CHAPTER 12

Psoriasis

Nearly 7.5 million Americans know the heartbreak of psoriasis. Neither the heavily advertised standard over-the-counter remedies nor prescription drugs help much.

The word psoriasis comes from the Greek word psora, which means “to itch.”

The problem begins when the epidermis—the outer layer of the skin—experiences a growth spurt. Though a lively turnover of cells in young people contributes to smooth, radiant skin, the right balance must be struck between the arrival of the new and the sloughing off of the old. Psoriasis sufferers know no such balance, for the epidermal turnover turns over and over and over again, frightfully out of control. Soon excess skin cells crowd together, pile up, and die, forming the thick, flat, red patches and silvery scales of psoriasis.

The most common sites are the elbows, knees, arms, legs, lower back, ears, and scalp. When the disease is at its worst, these areas reach out to others until psoriasis covers much of the body. The skin may crack, bleed, ooze, and itch. Fingernails and toenails develop ridges and pits.

Fueling this horror—and perhaps causing it—is an abnormally rich network of capillaries under the skin. These tiny blood vessels are the points of exchange where nutrients are delivered from the little arteries known as arterioles and where wastes are picked up from the little veins known as venules. Without the support of this capillary bed, the wildly growing skin of psoriasis sufferers would slow down and return to normal. Without the wildly proliferating skin of psoriasis, the extra capillaries would be underemployed. It’s a “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” situation.

Though medical scientists have yet to agree on a cause of psoriasis, there is abundant data on aggravating factors: stress, viral or bacterial infections, sunburn, poison ivy, cuts, surgery, and over-the-counter and pharmaceutical drugs. For most people, the problem comes and goes and is usually better in the summer. Though this last observation has led to prescriptions of fun in the sun, treatments with ultraviolet light, and high doses of vitamin D, the healing results have been partial at best.

Psoriasis is one more example of collagen disease—often categorized as an autoimmune disease—that seems to respond well not only to the dietary improvement of consuming broth but to supplements with collagen, cartilage, glucosamine, and other broth components.

In midcareer Dr. John Prudden was called in to treat a man cursed with an ulcerating wound that would not heal and discovered that bovine tracheal cartilage heals psoriasis. Located on the inside of the leg above his ankle, the ulcer was but one horror among many, for the poor man’s leg was also covered with patches of psoriasis.

With the intention of healing only the wound—psoriasis, after all, was “known” to be incurable—Dr. Prudden applied cartilage powder to it, dressed it, and wrapped it with an elastic bandage. Within three days it had improved greatly. And so had the nearby psoriasis.

It was no surprise to Dr. Prudden that the wound had improved quickly and eventually healed completely. The wonder was that the psoriasis had also responded. Though never treated directly, the flaking patches received the benefit of cartilage powder that had seeped out from under the bandage along with pus and other fluids escaping from the ulcer.

Of all the remarkable cases of his long career, none made a more striking impression on the doctor than this one. It led, in turn, to his studies of the anti-inflammatory effect of cartilage on osteoporosis, as well as on a host of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus, and scleroderma. Indeed, Dr. Prudden thought psoriasis itself should be classified as an autoimmune disease, the red patches and silvery scales the result of the victim’s own overzealous immune system attacking the skin and connective tissues. Dr. Prudden pointed out that it is well known that a persistent injurious stimulus—either physical or chemical—can cause antibodies and antigens to pile up at the site. This, in turn, causes chronic inflammation, capillary growth, and a proliferation of macrophages, which are white blood cells that—as their name macro (meaning “big”) and phage (meaning “eat”) suggests—are “big eaters.” They are able and willing to devour several times their weight in foreign invaders. Or, as is the case in autoimmune disorders, what appear to be foreign invaders. Dr. Prudden also pointed to the so-called Koebner phenomenon, named after a nineteenth-century Polish dermatologist. In explaining why psoriasis appears most commonly and tenaciously at the elbows and knees, Koebner theorized that it develops at points of chronic trauma, even minor trauma.

Having seen the dramatic improvement of one case of psoriasis and having often witnessed bovine tracheal cartilage’s power to heal wounds and relieve chronic inflammation, Dr. Prudden decided to find out whether bovine tracheal cartilage would relieve the suffering of other psoriasis sufferers. To that end, he gave bovine cartilage injections to thirty-nine cases of severe psoriasis in which lesions were on all parts of the body and covered up to 70 percent of the body surface. These patients had undergone every known form of medical treatment for years without results.

