Three good references on diet and skin disease focussing on fatty acids. One
or more of these do mention benefits of evening primrose oil on psoriasis. I
haven't given them a close read for a few years, and they're not with me at
present. Your hospital librarian should be able to get the Lancet one
immediately (wonderful reading anyway). I think the first one mentions
psoriasis in addition to acne, but can't recall if the other 2 do.

Burton, J.L. Dietary Fatty Acids and Inflammatory Skin Disease, The Lancet
January 7,1989 pp27-30

Stewart, M.E. Sebaceous Gland lipids Seminars in Dermatology Vol 11 no 2
9June) 1992 pp 100-105

Downing, D.T.et al Essential Fatty Acids And Acne J. Am. Acad. Dermatology
1986;14;221-225

----- Original Message -----
From: bb <[log in to unmask]>
To: Paleolithic Eating Support List <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 21, 1999 11:26 PM
Subject: Re: [P-F] Psoriasis cured... Diet and Skin Disease


> Todd,
> skin and diet.....hmmmmmmmmmm.
>
> "The history of dermatology is riddled with corpses of dietary theories
yet
> some still stir when prodded." quipped one fine wit in the Lancet in 1993.
> At the time I was researching diet and acne as I get acne. Everything was
> focussed on fatty acid compositions. There is plenty of evidence that
> PSORIASIS is helped by Evening Primrose Oil (EPO). There was and remains
no
> evidence for any diet helping or worsening acne (no evidence even that
> chocolate makes it worse). I think everyone has a gut feeling that acne is
> rare in unindustrialised cultures, but I don't know if this is true or
not.
>
> Now, of course, everyone wants to know about phytosterols and
antioxidants.
> Now, acne is a very steroid-dependent disease, so a phytosterol connection
> would be very reasonable- guess what- virtually no research data on
> this(according to Medline and my medical librarian). Now, if anyone wants
to
> research acne and phytosterols, PLEASE divide your phytosterols into
> paleolithic (eg figs, root vegetables) and non-paleolithic (eg soy,
> margarine, sunflower oil).
>
> Of course, there are other  UNDISCOVERED MICRONUTRIENTS and only a
paleodiet
> provides the right amount of these.
>
> Now, psoriasis, illness and diet. Where do all the bad things in the diet
> come from ? SEEDS- eg wheat, barley, beans,corn, etc. If you want to
> eliminate toxins, eliminate seeds. Nature puts toxins into seeds. Nuts are
> seed kernels too.
>
> I once saw a David Attenborough documentary where birds were breaking open
> seeds and eating the kernels- they would then fly to a riverbank and eat a
> mud that contained something that neutralised the toxins. Attenborough
made
> it clear that fruits were offered to animals so they would carry away the
> uneaten seeds and deposit them in a pile of dung so that a new plant could
> grow, benefiting both parties. If the seed kernel were eaten, then no
plant
> would grow- therefore nature wisely inserted toxins into the kernel to
> discourage animals from eating them. I would also imagine that kernels are
> packed with energy as new plants are obviously an imperative. Accordingly,
> it came as no shock to find the belief that grain base foods are so
harmful-
> I can only imagine that they are the LEAST toxic of all the kernels.
>
> Now, this brings me to nuts which are of course seed kernels. There is no
> advantage to a plant to give away its kernel, so it has advantages for the
> plant to put toxins into nuts. I have GRAVE reservations about the
inclusion
> of nuts in Paleolithic diets- the carbohydrates may be better but the
toxins
> must be up there- so maybe people eating paleo to treat arthritis,
psoriasis
> etc should avoid nuts altogether.
>
> I propose that nearly all seed kernels contain small amounts of toxins to
> protect the interests of the plant. I wonder if there is wisdom in
avoiding
> all seed kernels including nuts (as well as the obvious one of grains and
> cereals). . This is what I see as one of the major advantages of the
> paleolithic diet. I wonder what the gurus think of that??
>
> I've recently been informed that wild almonds contain lethal doses of
> cyanide - and the domestic ones we eat are because of a mutation. A good
> reason to ditch almonds according to Ray's criteria and mine too.
>
