Introduction

Hello.

Welcome to my blog. I am an Indian male born in early eighties. I am a software professional currently residing in India. To tell you more about me... When I was in late teens, my skin started developing plaques and a dermatologist confirmed it to be Psoriasis. Since then I have tried a lot of things, some of which worked and some didn’t.

First of all, I have tried methotrexate which is supposed to be most commonly used drug to treat psoriasis. I heard that, it is used to treat some kinds of cancer as well as rheumatoid arthritis. I felt some improvement in my skin condition before I realized that it comes with several side-effects. And then there is always a danger of overdose with methotrexate. So I gave up real quick.

Then I have tried Ultra Violet B (UVB) treatment. I could feel skin getting clean and clear within few days. But very soon, I realized that it is only for suppressing the symptoms temporarily. And then there is a risk of skin cancer with UVB treatment.

As far as external application is concerned, coal tar and salicylic acid based products seem to be more prevalently used. I have used coal tar soap and salicylic acid based shampoos. I had particularly bad experience with salicylic acid shampoo. It not only dried my skin further, but also resulted in hair loss. I have tried several brands of salicylic acid shampoos and none was good enough.

In the course of time, I have learnt that this battle with Psoriasis is going to be a long one and hence I should be very patient. Psoriasis-victims are fighters and we should never back down from any challenge.

I have learnt that psoriasis can only be controlled and NOT cured. The healing process should start with food and it should go inside out. Eating all natural food and avoiding processed food is most critical to controlling psoriasis. I have also learnt that for external application, it is much more useful to use products that can moisturize our skin rather than dry it further like coal tar or salicylic acid. But there is a small exception to this. I don’t use soaps that are milky or oily because such soaps will not let the scales drop off our skin. I prefer using a normal soap which can help me get rid of scales and then I use moisturizer right after bath.

Finally, I have learnt controlling psoriasis is directly related to controlling myself. The food we eat, physical activity we get involved in and our mindset matter the most. Rather than going after numerous doctors and clinics who promise to cure psoriasis but never do anything more than suppressing the symptoms, it is better to learn more about the problem and take steps to control it. It is better to address the cause rather than suppress symptoms.

In this blog, I would be sharing with you the little things that I tried to combat Psoriasis. It’s one of the many success-stories that you find on internet.

Treatment Method

When my skin started developing dark red patches, I approached an Allopathic doctor and followed his prescription (methotrexate, coal tar and salicylic acids products etc.) only for a month before someone told me the side-effects associated with it. So I quickly switched to Homeopathy.

An homeopathic doctor gave me tiny sugar pills that I was supposed to take twice a day and he didn't place any restrictions on the type of food. It worked wonders for me and in about a month time, 99% of my skin was clear. The doctor didn't reveal the name of the medicine that he was giving me but it worked for me even though I used to consume alcohol and smoke cigarettes. I continued taking the same medicine for 6 years when I realized that the medicine has started having less effect on my body and the red, ugly patches started growing in size. In the hindsight, the body may have stopped responding to homeopathic medicine because of the alcohol and smoke abuse.

Anyway, some health care professionals argue that Homeopathic sugar pills are no more than mere placebos. And moreover it was not working for me anymore. It was time to move on and after about 6 years, I finally started educating myself about Psoriasis. I started off by Dr. John Pagano's book and that marked a complete change of approach towards curing Psoriasis. I didn't stop there with that book. I went on to research lot of different things and I continue to do that today. I realized that the solution to Psoriasis is with me and not with any doctor.

Anyway, I took Ayurvedic medicine to help relieve the symptoms a little bit. I believe Ayurveda is the best way of controlling any chronic illness as it has minimal or no side-effects. But in case of Psoriasis, it would have a temporary effect and the moment you stop the medicine, Psoriasis would make a grand return.

At the same time, following recommendations from Naturopathy can be of great relief for psoriasis sufferers. For instance, I have experienced dramatic improvements in my skin condition by consuming whole grains, esp. sprouted grains. Even 3 or 4 carrots, either raw or cooked, a day can come as a relief over a period of time as beta-carotene contained in carrots comes with anti-inflammatory properties.

