Southwest Florida's Health and Wellness Magazine Health and Wellness Articles
Psoriasis is considered to be an autoimmune disease that affects approximately 125 million people worldwide. It is characterized by the the chronic formation of skin lesions, red patches, papules and plaque. These formations may appear in localized areas of the body or throughout the entire body, depending on an individual’s condition.
Psoriasis is known to trigger intense bouts of itching. The sensation can be so intense that it causes the individual to scratch infection-prone sores into his or her skin. Regardless of how bad it itches, you should never scratch your psoriasis, as it will only make the condition worse.
There are a variety of theories regarding psoriasis, and auto-immune disorders in general. Many say that the body is attacking itself. I do not agree with this theory. I believe that our bodies are amazing machines and is always attempting to reach a state of balance. Let’s think about it for a minute. What would cause the immune system to work so hard that it appears the body is attacking itself? Some exogenous toxin or pathogen, right?! Often an undetected, chronic viral infection that hides deep in the organs and tissues, is to blame.
Almost every single skin condition originates in the liver. These skin conditions begin because something gets inside the liver that should not be there. Is there anything inside your house that shouldn’t be there? Garbage, insects, clutter, dirt, dust, etc? A similar thing occurs in our liver, even though we don’t intend for it to happen. The type of skin condition depends on what types and how much of liver trouble makers are present.
Liver Trouble Makers Leading to Psoriasis
• Copper – copper pipes, copper cookware
• Pesticides/Herbacides – these are high in copper
• Mercury
• Solvents
• Petroleum Products (even pumping gas)
• Antibiotics and other Pharmaceuticals
• Gluten, Dairy and Egg
• Epstein Barr Virus – eats all of the above items and
wreaks havoc on the body
The items listed above feed viruses or build up in your liver over time. Why the liver? Because the liver is the trash collector. It’s number one priority is to clean the blood. Think of it as a filter. Just like a filter, the liver needs cleaned periodically in order to continue to function properly. When the liver isn’t cleaned, the liver becomes sluggish. When the liver is sluggish, the toxins and pathogens are not filtered properly and a skin condition is triggered and a dermatoxin is formed.
This dermatoxin travels throughout the body with ease. It finds its way up into the skin, getting trapped in subcutaneous fatty deposits there, causing the all too familiar skin symptoms.
The skin acts as a second liver when our main liver is too bogged down to function properly. The skin is able to work any toxin up through the skin and out to the skin’s surface. Ridding your body of toxins is one of the primary functions of the skin.
If the liver isn’t being addressed, just at the time that the skin is flaring up, there is another round of dermatoxins being produced inside the liver. This is why it can seem like the skin is improving and then suddenly, there is another flare up. This typically occurs in 6 week cycles.
The symptoms of psoriasis can sometimes reach torture levels leading people to use steroids to get through these times. However, it is important to look at what exactly is happening when steroids are being used. These medications stops the body from reacting to the dermatoxin produced by the virus. Often within days to weeks of coming off of the steroid medications, the person will flare up worse than ever. This happens because the liver and the virus were not addressed and more and more dermatoxins were being produced.
The steroid medications do not address the root cause, they are just a symptom bandage, and the psoriasis will persist.
One study found acupuncture to be effective at treating psoriasis, particularly when western medicine has been exhausted. “Our experience indicates that acupuncture is indeed an effective therapeutic modality for psoriasis, particularly when the western medical management is unsuccessful. We speculated about the possible involvement of the cutaneous reticuloendothelial system in the clearance of the skin lesions,” wrote the study’s researchers.
Your body is not attacking itself. Your genes are not the issue. The focus needs to be cleaning out the liver and killing the virus. There is hope for psoriasis. It is not a quick fix, over time, by cleaning up the liver, killing the virus and minimizing items that make this condition worse, your skin can heal. This is a slow and steady process. If you detoxify too quickly, the dermatoxins are quickly flushed to the surface of the skin, causing the same symptoms you are trying to heal.
At Acupuncture & Natural Health Solutions, we use this multifaceted approach to healing psoriasis. Acupuncture resolves symptoms and speeds healing while we educate you about the best lifestyle approach for your condition.
If you are tired of dealing with psoriasis, or any other chronic skin ailment, call 239-260-4566 today or schedule online anytime at, www.AcupunctureSolutionsOnline.com and get back on track to better health!
Sources: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1357925