2008's experiments with diet

I’ve read numerous discussions on the relationship between diet and psoriasis. The fundamentals behind the Pagano regimen, which builds on the work of Edgar Cayce, are based on ‘leaky gut’ theory. There is plenty of information on this around the web so I won’t go into the detail. Suffice to say that psoriatics are genetically predisposed to developing ‘leaky gut’, which in very simple terms allows toxins to enter the bloodstream unchecked. The body expunges the toxins through the skin in the form of psoriasis, eczema, etc. Pagano’s regimen is designed to eliminate the toxins from our system, allowing the gut to heal itself, thereby snubbing the root cause of the psoriasis. Logically, it makes sense.

The mainstay of the Pagano regimen is the diet, the aim of which is to maintain an alkaline/acid food balance of 80% to 20%. Cayce/Pagano propose that an alkaline balance will stop the rot and allow the gut to heal. This is the basis for my experiments.

Before starting the diet, I gave my body a real hard cleansing kick, as prescribed by the Pagano regimen. A colonic, followed by a 3 day apple diet, followed up the rear with another colonic (sorry, I couldn’t resist). In retrospect, I’m not sure if it was a good idea as I quickly developed new lesions on my legs and a carbuncle on my knee which later developed into yet another lesion. I was strangely excited by the appearance of the new lesions as they indicated the body’s willingness to expunge toxins as a result of the 3 day cleanse. The Herxheimer reaction. I do think that perhaps the colonic is a step too far.
I regret that I did not keep a diary of my experiments with diet during 2009. Looking back at the way things developed, I think a detailed diary would have answered a lot of questions.
I stuck to the 80/20 balance (or as close as I could manage) and also –

• ate no saturated fats and limited fat intake in general
• avoided the nightshades
• drank very little alcohol
• smoked very occassionally
• took lecithin granules daily
• took slippery elm and saffron infusions daily
• drank about 3 litres of tap water daily

and generally limited my diet as per the Pagano regimen.

Over the next 6 months I noticed improvements.

• my scalp completely cleared of all lesions
• my nails improved tremendously in appearance
• my groin and my anus showed marked improvement

Then the healing seemed to stall. Admittedly I allowed alcohol to creep into my regular diet and I began to eat too much of the allowable foods. By recommendation, I contacted a homeopath and was prescribed Thuja 200. Now homeopathy is one of those alternative treatments I just can’t get my head around. The science is based on unfeasibly small quantities and quite frankly I had avoided it for lack of belief. Within 3 weeks of starting the homeopathic remedy, 90% of the remaining lesions began to disappear! I was amazed at the speed of healing. Homeopathy is described as a mechanism for speeding up the healing process. Boy, it certainly seemed to.

This is when I let things slip. My confidence was riding high and I started to think – ‘maybe I don’t need the diet and its all down to the remedy?’ More alcohol slipped into my diet together with a few smokes here and there. Helpings of the good foods increased, especially things like nuts, porridge, raisins, dates, prunes. These are great as part of the diet but must be eaten, like everything else, moderately. Lesions that disappeared with the remedy continued to disappear until gone, but my scalp, groin and anus flared up slowly over time. There were a couple of episodes around that time that could have contributed to the downward spiral but I reckon the diet was number one.

So, where am I now? Pretty much where I was this time last year, but with lots of experience and an eagerness to get things back on track again. I’ve started from scratch again focussing on the 80/20 balance and giving the colonics a wide berth. Starting with a 3 day fruit diet (rather than an apple diet) I’m going for simple recipes that are easy to balance. Next post, I’ll describe the new diet and where I go from here.