Similarly, having fresh-water fish can be of great relief. I am against farm-raised fish. There are some people out there who think that something is better than nothing and farm-raised fish should be better than having no fish. Such people should think again. Some of the studies I have come across in news were shocking to say the least. I have read one news article on a study that has found farm-raised fish causing inflammation, in contrast to popular belief that fish will come with anti-inflammatory properties. Apparently, there is a world of difference between fresh-water fish and farm-raised fish.

In the next few sections, I am going to tell you my long term plan that would not depend on any drug but mostly on our food.

Toxins

Alright, let us start with the basics…. First of all, what are the causes of Psoriasis ??? Many would answer it as stress or tension. Well, to tell you the truth, that’s the only answer I had until I read John Pagano’s book. After reading the book, now I know that the real cause of Psoriasis is Toxins (=substances that our body treats as poisonous). Toxins are leaked into the blood before our body tries to eliminate the same through our skin causing Psoriasis. So where does toxins come from and how can we keep our body clean of the toxins ??

Toxins come in two ways….

1. External toxins enter the body mostly through the food we take. Toxins can also enter the body through the air that we inhale.
2. Internal toxins that are produced in our large intestine (also called gut or colon) when bacteria acts on undigested food. Toxins are also produced when waste material, that was NOT eliminated in a timely fashion, undergoes fermentation in the large intestine. Negative thoughts can also result in production of toxins

This tells us that even when you eat seemingly clean food, toxins can still enter the body in the form of fertilizers or pesticides. Toxins can also be formed in the gut if the food is not digested properly or if we are constipated. So most of the times, it is NOT just enough to eat pure organic food to combat psoriasis. We got to do more. Here are the things that we need to do to get rid of toxins and eventually Psoriasis.

1. First of all, we got to reduce the intake of toxins (we shall talk about food that has high quantities of toxins etc)
2. Clean the large intestine daily (this blog would mostly concentrate on this point - taking extra fiber and making sure we go to restroom at least twice a day, perform home enemas on a montly basis etc)
3. Improve digestion so that we can minimize the production of internal toxins (fruits-only breakfast, daily requirement of Vitamin B-complex, special aryurvedic masala)
4. Cleaning blood on a daily basis (this is because in spite of all the care we take, there is still a possibility of small amounts of toxins leaking into the blood and so we got to eliminate these toxins from the blood on a daily basis)
5. And finally, use natural products both internally and externally (as long as possible, taking herbal medicines internally and using natural products such as deodorants, shampoos, moisturizers, etc. externally… these products can be found in the market with a little bit of extra care)

Following the above mentioned 5 points has resulted in a clean skin for me. I think, everyone who wants to get rid of Psoriasis should understand the above 5 points and you may be able to get a clean skin in 2-4 months depending on your commitment.

In the next few sections I will try to tell you about the above mentioned points in detail.

Reducing the intake of toxins

Some of the food items that contains high amounts of toxins are red meat (=animal meat), alcohol, fast food and several more products which contain artificial preservatives.

Red Meat – Red meat not only contains lots of toxins but is not easy to digest. This should be avoided totally. An alternative to red meat is white meat which again should be consumed in limited quantities (may be, not more than 3 servings per week). Severe psoriasis may force you to stop consuming all kinds of meat products till the conditions get better.

Alcohol – Alcohol mixes with blood in a quick time and results in overloading liver with so much of cleansing work. It also results in dry skin in very quick time. Only red wine, which has flavonoids in it, can be consumed – again in limited quantities (may be, not more than 150 ml per drink, 3 drinks per month).

Smoking – Should be avoided at all cost. If its too difficult for you to quit smoking, then try nicotine gums. (Nicotine patches would cause irritation on the skin for Psoriasis patients). Unless you quit smoking, you can’t win this battle with Psoriasis, period.

Other products – Products that contain preservatives should be avoided. Some of them that I can think of now are fast food, canned food (like canned chickpeas or kidney beans) and several fruit and energy drinks. Also, consumption of deep fried food should be minimized.

