Potential Root Causes of Psoriasis & Eczema
Updated: Sep 24, 2020
When it comes to the treatment of psoriasis and eczema, the conventional approach varies drastically from the integrative approach (no surprise there). Today I wanted to highlight these differences and help provide greater insight into some of the potential root causes of psoriasis and eczema.
The Conventional Approach:
Most conventional approaches to these health concerns assume several things:
Your condition will continue to worsen over time.
Conditions like psoriasis and eczema cannot be reversed.
The best option you have is to treat symptoms regularly with ointments and medications.
This method leaves individuals feeling as though they were unlucky victims of this unfortunate illness. However, this could not be further from the truth!
The Integrative Approach:
An integrative doctor or practitioner will seek to identify potential root causes of your psoriasis or eczema and work to heal up those underlying factors while helping reduce symptoms along the way. Below are 5 potential root causes of these illnesses:
Leaky Gut
Inflammatory Diet/Allergies/Sensitivities
Toxic Overload
Infections
Stress
Leaky Gut
Overcoming conditions like psoriasis and eczema require a strong immune system and in order to have a peak functioning immune system, we need a healthy gut. Did you know that 80% of your immune system is in your gut? If the gut is unhealthy, overrun with infections, and chronically inflamed, we begin to develop a leaky gut. Leaky gut occurs when the junctions in the gut lining begin to open up, allowing food particles into the bloodstream. This creates a storm of chronic inflammation which can lead to many negative outcomes like food/product sensitivities, allergies, auto-immune diseases, brain fog, low energy, and more.
Healing leaky gut involves removing ALL of the offending foods and toxins that are contributing to the inflammation, addressing any underlying infections (parasitic, fungal, bacterial) and nourishing the gut with foods and supplements to help restore a strong and impermeable gut lining.
Inflammatory Diet/Allergies/Sensitivities
Even without leaky gut, a diet that is creating high inflammation within the digestive tract can be a root cause of psoriasis or eczema. In general, heavily processed foods, foods high in added sugar, and excessive alcohol make up an inflammatory diet. Likewise, regularly consuming foods that you are allergic to or even sensitive to can contribute to this chronic inflammation. Gluten, dairy, and grains are three common offenders that many doctors recommend eliminating for 30+ days for psoriasis or eczema.
An integrative approach would analyze the patient’s diet and remove any of these potential offenders to observe the effects. After a designated amount of time, the foods can be re-introduced one at a time to see which ones may be triggering or contributing to psoriasis or eczema. Second, a full panel will be completed to identify any food/product sensitivities and allergies. The items that come up on this list will need to be avoided indefinitely as the gut begins to heal.
Food sensitivities and allergies are not always permanent and can very often be eliminated once the digestive system has been healed.
Toxic Overload
A variety of toxins are able to build up within the body and create toxic overload. Some of these include heavy metals, molds in buildings or microdoses in foods, environmental toxins, pesticides, herbicides as well as the chemicals in everyday products like skincare, body care, and household cleaners. We are all bombarded with some level of toxins on a daily basis, some much more so than others depending on where they live, what products they use, and what they eat. Like leaky gut, toxic overload can create systemic inflammation that paves the way from conditions like psoriasis and eczema.
Reducing toxic exposure when possible can go a long way in reducing chronic inflammation. This means looking at all the products listed above and finding non-toxic alternatives. This is something we discuss with every patient as, unfortunately, many mainstream products are overflowing with toxic chemicals. Consider non-toxic alternatives to household cleaning products, skincare, and body care. Switch to organic foods, watch your fish intake (fish can have high levels of mercury), test your home for mold, and consider a water filter and ait filter. While we may have less control over our toxic exposure at work or school, we can absolutely take control of the environment within our home so that it is a space conducive to healing rather than disease.
If you are a patient or considering becoming a patient at Center for New Medicine, ask your practitioner about which clean products they recommend and be sure to check our online store for some of our favorites that we keep in stock.
Infections
Many auto-immune diseases can be triggered by infections. Sadly, a large majority of the population has underlying bacterial, viral, and/or fungal infections without even realizing it. At Center for New Medicine, we check every patient for underlying infections as they can contribute to many different negative health concerns.
Stress
Stress, like each of the above factors, also negatively affects the immune system. Stress can also lead to chronic inflammation which paves the way for autoimmune disease. Consider deep emotional healing treatments like EVOX and one-on-one counseling. Along with this, look at simple ways you can begin to reduce stress throughout the day. Consider practices like yoga, meditation, breathwork, walking, less technology, etc.
An integrative approach to treating psoriasis or eczema will run tests to identify if you have any of these underlying causes manifesting within your body. Here at Center for New Medicine, we utilize a variety of advanced testing as well as cutting-edge treatments to heal gut problems, eliminate infections, reduce the toxic load on the body, and reduce overall stress.
If you or someone close to you is struggling with psoriasis/eczema and is feeling disheartened at the results of conventional treatments, consider an integrative approach!