Since 2012 I’ve been on the road again, living “one day and one dream at a time”. Still, every day is a study in the art of living well. Not until recently did I learn that my new way of life (which originally was actively resisted) follows ancient Ikigai philosophy. The origins of Ikigai are in Okinawa, Japan, where elders are the healthiest on earth. Even at 100 they are often still active and living independently, and they die of old age, not heart disease, not dementia, not diabetes, not addiction and not cancer. They were born in the age of zero prenatal nutrition. The first 60 years or so of their lives were before modern medicine existed. They take zero supplements. In addition to their uncomplicated plant based diet built around sweet potato, soy tofu and vegetables (;ow in calories and fat, high in carbohydrates) Okinawans prize time spent outdoors, forest bathing, in silence, and in onsen. All of these elements were intentionally woven into the fabric of Japanese culture to create lasting health and happiness.
Posts filed under Skin Disorders
More Evidence on Diet and Chronic Skin Diseases like Psoriasis
Body fat is metabolically active tissue which feeds inflammatory pathways correlated with many chronic diseases including psoriasis. And waist circumference has long been correlated with psoriasis severity. But waist circumference alone can be misleading. Thankfully this study delivers useful details. Published in the Investigative Journal of Dermatology, this study highlights that obesity alone may not be a culprit as much as the high refined sugar and high fat diet that often precludes obesity.
Psoriasis, Arthritis, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
For several years the same prescription medications used to treat psoriasis have been used to treat multiple forms of arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. Without more information, an inquisitive mind was left simply wondering why a drug used for a skin disease would be effective for seemingly unrelated arthritis or inflammatory bowel diseases. More recently researchers have been illuminating multiple connections between inflammatory skin and joint disease and inflammatory gut disease. First, scientists found overlapping genes suggest broad autoimmune association between psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis, Type 1 Diabetes, Celiac Disease. Other researchers later quantified concomitance between chronic inflammatory gut and autoimmune diseases via shared genetics and shared pathogenesis. Yet despite shared treatments, shared genes, and shared pathogenesis, along with published conclusions in the British Journal of Dermatology that "diet plays a role in the aetiology and pathogenesis of psoriasis", almost all American dermatologists still tell their patients that psoriasis has nothing to do with diet nor the gut.
Think again.
John Hopkins' Integrative Medicine and Digestive Department estimates that 70% of the cells that comprise the body's immune system are housed in walls of the gut. And the University of Michigan's Integrative Medicine Department has published its own Healing Foods Pyramid. Built upon a plant-based, whole foods diet, and effective for the prevention, management, and reversal of chronic inflammatory disease, suggestions from this top ranked medical school are highly consistent with those in the British Journal of Dermatology for diet and psoriasis.
Those of us with psoriasis are at higher risk for life threatening diseases like heart disease. It is notable that the dietary recommendations made by the University of Michigan offer therapeutic value for all of our concomitant diseases, not just psoriasis. Psoriasis medications treat only the symptoms, they come with enormous price tags and have horrific side effects. These dietary recommendations are affordable for people worldwide and they deliver the promise of a longer, healthier life for all.
In my clinical opinion, sufficient evidence exists to connect inflammation at the skin to inflammation in the gut, and diet directly impacts inflammatory pathways throughout the body. The only missing piece of the puzzle is not more research, doctors, drugs, products nor supplements. The missing piece is you. Only you can decide if you will give your diet a chance to be your medicine.