Are you suffering from psoriasis? Here’s how Ayurveda can help

Have you ever wondered why you have acne or rashes on your skin when you eat too much junk or spicy foods? Well, the health of your organs inside your body can directly impact your skin and its condition on the outside. In fact, a leaky gut, which is often associated with constipation, diarrhoea, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is said to cause your psoriasis to flare up. To say the least, the skin condition actually originates within the intestinal tract in the colon or gut, and that’s where the remedy also lies. Ayurveda, too, can be effective in treating the condition.

What is psoriasis?

It is a skin disease that leads to rashes with itchy and scaly patches. This common, long-term (chronic) disease generally has no cure and it can flare up every few weeks or months, before subsiding for a while. The ideal treatment for it is actually trying to alter lifestyle habits and coping strategies to deal with psoriasis in a better way.

How does your gut affect psoriasis?

Ayurveda and gut health coach Dr Dimple Jangda, in her latest Instagram post, has revealed the connection between the two. “When your gut or colon is releasing the toxins in your bloodstream, your body is desperate to get these toxins out. So it brings it towards the surface of the skin to get rid of them through the form of sweat, but the toxins are too big. Hence, they get accumulated on the skin and cause psoriasis, eczema, rosacea and other skin diseases,” she says.

How to treat psoriasis?

According to Dr Jangda, here’s what you can do:

1. Remove all irritants from your diet. Red meat, alcohol, seafood, eggs, deep fried foods, pungent and spicy foods are a strict no-no in case of psoriasis.
2. Include onion and garlic in your diet. Add neem, turmeric and gulgul as all of them help in getting rid of the inflammation and reducing psoriasis.
3. Try to topically use the paste of jasmine flower or olive oil as it helps to get rid of the redness, inflammation and dryness.

   Also, read: Why does psoriasis become worse at night? 4 reasons that could be the culprits

How does Ayurveda help in psoriasis?

Ayurvedic treatments like the panchkarma treatment can help effectively in treating psoriasis. They include:

1. Takradhara: It means pouring medicated herbs, cooked in buttermilk, over the forehead in a rhythmic manner to stimulate the pituitary gland and reduce pitta imbalance (excessive fire) in the body, which triggers skin disorders.
2. Abhyangam: It means to increase blood circulation and liquify the toxins by moving them actively towards the gut.
3. Basti treatment: It includes cleansing of the colon with medicated herbal concoctions that help pull 99 percent of toxins out of the body and thus, treat 90 percent of the diseases caused by it.

Apart from neem, guggul, garlic and jasmine flower paste, the following Ayurvedic herbal remedies may also be used to treat psoriasis:

1. Black nightshade juice to reduce inflammation.
2. Turmeric to reduce inflammation, redness, and swelling.
3. Boswellia (Indian frankincense) to reduce inflammation and support the immune system.

Here’s to a healthy skin!