There is so much of variation in severity level of psoriasis and the timing when psoriasis first appears or some people suffer from flare ups every year whereas others do not see any flare up for years. Or people facing same kind triggers but psoriasis will appear in some cases only. These and many more questions are always there in every psoriasis patient.

Some time back one of our patient from UK (original name replaced for privacy reasons) asked these questions and Doctor replied him.

The question and answer to the same is so important that today I am reproducing it below for the benefit of all psoriasis patients.

Q. if toxins and stress are the causes then how come Psoriasis breaks out at the age of 5 or even less? On the other hand if it is hereditary then why most of the people suffer it from the age of 25+? And above all why only 4-5% of population suffers from Psoriasis whereas more than 80% suffer from stress?

James, UK

Answer.

Dear James,

It is a very interesting question and to understand it one has to go to root of the psoriasis problem. Let me try and explain it in very simple words.

Ayurveda texts equate psoriasis with a big Himalayan River. A Himalayan river is always made up of 100s of small rivers and tributaries that join at different stages to make the big river. Every one of these small rivers or any one of these small rivers can become the main source for the big river. It does not make any difference that which source contributes at what stage of the river journey.

Similarly psoriasis is a system disorder which is fueled by different causes and triggers such as toxins, stress etc, they all gets connected and contribute in forming Big Psoriasis River. Besides the presence of some or all of these causes and triggers the body system must have what I call blocked waste disposal tunnels and open flow through gates. By flow through gates I mean open flow of toxins from inner body to outer body i.e. skin.

Toxins

Any thing and every thing what we eat generates toxins in the form of waste. Our body system takes this waste out in the form of stool, urine, sweating, etc. When our essential elements extraction system from food gets faulty or over burdened, it generates excessive toxins which disposal system is not able to handle and toxins gets mixed up to main stream. Or instead of excessive generation there can be a leakage in the system thereby normal waste generation gets mixed up with main stream system. Or waste from food stays longer in the disposal system due to regular indigestion and/or blocked waste disposal tunnels and makes the disposal system over burdened. Any one or every one of these conditions can be present in the body and they create pressure on the body system

But still may not result into psoriasis until flows through gates are open for these toxins to reach to the skin level.

Stress

Every one in the world faces stress though in varying degree. Stress is always there at mental level. Till our body chemistry is strong, stress remains at mental level, though constantly putting pressure on body system and weakening the body chemistry. Once it breaks through the body chemistry it tries to weed itself out through constant fatigue and high blood pressure. But in the process the body immune system gets weakened. When it pushes the flow through gates to get opened it becomes the trigger for psoriasis.

This means if excessive toxins formation is not there or leakage into the system is not there then no matter what level of stress one faces, it will not trigger into psoriasis. On the other hand flows through gates are already opened then a small amount of toxins in the body system and small amount of stress can trigger psoriasis.

Now James, if you are following what I discussed above then you can clearly see that unless all the elements of psoriasis are present together it does not appear on the body. That is why not every one in the world face psoriasis, though every one suffers from stress and further psoriasis appears in majority of the cases from the age 25 onwards. There are few exceptions where psoriasis appears at the early ages, to a 5 year old kid or even to newly born baby. Hereditary is one of the cause but is not the only cause, the body system of a newly born can be weakened due to number of other reasons such as premature birth etc. even then weakened system can be a path to the river but still may not result into psoriasis if other elements are missing. This means there is a hereditary risk of psoriasis but can be avoided simply through diet and yoga. This reasoning is further supported by our research on the subject that only 18% psoriasis condition is hereditary and there is no co relation between hereditary condition and severity of psoriasis.

If we extend the above reasoning further then it clearly explains why a particular kind of medication or medication system works on some people and not on others and also why a particular medication works on for a limited period of time and then it fails.

Let me explain it a little bit more.

Diet Programs

Under these programs one tries to avoid the kind of food which generates more toxins in the body. Now people who are generating excessive toxins will see the benefit from these programs and there psoriasis subsides but for people where toxins are getting into system through leakage or immune system is gone to very low level or waste disposal tunnels are blocked that they will not see any benefit from the diet program.

Further people who initially saw the benefit from the diet program will always remain on the risk of sudden flare-up because any excessive stress level or body injury can trigger the psoriasis again.

This is because with diet programs one can only reduce the toxins generation but can not eliminate them all together. To live you have to eat something and this will generate some amount of toxins.

Topicals, steroids and other creams.

They all clears skin superficially. This is like creating dam at the end of the river. They provide temporary relief but as the pressure mounts on the skin, they fail.

Methotrexate and other medications

These medications tries to plug in flow through gates but after some times they also fail because of constant pressure of toxins and other triggers on the body.

Biologics

They try to work at immune system level and block the immune system of the body through which these toxins are flowing. You will see lots of success with these systems in the beginning but risk remains because the pressure on body remains in the form of toxins generation or leakage or both and or triggers like stress. Moreover as these systems are immune suppressant, they increase the risk of other diseases which were being protected by these immune systems in the body such as infection and related problems.

To solve the problem of psoriasis, medication system has to be such that attacks on all the elements pf psoriasis together and eliminates them.

Only that treatment can give you clear skin and life long remission where the treatment not only remove toxins from the body but removes the blockages from the waste disposal system, plugs all the flow through gates, restores your immune system and reduces the impact of stress on your body chemistry and off course clears the skin from existing psoriasis lesions. Only that treatment plan is complete.

Dr. Dhawan