> So, what can one do for psoriasis. Hmmm. One should look up food
> compositions at  http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl and
try
> to find foods with similar fatty acid composition to Evening Primrose Oil
> (guess what EPO isn't on the USDA database- they don't regard it as a food
> even though a lot of people ingest lots of it- unless it goes by another
> name).(so look up soybean oil as it's composition is fairly similar, and
> then go looking for similar paleofoods os ask a guru, or download the
whole
> database and play with it if you're an advanced relational database user).
>
> Root vegetables are another interesting topic. In the pre-refrigerator era
> (all of 50 to 70 years ago) they were one of the major dietary staples.
> Reference http://www.lis.ab.ca/walton/old/index.html Now, most people eat
> very little of them. I became interested in them as they have a very long
> shelf-life- therefore I hypothesised that they may have high antioxidant
> levels- guess what- no information on antioxidant levels of root
vegetables
> came up in an extensive search of internet and Medline (though I must
admit
> I didn't get a librarian to do an extra check). Eventually I found the
USDA
> food nutrition info which at least showed me the high phytosterol content-
.
> It is interesting that there seems so little known about root vegetables-
I
> suppose they're not very glamorous! My advice- get back to your roots.
>
> Regards Ben Balzer
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, June 21, 1999 9:32 PM
> Subject: [P-F] Psoriasis cured
>
>
> > I was chatting with my father yesterday and he mentioned that his
> > persistent and often severe psoriasis had disappeared.  He has
> > had the condition for about 45 years, so this was no small
> > surprise.  I inherited it, but have been able to control it by
> > avoiding tomatoes and oranges, or at least I *think* that's how.
> >
> > Anyway, I asked him if he had changed his diet in any way, and he
> > said he had.  He started eating peanuts.  I had told him about
> > the tomatoes and oranges thing about 10 months ago, but it didn't
> > work for him.
> >
> > This is interesting to me for a number of reasons.  I eat a lot
> > of nuts, but not a lot of peanuts.  I do eat them occasionally,
> > however.  My grandmother (my father's mother) also had psoriasis
> > flare-ups once in a while but not often.  She was very fond of
> > peanuts, which she ate raw.
> >
> > Ray says that peanuts are not paleo because they are not readily
> > digestible raw.  Well, they certainly taste better roasted, but
> > they do appear to be well tolerated by some in the raw state.  I
> > know that I don't have any trouble eating raw peanuts.  On the
> > other hand, although it is not certain where peanuts originated,
> > there is some evidence that they may be from Peru, making them
> > New World foods and therefore new to the food supply of most or
> > all humans (depending on where you stand on the question of
> > habitation of the Americas).  Some take the stand that no New
> > World food can be paleo, regardless of whether it is edible raw.
> > This rule eliminates certain foods, such as corn and potatoes,
> > that are not paleo even on Ray's looser definition, but it also
> > rules out tomatoes, which are Neanderthin-legal.
> >
> > Getting back to peanuts, I plan to do an experiment on myself, by
> > re-introducing oranges and tomatoes into my diet, but eliminating
> > peanuts strictly.  I want to see if the psoriasis returns.  Then
> > I'll try adding peanuts and see what happens.  My father noted in
> > passing that the other thing that has changed since he has been
> > eating peanuts is that his cholesterol, which tends to be
> > elevated even with medication, has dropped sharply.  This is less
> > surprising, since there is scientific literature showing that
> > peanuts cause LDL cholesterol to fall, but it's still
> > interesting.
> >
> > It seems to me that the question of whether peanuts are paleo
> > depends entirely on the New World foods question, if indeed
> > peanuts are New World food.  If I can reproduce my father's
> > success with psoriasis by eating peanuts, this would be worth
> > knowing for others who have this annoying condition.
> >
> > Todd Moody
> > [log in to unmask]
>