A potential link between psoriasis and pancreatic lipase was recently
brought to my attention.  I have the following clipping (source unknown):

    "... patients were encouragd to use 2 pounds of butter per week
    and that raw butter was used in all cases.   Dr. Grubb thought the
    raw butter would soften the skin, but was surpised when the scales
    diminished.  He had no theory to account for the results."

These results are reportedly from 1936.  Alas, I can find no reference
to this research in MEDLINE, and little corroborative evidence of raw
butter used as a dietary supplement to treat psoriasis.  Does anyone
have more information on this?  The text continues:

    "it is known that lipase is on the of principal enzymes in milk and
    can be expected to be concentrated in raw butter.  Since pancreatin
    (the enzymes secreted by the pancreas, including lipase) has been
    reported to be of service in the treatment of psoriases by several
    dermatologists, it is not inconceivable that Dr. Grubb's good results
    with raw butter could be ascribed to the intake of large amount of
    intact, unextracted lipase."

I haven't been able to verify the first two claims:  (1) butter contains
large amounts of lipase, and (2) pancretin treats psoriasis.
Can anyone help with this?

I have seen many articles which report conflicting results when
administering dietary n-3 fatty acids (e.g. cod liver oil) for the
treatment of psoriasis.  A recent, rigorous study shows no improvement
when supplemention n-3 fatty acids versus supplementing with corn oil. [1]
However, I also found this:

    intravenous n-3 fatty acid administration causes reduction of
    psoriasis, which may be related to changes in inflammatory eicosanoid
    generation. [2]

Putting these together, we have that dietary n-3 fails to treat psoriasis,
but intravenous n-3 successfully treats psoriasis.  This makes me
think that perhaps a lack of pancreatic lipase could be the problem.
The hypothesis is that psoriasis is caused by poor pancreatic function,
leading to insufficient pancratic lipase, resulting in poor absorption
of dietary n-3, and thus elevated AA and the inflammatory condition.
A dietary intervention which increases that amount of dietary lipase
enzymes (e.g. raw butter) would then treat psoriasis.

However, the following article seems to conflict with my hypothesis.
The authors studied serum lipase concentrations and found either and
*increase* or no difference between patients with psoriasis and without:

    In psoriatic females, we observed ... a statistically significant
    increase in pancreatic lipase concentration [over non-psoriatic
    females]. In addition, the pancreatic lipase concentration increased
    insignificantly in the male group. [3]

Is there a difference between serum lipase concentration and pancreatic
lipase function?

Also, are there other dietary sources of lipase enzymes besides raw
butter?  Specifically, what are the "paleo" sources of lipase enzymes?

(Raw butter is impossible for me to buy -- all butter here is pastuerized.)

-- Bruce

[1] effect of dietary supplementation with very-long-chain n-3 fatty
acids in patiens with psoriasis,
        Soyland,  Funk, Raijka, et al, N Engl J Med 1993 Jun

[2] n-3 fatty acids in psoriasis,
        Mayser, Grimm, Grimminger, Br J Nutr 20002 Jan

[3] Activity of serum lipase and the diversity of serum lipid profile
in psoriasis
    Pietrzak, Lecewicz-Torun, Med Sci Monit 2002 Jan