Medical Description

Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease characterized by the appearance of thick slabs of red and dry skin at different parts of the body. About 2% of the Western population would be affected. The most trivial, psoriasis can be very unpleasant when, for example, it occurs on the palms of the hands or the soles of the feet, or even painful when located in the folds of the joints. Some people may be embarrassed by their psoriasis, which may negatively impact on their social, personal and emotional. In psoriasis, it is unclear why the skin cells renew themselves at a pace much too fast: four days rather than 28 or 30 days, as is normally the case. Given that their life remains the same, they accumulate and form thick crusts. Sometimes, inflammation sets in, and because of discomfort (redness, pain). 

CAUSE

In medicine, psoriasis is considered as a dysfunction of the immune system. It may be a genetic predisposition, but not necessarily because traces a family history of psoriasis in only one third of cases. In addition, environmental factors intervene in favor of psoriasis, such as physical stress (illness, injury, surgery, drugs, etc..) Or psychological (nervous fatigue, anxiety, etc.).. In short, psoriasis appears in the presence of a set of favorable factors. Without denying all these elements, naturopaths have a different view on psoriasis. They give an important role in nutrition and digestion in the development of the disease. According to the American naturopath Pizzorno JE, here are some avenues to investigate:

-Is there incomplete digestion of proteins, thus creating unwanted toxins in the body?
-Is there overload of the liver caused by alcohol consumption, animal fat and dairy products?
-Are there any nutritional deficiencies, particularly vitamin A and zinc?

Naturopathic, we consider that these factors have a major impact on the proliferation of skin cells. See "Environmental" in the section Other approaches.