In 2019 I had a frightening flare up of psoriasis. It scared me. It covered well over 80% of my skin surface. It frightened my doctors.
Concerned about how the microbiome affects inflammation and autoimmune conditions, I had a microbiome analysis performed.
In my case I had a massive overgrowth of Firmicutes.
It happens that the presence of this particular bacteria has an extraordinarily high correlation to severe psoriasis. While (at least by 2019) research hadn’t established a causal connection, every case of severe psoriasis had high levels of Firmicutes.
I have a physician here in New York, who actually learned the organic chemistry, leans toward holistic, functional medicine, and has interests in both longevity medicine and bio-hacking.
I met with him and we formed a deliberate plan (which I think I’ve recounted elsewhere in the Forum):
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Bowel prep as one would for a colonoscopy to clean everything out of the colon.
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Antibiotics specifically targeting Firmicutes a 2 week course. You need a narrow spectrum rather than broad spectrum antibiotic to apply this kind of protocol.
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A 2nd bowel prep at the end of the antibiotic.
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Prebiotics + probiotics to attempt to re-establish a balanced microbiome.
Over this nearly 4 week protocol, the psoriasis cleared almost completely and my other autoimmune seasonal allergies disappeared.
Note: prior to the above protocol my allergy response to a ragweed scratch test nearly killed me.
My doctor monitored each step of the protocol and as each of the steps improved the symptoms I think one needs to do all of them.
You have different microbiome issues than I did, but a variant of this protocol might help.
You can review this with your doctor.
Happy to introduce you to mine. He’d do a video conference. I’d happily join in if you found it helpful.
You could have mine speak with yours.
Message me.
Happy to chat if you have questions.
You may need to find a way to introduce Akkermansia - lots of discussion across the forum on this.
I suggest researching, which prebiotics can amplify or support Akkermansia.
Possible ones: potato starch, plantain flour, psyllium seed husk, inulin.
I had an injury last year that led to an infection that led to antibiotics that led to a re-occurrence of psoriasis (not nearly as bad as the first time) that has me planning to run through the protocol again.
Minor note: I think Rapamycin helps with this stuff. Not a cure all. Not something to rely on to do it all, but I think it helps at the margins.
Good luck with this.
UPDATE
Reflecting on this overnight led me to think some of additions to further optimize the above protocol.
During (i) the course of antibiotics and (ii) during the prebiotic + probiotic rebalancing period, I recommend:
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Following Joel Greene’s (see The Immunity Code: The New Paradigm for Immune Centric Health and Radical Anti-Aging. Daisy Cutter protocol. You can find some discussion of this across this forum. More discussion below.
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Bone broth - lot’s for hydration between meals. You could even do this to stay hydrated during the bowel preps.
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8-10 grams of fish oil per day
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Low dose aspirin
You can find some discussion of this across this forum.
Greene’s, Daisy Cutter has one eating:
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Massive amounts of raw fibrous vegetables: broccoli, cabbage, celery, green beans,… As I remember, he wants you consuming sufficient fiber to pack the large intestine (imagine stretching it, which (again as memory serves) physically presses butyrate into the lining where it can heal gut permeability.
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Lean protein: egg whites, poached chicken breast.
From doing this in the past, I’d say:
- Eat more of the raw vegetables than you think you can eat at each meal.
- Eat probably 4 meals per day.
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Consume enough protein to maintain muscle mass - 1 gram per pound of body weight or maybe, 1 to 1.25 gr per pound of lean body weight.
You have to dedicate a lot of time to chewing your way through this diet. My jaw would get tired. Stick with it.
Exercise
Not certain if high intensity weight or aerobic training makes sense during this overall protocol. Others following the discussion may have some thoughts.
Cold therapy
I would highly recommend using cold therapy throughout this approach. See my 17 July 2024 post in Elite Athletes Swear by These Extreme Treatments…
It helps to mitigate inflammation, which I think will “stack” well with everything else discussed.
Again good luck on this.
A