Cleaning the Colon daily

In spite of the food restrictions that we are talking about, toxins enter the body everyday or can be produced internally by bacteria. And this brings us to the most important step of controlling psoriasis – Keeping our large intestine (or the gut) clean.

I remember an US-based doctor telling me the following – “Many Psoriasis patients don’t realize that there are constipated. If one is NOT suffering from constipation, then he/she wouldn’t be suffering from Psoriasis. The root cause of Psoriasis is Constipation”. So all our efforts should be directed towards solving this problem. We should try to go to bathroom at least twice a day. I know, for some it would sound strange going to bathroom more than once a day. But we can’t let the toxins leak into our blood. We can’t let production of new toxins by fermentation of waste material in our gut. And hence the need to go to bathroom twice a day.

Now this doesn’t mean that you go and buy laxatives available over the counter. A better bet would be to depend on high-fiber diet and/or fiber supplements because fiber can actually bind to (or trap) some of the toxins within and can minimize the leaking of toxins into the blood.

Fiber from Vegetables

High-fiber diet essential mean lots of vegetable and fruits. Vegetables should make at least half of your meal. But we need to avoid potatoes which would actually result in constipation. This is so true. So all the food items with potatoes should be avoided.

Also, we talked about white meat which can be consumed in limited quantities. Unfortunately any kind of meat you name, has poor/no fiber content. But we need fiber each meal. So its not a bad idea to start of with a vegetable soup. The soups that we get in restaurants are NOT what I am talking about because they usually filter the fiber out leaving behind plain liquid. That’s not what we want. The whole purpose of we having the soup is fiber. So the soups that I am talking about are home-made with no fiber filtered out. Here is a simple recipe my mom follows.

1. Choose a vegetable from the following list - bottle gourd, bitter gourd, spinach, radish, cucumber, beetroot.
2. For spinach, soak the leaves in warm/hot water for 2 minutes. to get rid of dirt, pesticides etc. In case of other vegetables, peel the skin, cut into small pieces and cook with small amount of water for about 5 minutes. Should be cooked with low-heat to minimize the loss of vitamins and minerals.
3. Allow the vegetable to cool and then blend it into a smooth paste.
4. Take a small onion, cut it into pieces.
5. In a pan, add a little bit of oil and fry the onions, again on low-heat.
6. Add turmeric and ginger-garlic paste. Allow 1-2 minutes
7. Add the vegetable paste. Allow another 1-2 minutes.
8. Add black-pepper and salt according to your taste.

We can also make carrot juice (sweet) that can give you good amount of fiber.

1. Clean the carrot. Cut it into pieces. Cook on low heat for 5 minutes.
2. Allow it to cool. Blend it into a smooth paste.
3. Add required amount of sugar and water. (We can add jaggery instead of sugar. But it would take a little longer to prepare cos the jaggery needs to be melted in water, then filtered to remove impurities including sand particles.)

The carrot juice can be consumed after the meal.

Fiber from flax seeds

If you have ever visited a good allopathic doctor, then I am sure you must have heard about the benefits of flax seed oil. If you have not heard about it, then you better check it on internet now.

But the oil would be so sensitive to heat that we seldom get the full benefits of it. Also, flax seed oil may not be available in all countries. And because fiber is the most important thing to us, we would actually depend on flax seeds. Flax seeds are available in India too. Its called Avisa Ginjelu or Avisalu in Telugu.

So go get the flax seeds, grind a small amount of the seeds into powder and store it. Mix about 1-2 teaspoons of the powder with your vegetable curry or rice or whatever. But you got to mix it just before you consume the food. Mixing the powder and leaving it for even 10 minutes can result in sticky food. So mix the powder right in you plate.

This would not only give you the fiber but also essential fatty acids (Omega-3 fatty acids) that can be useful in not only controlling Psoriasis but also Arthritis. This is a must for ya all. A MUST.

Fiber supplement (Psyllium seed husks)

I read about this first in Dr. Pagano’s book and found out later that it is one of the most commonly used Fiber supplement in India and US. In India, it is called ispaghol. No side-effects. 100% natural.

Note - In spite of the high-fiber diet, you may still be constipated. That’s because we haven’t added Exercise to our daily routine yet. This is another crucial point. Will discuss about this shortly.

