Today I want to write about my journey with vitiligo, a skin disease affecting no more than 2% of the population and known for turning Michael Jackson white. Medical research suggests that vitiligo can be caused by stress, low immunity, or skin trauma; and once you develop the disease, any one of these factors can exacerbate it. I have had vitiligo since the age of 15. It started out when I burnt my forehead with a curling iron; when the scar healed, a white spot came in its place. Then slowly, throughout the years, I saw it spread—to my arms, chin, and legs. I tried everything—UV light treatment, topical ointments, oral medicines—and nothing worked. By the time I was 18, I looked like this. When I turned 22 years old, I began changing my eating habits. I didn’t even do so with the intent of reversing my vitiligo—I had long given up on that. I wanted to have a stronger immune system. I was constantly getting sinus infections and my stomach was always in knots. I was already vegetarian and only occasionally ate goat kefir, but it wasn’t enough.
I saw a holistic nutritionist who gave me some extra tips on how to improve my digestion. She said that healing starts in the gut, and that once I improved my gut flora, the rest of the body would follow. I followed all of her suggestions religiously, and after only 3 months saw the pigment come back to my forehead. While I still have some on my chin and arms, it’s barely noticeable compared to how my vitiligo looked 3 years ago. In addition, I haven’t had any eczema or psoriasis flare ups, which I also used to experience under stress. Here are some of the things that helped make it happen. Give up wheat, dairy, alcohol, and processed sugar Most people cannot properly digest wheat or dairy, even if not lactose intolerant or celiac. When someone with an intolerance eats these foods, undigested particles remain in the gut and scratch along the surface of the intestinal lining, causing inflammation and the opening of intestinal pores. Add processed sugar and alcohol to the equation, and you’ve got a breeding ground for yeast.
This yeast then enters through the inflamed intestinal lining into the bloodstream, causing the white blood cells—normally responsible for defending us from disease—to freak out and attack our bodies rather than protect us against sickness. Taking out these foods is the first step towards healing the gut. Now that you’ve cut out the food culprits, it’s time to fight off the yeast that have fed off these foods for years and to restore the good bacteria to your gut. This is where a high quality probiotic comes into play. For my first couple of months, I used metagenics probiotic powder. It’s expensive, but it does the trick, and I was able to switch to a more affordable one for maintenance as my symptoms subsided. L-glutamine is an amino acid that is often used by body builders to help with recovery. However, in small doses and on an empty stomach, it also helps to rebuild the intestinal lining. I took a half of a teaspoon of l-glutamine along with my probiotic upon waking and going to sleep.
Like L-Glutamine, NAC is an amino acid, which helps with tissue formation. In addition to this, studies have shown that those with vitiligo tend to have lower levels of glutathione, which NAC can help supplement. Aside from vitiligo treatment, NAC has tons of benefits, including increasing immunity and thinning out mucus. When my vitiligo improved, my nutritionist claimed that taking the NAC probably did the most to help. While not everyone has a b12 deficiency, studies have connected vitiligo with low B12 levels. If you are vegetarian, you want to make sure that you are taking a B12 supplement. Make sure to take it in a dissolvable sublingual form, as it can be destroyed by stomach acid otherwise. Once you start taking all of these supplements and changing your dietary regimen, your body will be better able to absorb the sun’s rays and the vitamin d that is essential to re-pigmentation. I first noticed a stark change in my vitiligo when I was on summer vacation in Toronto, where my friend and I explored the city by bike.
It was a sunny day, and by the end of it, I was worried that I would have gotten a blotchy, uneven tan that would require me to put on pounds of specialized dermatologic makeup. When we got back to our hostel, I looked in the mirror and was ecstatic to see that I had gotten a normal tan! We took this picture that same day—with no makeup! Check out that spotless forehead! I know, I know. It’s easier said that done. When I was told that my vitiligo was exacerbated by stress, I thought, “Great. Not only am I stressed, now I’m stressed about being stressed which just makes me more stressed!” My best tip for this is to buy some makeup and forget about it. Dermablend actually does a pretty good job of covering it up. Make all the necessary dietary changes, but let your skin be your second reason for making dietary changes—otherwise you will simply obsess over it; at least I know I would.“I have a terrible case of psoriasis,” writes this week’s House Call. “My doctor is recommending these horrible immune-suppressing drugs and steroids that cause cancer and other problems.
What can I do other than to take these drugs?” Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease of the skin that affects over three percent of the U.S. population (that’s about five million adults), and typically involves scaling and inflammation. Most often, psoriasis results in patches of thick, red (inflamed) skin covered with silvery scales. These patches, sometimes called plaques, usually itch or feel sore. They most often occur on the elbows, legs, scalp, lower back, face, palms and soles of the feet, but they can occur anywhere on the body. The disease may also affect the fingernails, toenails, soft tissues of the genitals and inside the mouth. Often the skin around affected joints starts to crack. Some people with psoriasis experience joint inflammation that produces symptoms of arthritis, called psoriatic arthritis. Altogether, it makes for an absolutely miserable experience. I’ve been a doctor for 30 years and have practiced Functional Medicine for 20 of those years.