The result was that nineteen people experienced the miracle of total remission, with a complete disappearance of all lesions for six weeks to more than a year. The average period of remission was five months. In each case, the bovine tracheal cartilage injections prompted a descaling of the skin, which soon became smooth. As treatment continued, the capillary network supporting the disease shut down and the dermis and epidermis layers of the skin returned to normal.

“ Wasting Away and Horrible Eczema

Our son, Joseph, was basically dying by wasting away. He was nine years old, absorbing no nutrients, had horrible eczema, had lost twenty pounds, and was fading fast.

We had been using elements of the Nourishing Traditions book for a few months at that point, but prior to that had been mostly organic vegetarians (not strict). Our chiropractor, Dr. Mark Stern, used a number of different Standard Process products and some manipulations and recommended a grain-free, sugar-free, mostly dairy-free diet to heal Joseph’s gut. I fed him stock every day! I had read all the articles on the Weston A. Price website about the healing properties of stock and how it was used in wasting diseases. So I put stock in rice and beans (although for the first several months we ate very little of those two) and in soup of every imaginable kind. All kinds of different vegetable soups—with whole vegetables or “creaming” them with a stick blender, cream of broccoli, cream of cauliflower, cream of kale, cream of tomato… But basically any vegetable or combination of vegetables with stock, Celtic sea salt, sautéed onions, and celery.

I just figured, at that stage, where he had lost so much weight every bite had to count and be as full of nutrients as I could get it. The stock made every nutrient more digestible.

—Lauri Tauscher, Tigard, Oregon”

Of the sixteen psoriasis patients who did not go into complete remission, twelve did so after receiving additional booster injections in three-week intervals and from applying an ointment called Psoriasin T two or three times a day after bathing. The ointment combined cartilage with coal tar (a remedy long prescribed for psoriasis) and led to more rapid descaling. Once the skin smoothed out, Dr. Prudden prescribed continued treatment with a coal tar–free Psoriasin.

Dr. Prudden found in most cases it was generally possible to stop the booster shots of cartilage as soon as steady improvement was under way. Where relapses occurred, they could be reversed with cream or ointment alone.

Not all was a total success. Many of the patients had severe forms of the malady and were highly pessimistic after years of trying therapies without success. That pessimism proved a problem when it came to compliance. As Dr. Prudden put it, “They cling doggedly to an almost mystical hope that they will one day be cured of their affliction by the development of a new drug that will work like magic. Since their attitude virtually always consists of this strange combination of mystic faith and profound skepticism, it is exceedingly difficult to ‘keep a foot on ’em’ and thereby ensure a consistent and careful follow-up with fair evaluation of the therapy employed.”

A big reason for patient discouragement was the fact that treatment of psoriasis often begins with a bang followed by a crash. Patients who are ecstatic to see the fading of long-term lesions become glum when newborn lesions pop up all over the body. This phenomenon—which Dr. Prudden called churning but today is often known as a detox reaction—often goes on for three to six weeks, leading many patients to conclude they are getting worse.

“ Eczema

I have noticed my eczema has cleared up entirely since incorporating broth and higher-fat foods into my diet. My skin had never been worse than when I was a vegetarian for seven years. Both of my children eat broth and I give them “Japanese”-style soupspoons that are deep to slurp up their broth. For whatever it is worth, both my children now have an amazing ability to focus in school, rarely get ill, and have nice healthy teeth.

—Emily Marenghi, Portola Valley, California ”

What causes this churning? Apparently the existing lesions in their death throes release substances capable of spreading the psoriasis known as psoriagens. But once these are either excreted or metabolized by the liver, widespread improvement is the rule. Indeed, we have every reason to presume that the chemical source of the original lesions is being ousted once and for all.

Of the five patients in the study who were not completely healed, three improved a great deal but did not clear completely. Despite their improvement, they did not return for follow-up treatments because they had pessimistically concluded nothing more could be done to help them. Dr. Prudden classified the fifth case as a failure. This was a fifty-eight-year-old man who had one of the worst cases of psoriasis imaginable, with what appeared to be feathers in place of skin. From the get-go, this man was resigned to his fate and had to be persuaded over and over not to expect rapid results and to keep up the therapy. He quit right at the point Dr. Prudden noted a “good descaling had begun.”

For those with minor patches of psoriasis, Dr. Prudden recommended just cartilage cream applied two or three times per day, after bathing. Though he and his associates did not investigate the use of the cream as completely or follow it up as thoroughly as the injections, most of his patients reported they did well with it. Those who did not clear their lesions entirely with the cream did so with the help of a few injections. The results in many cases seemed miraculous, but Dr. Prudden cautioned patients to understand the importance of consistent and prolonged therapy. As the doctor put it, “Extensive psoriasis is, in all probability, a profound civil war within the patient. Cartilage therapy yields slow but steady progress, and unlike pharmaceutical drugs, addresses the very cause of the disease.”