White flour and White rice

White flour and white rice are two of the causes of Constipation. Esp. white flour (called “maida” in India) should be consumed only in minimum quantities, if not totally eliminated. As we know that white flour is made of wheat, it can be substituted by wheat flour with some compromise over the texture/smoothness of the final product. In worst cases, at least a part (say 50%) of white flour can be substituted by wheat flour. For instance, in a dish that requires 100g of white flour, you may use 50g of white flour and 50g of wheat flour. In this way, you should try to minimize the consumption of white flour. Food items with huge quantities of white flour should be avoided completely. Instead of Naan which is mostly made of white-flour, you should try a roti / chapathi made of wheat flour.

Similarly, white rice consumption should also be brought to a minimal. Actually, some people in India are said to be allergic to rice. Good alternatives to white rice are :

1. Oat (look for recipes like Oats Upma)
2. Sorghum (called Jowar in Hindi….. Jonnalu in Telugu)
3. Millet (try Ragi Mudde)
4. Wheat

Home Enema

People talk about bacteria that resides in our mouth as the food we consume goes through it. Now imagine what the colon would contain and how we ignore it. Our gut needs regular maintenance too and it is made through something called Enema. Enemas in hospitals are performed using a soap solution which acts as a cleansing agent. Also it costs you more than Home enemas. So, get an home enema set and use lukewarm pure water to perform the enema.

Initially we may have to do it once in every week or two weeks. But as we get Psoriasis under control, we can do it once a month.

Also, I do it two times per set. I mean, I perform the enema, go to bathroom, take rest for 5-10 minutes and do it one more time all over again. Twice per set.

Again, if you want to be Psoriasis-free, then this is a must. A MUST.

Improving digestion

Indigestion is another factor that directly / indirectly adds to woes of a Psoriasis patient. Syptoms of indigestion include fullness after a meal (a feeling that food is sitting in the stomach for too long), belching and gas. And as I read somewhere, food allergies start with indigestion. We can do our bit to improve digestion in the following way (esp. in case of severe Psoriasis):

• Avoid smoking and alcohol. (I reiterate that you can’t win this battle if you can’t quit smoking)
• If you are in India, use the following ayurvedic masala in your food.
• Try fruit-only breakfast
• Take a Vitamin B complex supplement if you are too stressed mentally.

Masala Preparation (Thanks to Pandita Venkat Rao Yelchuri)

Take equal quantities of the following:

1) Fennel seeds (Sompu in Telugu)

2) Black pepper (Miriyalu in Telugu)

3) Carom seeds (Ajwain in Hindi & Vamu in Telugu)

4) Dried Ginger (Sonth in Hindi & Sonti in Telugu

5) Piper Longum / Long Pepper (Pippali in India)

6) Coriander seeds (Dhaniya in Hindi)

7) Cumin seeds (Jeera in Hindi)

8) Rock salt (Sendha namak in Hindi)

9) Dry Amla

Grind the above ingredients and use it with curry or dal or sambar…

You can also try fruit-only breakfast to give the digestive tract a little break. Grapes are preferred for its fiber content. But not mandatory.

Finally, being mentally stressed out can also lead to poor digestion. You can try taking a vitamin B complex supplement at least until you get a clean skin.

Purifying the blood on a daily basis

The logic here is to pump your blood and sweat as much as you can… We are looking at Aerobic exercises to pump the blood… A brisk-walk for 30 minutes is a MUST….. You should start with a brisk-walk cos jogging/running can result in joint pains (cos of Arthritis associated with Psoriasis) and the results will not be to our liking… But a brisk-walk for half hour will cover at least 3 km (2 miles) and you won’t feel too tired for the rest of the day….

Now here is a little thing….. The toxins that leaked into the blood previously were thrown out of our body through skin causing Psoriasis…. Some toxins should have been stored in the fat tissues also…. So when you indulge in aerobic exercise like walking/jogging, fat in your body burns and the toxins are thrown back into the blood.... So you might see new Psoriasis spots on your skin….. But this would be temporary….. The scales would disappear in few days…. So you should not worry…..

