & learned to manage stress better. Probably a combination. I do get spots that show up from stress, but they aren't as big and don't itch as much. I try to put coconut oil on them at night to help.

Lauren, I was wondering if the coconut oil helps?

I was hoping the Whole30 would clear up my scalp too, but unfortunately it hasn't (so prob also stress related)

[Nath]

Hello to you all!

Just wanted to add my experience.

I think you would say mine was a mild form of psoriasis: it was only at the elbows knees and scalp.

Almost 2 years ago, I went paleo. I didn't know about the Whole30 at that time, and I suppose it took me a few weeks to be really compliant, but I tried to be 100% strict from the beginning. The only thing is that I indulged way more than I should have, but it were all paleo things, like almond flour pancakes, or dried fruits here and there,.... So I think this can have slowed down the effects.

Any ways my psoriasis at my elbows and knees went away in a few weeks, I could not say exactly how much, but this was more than 1 month.

I still have it on my scalp but I must admit I was NOT kind with, I used to have hair decolorations and I really ruined my hair and my scalp. That was before I went paleo, but as I have very much grey hair and they are not well dispersed (and that's very ugly, really, it's like I was 20 years older than I am), I still have hair colour to cover my grey hair ( I'm going to organic salon, where they use only organic products and no ammoniac)

If someone has alternative solution I'm always interested!

[lilywood]

I was on day 6 and now on day 1 again. I am excited to have some hope for psoriasis I have had for 15 years. I love hearing the diet has helped.

[trezkholl0806]

Totally not related to Whole30, but has anyone tried washing their hair with apple cider vinegar and baking soda? I was reading about that, and how it helps psoriasis (which I do not have, but my husband's is terrible). I want him to try this.

[Laststraw]

I completed a W30 in March this year. I have ps on the scalp. It completely went away. The more I read about paleo I keep seeing the same message; increase the right fats (fish oils) and eliminate gluten/ dairy in your diet your scalp heals.. dandruff, ps all will decrease.  Remember your hair grows in cycles, so it make take some time to show improvement.

[AllyB]

My husband has psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. He had it back before we cleaned up our diet. And yes, it took several doctors to correctly diagnose it. They just called it 'dermatitis' which basically means 'there's something going on with your skin'.

He went to a rheumatoid arthritis doctor who prescribed a weekly shot of Embrel as well as light box therapy. The combo of those two treatments really helped his symptoms. However, Embrel is very expensive (even with good insurance.) We would hit our yearly deductible the second week in January. Soooo, he searched for alternative treatments.

We stopped eating wheat and potatoes. That helped immensely with the joint pain and gut issues. His skin mostly cleared up but it was still itchy and he had a few permanent patches that just wouldn't go away. He is now down to an embrel shot once every two months. (Against his dr's orders who wanted him to stay on it permanently once a week.)

Then we tried the whole 30. We are on day 22. His skin is feeling less itchy and he suspects no dairy to be helping.

He did have a little flare up in the beginning of our whole 30. We had two nights of heavy nightshade dinners (lots of peppers and tomatillos) coupled with a big dose of stress. The next day, his permanent patches were angry. They have settled down since. So we don't know if it's the peppers or the stress or both. Stress is definitely a factor in his health.

On a side note....when he told his doctor that he was trying to fix things through diet, the doctors response was 'Great, most people won't make any dietary changes, so I don't bother to recommend it.' Nice.  Must be frustrating.

 

For people with psoriasis, I would love to hear what foods you got rid of to fix the problem.

[lilywood]

Thank you for posting this.  I will post specifics once I have more information.  I went on the whole 30 diet for about 45 days.  I became very discouraged at the end of the 45 days because although my skin was much better I still had psoriasis and a pretty bad flare up at the end of my diet.  I had gotten sick and even had to take antibiotics to get better.  This is probably why I had the flare up.  I did not follow the appropriate reintroduction schedule I just went back to my old ways of eating gluten, dairy, and sugar and now the psoraisis has gotten much worse than when I had gotten sick.  I am preparing to do another 30 days soon and this time following the reintroduction schedule exactly so I can identify what foods in  particular are bad for my skin.  That is interesting about the nightshade family although I feel like stressors are the biggest contributor to the psoriasis flare ups.

[Wendy_Y]

I know there hasn't been activity here in a long time, but I am feeling a bit down.

 

My background.  I developed dandruff around the age of 15.  For most of the years it would go in cycles, really intense to almost gone.  But for the last 10 years it has been consistently present.  At some point a naturopathic doctor diagnosed my dandruff as psoriasis.

 

I am on day 26 of my first whole 30.  Though I was looking forward to feeling more energetic and shedding a few pounds, my main reason for doing the whole 30 was to get rid of this dandruff.  Unfortunately my dandruff is way worse than it has EVER been before.  My scalp is so VERY itchy and my scalf is 90% covered in dry scaly skin.  

 

Today I went hunting for more information, here in the forums, on the whole 30 site and eventually I was landed on this page: http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/04/modifying-paleo-to-treat-psoriasis.html

Modifying Paleo to Treat Psoriasis on the Paleo Mom website.

 

I am so bummed.  I had no idea that psoriasis was considered an autoimmune disease.  I never even looked at the AI paleo stuff before, because I didn't think it applied to me.

 

2months to 2years of a very restrictive diet?

No eggs, tomatoes, peppers, ghee?

 

I LOVE eggs!  Tomatoes from our garden are so YUMMY and I've been eating them in droves.  Peppers? really? they are so yummy and a great veggie filler and great way to hold tuna salad.   I never felt like I was missing out while eating any of the whole 30 meals over the last 26 days.  But eliminating eggs, tomatoes, peppers, nuts, seeds, potatoes... Now this seems like a cruel joke.  :-(

 

Just feeling down.

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Wendy,

 

I'm starting day 20 and in the last week the mild psoriasis on my scalp has been ferociously itchy. I followed the link to page: http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/04/modifying-paleo-to-treat-psoriasis.html and perhaps the increase in nightshades has something to do with it. I don't usually eat this quantity of eggs. And I've been eating eggplant ratatouille for four or five days. Daily, I've also been eating fresh tomatoes and peppers from the garden. So, in retrospect, I've upped the nightshades significantly since I started the cleanse. The penny may be dropping.

 

Like you, I'm discouraged because these are things I quite enjoy. I am going to scale back on the nightshades and see if that makes a difference. 

 

Hang in....

 

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