Getting the Vitamins You Need to Fight Psoriasis From Food

Chemically synthesized vitamin A has been used in the treatment of psoriasis since the early 1970's. The biologically active form of the vitamin, retinoic acid, is known to be a regulator of the genes that control cell division in the skin. Psoriatic skin cells require unusually large amounts of retinoic acid due to immune imbalances (an excess of the chemical interferon) in the region of the skin forming a plaque.

How does the food you eat provide you with retinoic acid? The easiest foods from which to extract vitamin A are those that are stirred, or at least provided as an emulsion. The gut best absorbs vitamin A from a mixture of fat and water. It has a hard time absorbing vitamin A from fat hitting the lower digestive tract without water.

This means, no matter how much you like butter, eating a stick every day won't make your psoriasis any better. Vitamin A is better provided by a plant source, combined with plant fat, such oil, nuts, seeds, or avocados. You should eat some plant fat at the same meal you eat any orange or yellow fruit or vegetable, but you don't need more than about a tablespoon of fat (and a teaspoon may be enough) to absorb the beta-carotene. Buttering vegetables also provides vitamin A, and is preferable to margarine, which only provides fat.

The human body can also make its own vitamin A out of beta-carotene. Overweight people, however, need to eat more beta-carotene to get the same amount of vitamin A, since they have more fat cells to "hide" the beta-carotene and keep it out of circulation.

The B vitamin folic acid is important in the management of psoriasis. Epidemiologists measuring bloodstream concentrations of folic acid found deficiencies in a majority of psoriasis sufferers, so most nutritionists recommend eating a lot of folate-rich foods. What foods are high folate/folic acid? Emphasize turkey, oranges, English peas, lentils, chickpeas, dried beans, avocados, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Savoy cabbage, and bok choi. B vitamins are soluble, so prepare with a minimum of contact with water.