Brisk-walk should be followed by Yoga Asanas and Pranayam…. Remember one thing…. You do your Masters only after your Bachelors…. Similarly, you do Pranayam only after Asanas…. Asanas has the following benefits:

1) Improve internal-organ function including that of liver and endocrine glands

2) Improve digestion

3) Eliminate constipation

4) Improve blood circulation

Remember that liver has to do most of the cleaning up of toxins… And Asanas improve liver function. So Asanas are a MUST.

Bahya Pranayam should definitely be done after Kapalbhati pranayam. Can't ignore Bahya pranayam.... Anulom-Vilom should be done as well which would help us dealing with stress. Most of the stress-control books has Anulom-Vilom listed somewhere (calling it alternate nostril breathing).They recommend you to do it any time of the day…

Alkaline forming food –- Effect of Phytic Acid

We come across people talking about acid-forming and alkaline forming food. Many doctors do recommend an alkaline forming food for a quick recovery from Psoriasis. They recommend 80% of the food that we consume to be alkaline-forming.

I have been experimenting on this for a while and found some important things that I would be sharing with you now. By my experience, yes, alkaline-forming food definitely helps in keep Psoriasis, Joint-stiffness and Arthritis at bay. So its worth investing time on educating ourselves about this.

Our blood becomes alkaline when our body has all essential nutrients (esp. minerals). We all know that we need minerals like Calcium, Magnesium, Iron etc. These minerals are found in the following:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Grains

Fruits: To keep it a bit simple, we can treat all the fruits as alkaline-forming (even though some fruits, like Banana, can be slightly acid-forming). Lemon, Water-melon, Papaya and Mango are considered to be MOST alkaline-forming. But we need to be a little bit careful about Lemon as some people are allergic to citrus fruits. Water-melon can be really helpful if its not contaminated with chemicals. This is especially true in India where uneducated farmers (trying to sell unripe and cheap quality products) inject colored-chemicals into the fruits, like water-melons. Also most of the Mangoes, Papayas and other fruits available in Indian market are artificially-ripened using Calcium Carbide (commonly known as Carbide) which not only makes the fruits acid-forming but also can result in cancers.

Vegetables: Again, to make things easy, we can consider all the vegetables to be alkaline-forming. Unfortunately, as with fruits, Vegetables are also contaminated with chemicals like pesticides, which can be very harmful to us. So we need to wash all the vegetables with warm/hot water before we consume them.

Grains: This brings to the topic that I want to share with you. Grains form a major part of our meals, be it be rice (South Indians) or wheat (North Indians) or something else. White rice has no nutrient in it and hence I talked, in a previous post, about consuming it in minimal quantities. I suggested you alternatives like Wheat, Millet, Jawar among other grains.

For vegetarians, most of the minerals should come from grains. Wheat, Millet, Barley, Jawar, Oats and other grains all have essential minerals in them. In spite of the high mineral content of grains, they are still acid-forming. Why ??????

Grains contain something called Phytic Acid in their bran. Phytic acid binds to the minerals that we need. Due to this binding, our intestines won’t be able to absorb these essential minerals and they are excreted along with waste material. This is especially true with Wheat which has high phytic acid content. Millet has less phytic acid content and hence we can get some of the minerals from it.

What can be do to absorb most of the the minerals present in the grains so that we can develop more alkaline blood ??? How people in olden days used to be healthy in spite of being ignorant about the presence of phytic acid in the grains ???

Well, our people in olden days used to soak the grains in water for at least 12 hours, dry the grains in sunlight before going for the grinding. Soaking the grains in water for at least 12 hours destroys most of the phytic acid and allows our intestines absorb the minerals present in the grains. All of the phytic acid is destroyed only when the grains start to sprout.

So, to get a more alkaline blood, first and foremost thing to do is to STOP buying ready made atta from the grocery stores. (Branded atta is made after removing bran from the grains, which has most of the nutrients.) Go and buy good quality grains from the market. Soak the grains in water for atleast 12 hours. After draining the water, dry the grains in sunlight before you get the atta from the grains.