Dr. Prudden’s success with bovine cartilage was not lost on I. William Lane, PhD. The author of Sharks Don’t Get Cancer touted shark cartilage as a natural cure for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and other diseases because it inhibits angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels). Healthy cartilage, after all, is an avascular tissue. Given the birth and proliferation of blood vessels in advanced psoriasis, anti-angiogenic factors would obviously be desirable. Not surprisingly, researchers in 1998 reported success with psoriasis topically treated with extracts of shark cartilage rich in the anti-angiogenesis factor. As reported in the Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery, the extract was successfully applied to the forearms of a patient with psoriasis and has a great future treating “cutaneous and systemic diseases associated with altered vascularity.”

Lane, however, staked his reputation and marketing of shark cartilage on his belief that any form of cartilage—injected, topical, or pill—worked because of anti-angiogenesis. Unfortunately for Lane’s credibility, Judah Folkman, MD, the medical scientist who founded the field of anti-angiogenesis research, insisted that the anti-angiogenic factors could not survive digestion in the gut. Dr. Prudden agreed, and always pointed out his psoriasis treatments involved injections and topicals. Yet some clinicians think at least some of the anti-angiogenic factors do get through, and we have many clinical cases as well as anecdotes from people who have cleared psoriasis with cartilage pills or with cartilage-rich broth.

In 2002, an article in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology confirmed the fact that anti-angiogenic factors survive the digestive process, although in a heavily dose-related way. Patients taking the highest doses of an extract from shark cartilage of the anti-angiogenic factors showed significant improvements in their Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score. However, they were also more likely to experience nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, flatulence, and constipation. Some even developed acne or a rash. These findings accord with the most frequent side effects reported by clinicians who’ve prescribed high doses of whole shark cartilage products. Notably, the recommended doses of bovine and chicken cartilage are far lower than those for shark cartilage. And there appear to be no risks at all from enjoying cartilage-rich broth, soups, and stews.

Studies on glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate for psoriasis are scant. In 1997, in Medical Hypotheses, nutritionist M. F. McCarty of Nutrition 21 in San Diego, California, proposed ways in which glucosamine could inhibit a variety of growth factors that can lead to skin proliferation and psoriasis. A literature review of chondroitin sulfate (CS), published in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage in 2010, concluded there was “preliminary evidence in humans that CS improves moderate to severe psoriasis,” and further suggested it may prove “a useful therapeutic agent” in a host of other autoimmune diseases, including irritable bowel syndrome, atherosclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus.

The voluminous scientific literature on gelatin from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries says nothing about psoriasis, although it has a great deal to say about eczema, including the types known as infantile and varicose eczemas. Gelatin served well, whether taken orally, by injection, or applied topically using special masks and “boots.”

Those early scientists also found ample evidence that gelatin protects us from infection. This is relevant to psoriasis because bacteria or viruses appear to play important roles in the onset of psoriasis. Mainstream medicine then thinks the body’s immune system goes amuck, attacking its own cells. An alternative possibility is that the body in its wisdom engages in an ongoing attack on an elusive adversary known as pleomorphic bacteria. Indeed, the type known as Mycoplasma fermentans is associated with not only psoriasis, but also arthritis, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and cancer. Either way, gelatin and, of course, broth can help fight deep, systemic infection.

Clearly, the arguments over the cause and cure of psoriasis are not going to be resolved anytime soon. What to do? Accept the fact that we don’t need all the answers. Embrace traditional wisdom instead. Prevent—and even reverse—the heartbreak of psoriasis with heartwarming, nourishing broth.

“ Turning Back MS

I was vegan for a decade and thought I was on the world’s most perfect diet. Then after periodic problems with unexplained numbness, spasticity, and memory blackouts, I was diagnosed with RRMS (relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis). I was terrified it would progress and searched the Internet for answers. I discovered the work of Dr. Terry Wahls through her TEDx talk and, a few months later, found her book The Wahls Protocol. The thought of eating meat felt wrong to me, but she had healed her own MS with her version of a paleo diet and, at that point, I was desperate enough to try anything—even liver and broth made from the carcasses of dead animals. This was frankly repugnant to me, but I did what I had to do. What I never would have guessed was how much stronger the liver would make me feel and how immensely comforting the warm soups became for me. I could feel my starved body just suck in the nourishment and start to heal. I’ve had some ups and downs but overall my inflammation is down, my energy up, and my mood much improved. I felt hopeless last year, but I now know I’ve turned the corner.

—Patricia W., Hartford, Connecticut ”