Natural Treatments

Natural treatments usually fit in one of three categories:

  • Topical

  • Dietary

  • Supplementation

Topical

Topical natural treatments often look to provide relief from psoriasis by increasing the moisture content of the skin, while facilitating the shedding of the skin scales found in plaque psoriasis.

Lotions rich in vitamin B12 containing Aloe Vera and Avocado Oil have proven to provide some relief from the itching and inflammation of the areas affected.

Epsom Salts or Sea Salts are often used in climatotherapy, where soaking in a bath infused with them provides relief from Eczema and Psoriasis.

During this process, your body absorbs the nourishing mineral elements of the salts through the skin, while detoxifying it at the same time.

Dietary

While not exactly a specific treatment, a healthy diet is a basis for good health. The principle here is that by restoring good nutrition and replacing inflammatory foods with anti-inflammatory food, as well as correcting or improving the absorption of essential nutrients, you can restore balance to your immune system and thus eliminating the triggers of psoriasis from the root.

What are inflammatory foods you ask? Well, here’s a short list of the biggest offenders, though there is much more detail information here.

  • Processed Sugars: Excess glucose means that your body can’t process it quick enough, and as a result, it can increase the levels of cytokines produced by cells of your immune system, the same group of cells that are linked to causing the imbalance responsible for every form of psoriasis.

  • Saturated Fats: These contain a known inflammatory compound called arachidonic acid and also have been known to interfere with good bacteria in our gut, changing the balance and triggering an immune response that results in inflammation and tissue damage.

  • Dairy: “Got Milk?” If you do, then you’re consuming one of the most inflammatory foods in the market. Why? Well, most of us can’t process the lactose (a form of sugar) or the protein similar to gluten called casein, that’s found in dairy products, and this causes inflammation and consequently an immune response that affects psoriasis flare-ups.

  • Gluten: Even if you only have a mild sensitivity to gluten, the proteins in wheat are a gut irritant. This irritation causes inflammation, and if your immune system is already attacking the wrong threat – as it’s the case with Psoriasis – then triggering overactivity as it tries to fend off what it perceives as multiple threats, leads to stronger symptoms of psoriasis.

    Gluten can have such a profound effect on our bodies that a recent research showed that eating gluten can keep our immune system in a state of overactivity for up to 3 months. So, if you decide to quit gluten, remember you should quit it completely for over 3 months to begin seeing the positive results of it.

Supplementation

Many people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis find that including vitamins and supplements in their diet helps clear their skin clear and may ease joint pain. Because dietary supplements can come in the form of whole herbs, concentrates, and extracts, it’s important to understand that they’re not all the same, and their effectiveness will often vary depending on the process of how it’s made.

Of course, the ideal situation here is to adopt a balanced diet, a lifestyle and use these supplements to complement and speed up the healing process.

If you’re currently taking medication, always consult with your doctor for any interactions that may occur before taking any dietary supplement.

  • Immunotrax Psoriasis Relief

Our own supplement, of course, makes the list. Immunotrax PR is a highly concentrated (50:1) standardized formula that interacts with the T-cell morphology, minimizing the changes in cytokines.

What does this mean in plain English? It means that it has the ability to protect at a cellular level your immune system from misbehaving and attacking your own skin cells.

Because of its high concentration of antioxidants and protective effects against UV induced photo-toxicity, Immunotrax PR is also used to speed up recovery and maximize the efficacy of PhotoTherapy (UV Light Therapy).

  • Vitamin D

Present in many topical applications such as prescription creams, foams, and ointments such as calcipotriene, oral supplementation can also be beneficial in reducing the symptoms of psoriasis, in fact, Japanese researcher Morimoto S, found that oral administration of Vitamin D3 reduced the symptoms of Psoriasis in 76% of patients without any side effects reported. The study was published in the British Journal of Dermatology in 1986.

  • Turmeric

Curcumin, a component of turmeric may be responsible for many of the anti-psoriatic benefits people report when using Turmeric supplementation. Studies have shown that Curcumin extract has controlling effects in expressions of NF-κB signaling biomarkers, inhibiting inflammatory enzymes involved in the process of Psoriasis.

  • OMEGA-3 Fatty Acids (Fish Oil)

It is believed that the benefits for psoriasis derived from the consumption of omega-3 fatty acid come from the decrease to the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, essentially diminishing the substrate availability of “pro-inflammatory” omega-6s (AA) and increasing the amount of “anti-inflammatory” omega-3s (DHA and EPA).

  • Glucosamine and Chondroitin

Both occur naturally in the body, Glucosamine helps cartilage formation and repair and possibly inhibits inflammation. Chondroitin promotes cartilage elasticity and inhibits the breakdown of cartilage. These supplements are specially used by patients with Psoriatic Arthritis.