The above process transforms millet from slightly-alkaline-forming to highly-alkaline-forming. Wheat is transformed from highly-acid-forming to neutral / slightly-alkaline-forming.

Of course, you can’t do this with Rice. White rice has no nutrients to start with. And soaking brown-rice in water is not helpful because brown-rice has some vitamins and other things like gamma oryzanol but NO minerals.

Talking about Sprouting, you can easily sprout millet in 2-3 days. Sprouted millet can be really really useful for Psoriatics (at least, it is for me as I witnessed huge changes in my skin-condition).

Also, including mung-dals sprouts, black-eyed-beans sprouts, and chana sprouts can not only provide our body with minerals, but also different kinds of proteins. (I said black-eyed-beans and NOT black eyed peas :-D). Same logic holds for these items. Mung Dal and Chana are acid-forming where as Mung-dal sprouts and Chana-sprouts are alkaline-forming. Actually, naturopathic doctors suggest us to consume raw sprouts. That’s the best we can do because raw-sprouts also contain enzymes. But if you are tired of sprouting on a daily basis and consuming them raw, then you can do the following:

1) Sprout mung-dal, black-eyed-beans and chana separately, dry and then grind it.

2) Sprout millet, dry and grind.

3) Mix 1 part each of mung-dal, black-eyed-beans and chana flours with 4 parts of millet flour. This flour contains most of the essential minerals and different kinds of protein.

4) Mix the above made flour with water, simmer it on a low flame for 5-10 minutes. You need to stir the mixture continuously.

5) You can also mix small quantity of jaggery to make it taste better. (Sugar is highly-acid-forming whereas jaggery is slightly-acid-forming because of the presence of minerals like Iron). The prepared mixture can serve as all-natural energy drink.

To summarize, soaking the grains in water for at least 12 hours destroys most of the phytic acid whereas sprouting the grains completely wipes it out. Absences of phytic acid in the grains allows our intestines to absorb all the minerals and there by resulting in more alkaline blood.

Similarly, using jaggery is a better option than using sugar.

Home-made food versus outside food

We psoriatics should avoid outside-food because we are never sure if the vegetables are washed properly (remember the pesticides ?) and never sure what all harmful chemicals (like colors) are used to make the food appealing to us.

For instance, we can talk about so-called green-peas that we get in India. Fresh green-peas are alkaline-forming and are OK. But fresh peas are available only 2-3 months a year. Unfortunately, greedy people soak dry-peas in green color and fool urban customers to believe them as fresh green-peas. These colors can be very harmful to our bodies.

Similarly, commercially prepared sweets not only contain artificial colors, but are made using hydrogenated oils/fats (called dalda in India) even though they claim to have used Ghee. Check on internet about all the ill-effects of hydrogenated oils/fats and you will know what I am talking about.

So avoiding outside food is of utmost importance for us Psoriatics.

Note: Oxygen is another factor that decides acid/alkaline nature of our blood. We need to exercise regularly, do pranayam and practice meditation in order to give our blood the alkaline nature.

Miracle or Minerals ?

After a near 10-year struggle, now I feel that I can control Psoriasis completely. No medicines anymore. No creams anymore. No embarrassments anymore. No sleepless nights anymore. I have been updating this blog with what all I have been trying. Here is something that will force you to consider what I did to control Psoriasis.

Well, most of the Psoriatics might have come across Dead Sea salts sometime or the other. Many people plan holidays in Israel to make use of the Dead Sea and get rid of Psoriasis, albeit temporarily. Many people use Dead Sea salt soaps/bars to control Psoriasis. Now, have you ever wondered what’s in the Dead Sea that’s NOT in any other seas ? It seems that the salts in most seas are Sodium salt (NaCl or common salt) where as Dead Sea mostly contains Magnesium salts (like MgCl₂), and many other minerals. So minerals (like Magnesium, Calcium, Manganese etc. And minus Sodium) are what make Dead Sea a boon for Psoriatics.

Now, what about alkaline-forming food ? As discussed previously, it’s the mineral content in the food that makes it alkaline as opposed to acidic. Again, alkaline-forming diet has proved very effective in controlling Psoriasis in many patients.

