Hi. As I mentioned in other posts, I am well along in clearing my psoriasis in large part due to stopping all dairy consumption. However I never read anything which could possibly explain the dairy-psoriasis connection. Until now.
"The China Study" by T Colin Campbell is a very interesting book. It compares the western diet and its impact on people with the equivalent in China back in the 1970s (..the Chinese took meticulous records on dietary habits, diseases, and other related information). Of course the conclusion is that a diet rich in animal fats and protein (including casein, from milk) are bad for you. It causes all sort of illnesses, cancers, etc. But beyond all this, the author, a renowned researcher, also discusses his thoughts on autoimmune diseases. Here are some excerpts:
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One of the fundamental mechanism for this self-destructive behavior is called molecular mimicry. It so happens that some of the foreign invaders that our soldier cells seek out to destroy look the same as our own cells. The immune systems "molds" that fit these invaders also fit our own cells. The immune system then destroys, under some circumstances, everything that fits the mold, including our own cells. This is an extremely complex self-destructive process involving many different strategies on the part of the immune system, all of which share the same fatal flaw of not being able to distinguish "foreign invader proteins from the proteins of our own body.
What does all of this have to do with what we eat? It so happens that the antigens that trick our bodies into attacking our own cells may be in food. During the process of digestion, for example, some proteins slip into our bloodstream from the intestine without being fully broken down into their amino acid parts. The remnants of undigested proteins are treated as foreign invaders by our immune system, which sets about making molds to destroy them and sets into motion the self-destructive autoimmune process.
One of the foods that supply many of the foreign proteins that mimic our own body is cow's milk. Most of the time, our immune system is quite smart. Just like an army arranges for safeguards against friendly fire, the immune system has safeguards to stop itself from attacking the body it's supposed to protect. Even though an invading antigen looks like one of the cells in our own body, the system can still distinguish our own cells from the invading antigen.
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The immune system uses a delicate process to decide which proteins should be attacked and which should be left alone. The way this process, which is incredibly complex, breaks down with autoimmune diseases is not yet understood.
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The author then talks about Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease. Apparently there is close association between this disease and cow's milk consumption in infants. Additionally, folks with the disease experience considerable relief (require less insulin medication) if they are placed on a dairy free diet. So what does this have to do with psoriasis? Perhaps a lot.
Apparently autoimmune diseases have a lot in common. Firstly, they are often clustered together (differing autoimmune diseases often occur in the same families). They are more common the further away from the equator you go (yes, vitamin D supplements are smart), and the author suggests the incidence of automimmune diseases is broadly proportionate to the amount of cow's milk consumed.
And so, the author gives a lot of learned speculation. Yet it sounds a lot like he is associating the affect of dairy on those with "Leaky Gut" syndrome. ...it all sounds plausible to me.
_Lazza
PS - quite surprisingly, the author lists 17 of the top autoimmune diseases ... with psoriasis not being on it!!! He pulls this list from a medical journal article dated 1997. The title of the article is "...selected autoimmune diseases". I hope the author corrects this error should the book be revised.