I’ve witnessed the heartbreak of psoriasis with its scaly, itchy, inflamed, peeling skin that leads to arthritis and joint pain for some people. During the first 10 years of my practice, before I incorporated Functional Medicine, I struggled with how to treat this devastating condition. Everything I attempted felt invasive or didn’t work. I gave steroids and other creams. Today, conventional medicine’s approach to psoriasis is even worse. Doctors use alpha blockers that cause cancer, suppress the immune system and trigger infections. Oh, and they cost about $30,000 a year. The problem with current medical thinking is that it treats diseases individually, requiring specific diagnoses and labels like “you have psoriasis.” And then you get the cream, the steroids and other short-term solutions. But what if you didn’t have to treat diseases specifically or even need to know their names? What if we could take a bigger-picture approach to psoriasis and other problems?
Fortunately, Functional Medicine provides this exact approach. I quickly learned that once I cleaned up a patient’s diet and addressed gut, hormonal and other imbalances, their skin problems would clear up. Functional Medicine is a hidden movement sweeping across the globe, based on a different method of diagnosing and treating disease. It focuses on causes not symptoms, based on an understanding of the dynamic way our genes interact with our environment, rather than simply treating diseases based on their labels. This approach becomes a fundamentally different way of solving medical problems, one that allows us to decipher the origins of illness and identify the disturbances in biology that lead to symptoms. So how does that apply to psoriasis? Well, let me tell you about two patients. I’ll never forget a four-year-old girl who once arrived in my office with psoriasis from head to toe. She had been suffering since the age of six months. She looked like a red, swollen, inflamed mess.
This poor girl was on immune-suppressing drugs to address her numerous symptoms and ended up in the hospital from a MRSA (staph) infection. Doctors had kept her on antibiotics for a month. While in my office, this little girl had to use the bathroom. You can imagine my horror when I heard her scream when she urinated because her genitals were inflamed with psoriasis, as well. Just when I thought her suffering couldn’t be any worse…my heart broke for her. Rather than utilize invasive, potentially harmful creams and other drugs (which clearly weren’t working anyway), I applied the Functional Medicine approach with this girl. I looked at her brief but exhaustive health history. She was born by C-section. She had leaky gut and abnormal gut flora because of a long history of taking antibiotics and steroids that created a yeast overgrowth. My solution was simple but powerfully effective: Remove the bad and add the good. We eliminated trigger foods like gluten.
We cleaned up the bad yeast with an antifungal. We incorporated anti-inflammatories, healthy fats and supplements like probiotics, vitamin D, vitamin A and zinc to heal her skin. I trusted she would get better even though she was the worst case I had ever seen. Two weeks later, this little girl’s father called. “Dr. Hyman,” he said, “my daughter’s skin has completely cleared.” My broken heart healed a little bit that day. Now, let’s look at a patient on the other end of the spectrum. I took this same approach with a 56-year-old doctor who came to see me with psoriatic arthritis. Despite loving his work, he was about to quit his job as a surgeon in a Massachusetts hospital because he was tired, overweight and could no longer operate due to the joint pain . I told him we needed to fix his gut with an elimination diet, get rid of the parasites, and introduce the right nutrients. Six weeks later, my patient was off his immune suppressive drugs and a long list of other drugs.
He had no symptoms. His digestive symptoms went away, his skin cleared up, he lost weight, and he could return to work. While tempting to label these two patients’ transformations as miracles, they weren’t. Rather, they highlighted the power of Functional Medicine. Heal Psoriasis with these Strategies While psoriasis often becomes linked with gluten intolerances, that isn’t always the case. The three biggest culprits are: To address psoriasis, I remove these obstacles while restoring the body’s natural balance. It really becomes that simple. Take away the things that cause the problem and add those that ameliorate it. With that approach, I’ve found these eight strategies can naturally heal psoriasis without steroids, creams and other invasive procedures. Eat a whole food, anti-inflammatory diet.These include and . Test for heavy metal toxicity. and other metals trigger or exacerbate psoriasis.Your gut plays a significant role in skin health.
One study found intestinal permeability (or leaky gut) . Yeast overgrowth, abnormal gut flora and other gut issues can also trigger or exacerbate psoriasis. If you suspect these or other issues, work with an integrative practitioner to optimize your gut health. I often use prescription or herbal antifungals to treat the yeast. Use the right supplements. Nutrients like , and probiotics can help eliminate psoriasis. Also consider anti-inflammatory nutrients like quercetin, grape seed extract and rutin. Using as a meal replacement also helps many of my patients with inflammation. You can find these and other professional-grade supplements in .Regular exercise is a natural anti-inflammatory. One study found increased physical exercise along with dietary intervention in systemically treated overweight or obese patients with active psoriasis. You don’t have to go to the gym, run on a treadmill and pump iron to stay in shape. Just start moving around more. Go for walks with your friends or family.
Go out and do some gardening. Play Frisbee in the park with your kids. Pick up a tennis racket and just knock a tennis ball around. Anything you can do to get out and move your body can be considered exercise. So don’t think that you absolutely have to go to the gym to get fit. Just use your body more.Studies show chronic stress of psoriasis. The proportion of psoriasis patients who believe stress affects their skin condition ranges from 37 to 78 percent, and researchers believe stress may worsen psoriasis severity and may even lengthen the time to disease clearance. techniques such as yoga, deep breathing, biofeedback, massage or my can reduce stress and anxiety to promote relaxation. Sleep for 8 hours every night. Studies show patients with psoriasis . While some situations require professional help, you can improve sleep quality and quantity by implementing my 19 sleep tips from . If you’re looking for a place to get started to eliminate psoriasis, start with food.