I started thinking…. When minerals are applied to the skin (from outside), as in the case with Dead Sea salt soaps, skin gets cleaner…. When minerals are consumed (inside), skin gets cleaner…. Is it mineral deficiency that’s causing skin to develop scales (=psoriasis) ??

Dietary Changes

So, I wanted to give it a try with mineral-rich diet. Minerals are present in different vegetables and fruits. But the major part of our meals is grains. So I started looking at ways to get more minerals from grains. I started malting the grains as discussed in the previous post.

I reduced the intake of rice to just one meal per day. Instead, I started consuming Raagi in the morning. I have been eating roti/chapati made of Sorghum (called “Jawari” in Hindi, “Jonnalu” in Telugu) for dinner. I also tried roti/chapati made of Wheat. But constipation was alleviated with Sorghum. So now I consume Sorghum only.

Remember, all the grains have undergone the process of malting (=soaking the grains in water till the grains start to sprout, drying and then milling).

Does it end there ? The answer is NO.

By consuming Raagi, we only get Calcium. What we need is a balanced diet. We need all kinds of minerals. We also need all kinds of amino acids (~proteins). So it’s important to consume different kinds of grains.

The dal that we use for preparing Sambar etc. are processed. Bran is removed which leaves limited nutrients for us. So I started using whole pigeon peas (called “kandulu” in Telugu, NOT “kandi pappu”… “tuvar” in hindi and NOT “tuvar dal”) for dal and other preparations. The whole pigeon peas don’t work for Sambar. That’s a problem. But it works well for other preparations like “palak dal” and all other “thicker” preparations, if I can call it that way. It may not look as good as the dal made of split peas. But who cares. In fact, our eyes may not like it. But our skin and internal parts do like it.

Similarly, started using whole Mung bean (called “pesarlu” in Telugu and NOT “pesara pappu”).

So basically, it’s like using whole grains. Now if you do a bit of browsing on whole grains diet, people will complain that mineral-absorption is poor with whole-grains. But remember, they are talking about using the grains as they are. But we are malting the grains before use. That changes the whole complexion.

If you are still not convinced with the advantages of whole grains, then try google searches like “whole grains heart” or “whole grains diabetes” or simply “whole grains”.

Now, getting back to balanced diet… I have searched a lot of books and webpages, but found inconsistent data about mineral composition in different grains. Probably, it’s something to do with the mineral composition of soil etc. So except for Raagi which is for sure has lots of Calcium, I can’t really say which grains have good amount of Magnesium or other minerals. So its good to consume different kinds of grains to get required amount of Magnesium, Iron, Manganese, Copper and other minerals.

Seeds & Nuts

Seeds & Nuts doesn’t need to be soaked in Water.

Some of them that I am regularly consuming are:

• Sesame seeds (rich source of minerals… esp. black sesame seeds seems to be good for hair too)
• Almonds (for Vitamin-E)
• Walnuts (for Omega-3 fatty acid)

Enemas

Many people seem to be confused about this. Do we need it ? Well, Enema is an artificial method of keeping our colon clean. If you consume whole grains, esp. Sorghum (called “Jawari” in Hindi, “Jonnalu” in Telugu), then our colon will be kept clean naturally. So we don’t need enemas anymore.

Exercise

Does this mean that we don’t even have to workout ?

Unfortunately, the answer is NO. We need to workout at least 4 days a week. I do it like 2 days of walking/jogging and 2 days of Yoga asanas.

I strongly believe that all Psoriatics, including me, are lazy people. We need exercise to keep the blood pumping, to throw the toxin out, to get rid of constipation, to…. the list goes on…

Also, the latest surveys seem to indicate the Psoriatics are more prone to develop Type II Diabetes, heart complications etc. We need exercise. Period.

Supplements

Lazy people may be already thinking of Mineral supplements. But I would NOT try supplements when naturals ways (meaning whole grains, seeds etc) are available in India. Also, remember that whole grains doesn’t contain just minerals. Whole grains contain many more nutrients. We need all these nutrients to control Psoriasis. So don’t look for easy routes or shortcuts, if you really want to get rid of Psoriasis.

More on this later….