Understanding and Treating Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis

Understanding and Treating Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis: A Guide for Patients and Doctors using Integrative Medicine and Functional Medicine

This book is not yet ready for shipping; it will be ready in about May 2012.

Purchases can be made now.

Click here to purchase via CreateSpace

Click here to purchase via Amazon

Description:

Status: This book is not yet ready for shipping; it will be ready in about July 2011.
Page size: 8"x10"
Text and graphics: Black/white/grayscale with text, diagrams, and photographs
Length: About 300
Citations: Hundreds if not thousands
Used properly, this book will pay for itself within: The first few minutes of the first day of use.
ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-1456494209. ISBN-10: 1456494201

Understanding and Treating Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis:

A Guide for Patients and Doctors using Integrative Medicine and Functional Medicine

Dr. Alex Vasquez

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, graduate of University of North Texas Health Science Center, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (May 2010).

Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine, graduate of Bastyr University (September 1999). Licensed Naturopathic Physician with Additional Prescriptive Authority in Washington (2000-2002), Licensed Naturopathic Physician in Oregon (2004-present)

Doctor of Chiropractic, graduate of Western States Chiropractic College (March 1996. Licensed Doctor of Chiropractic, Washington (1996-2002) and Texas (2002-present)

Adjunct Faculty (2004-2005, 2010) and Former Forum Consultant (2003-2007), The Institute for Functional Medicine in Gig Harbor, Washington

Adjunct Faculty, National University of Health Sciences in Lombard, Illinois

Affiliate Faculty, University of Western States in Portland, Oregon

Private practice of chiropractic and naturopathic medicine in Seattle, Washington (2000-2001) and Houston, Texas (2001-2006)

Former Adjunct Professor of Orthopedics (2000), Radiographic Interpretation (2000), and Rheumatology (2001) at Bastyr University in Kenmore, Washington

Former Editor (2006-2007), Naturopathy Digest

Author of approximately 75 articles and letters published in Annals of Pharmacotherapy, The Lancet, Nutritional Perspectives, BMJ (British Medical Journal), Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), The Original Internist, Integrative Medicine: A Clinician's Journal, Holistic Primary Care, Nutritional Wellness, Dynamic Chiropractic, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Arthritis & Rheumatism: Official Journal of the American College of Rheumatology

OptimalHealthResearch.com

Brief description:

Psoriasis is the most prevalent autoimmune diseases in the United States. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as many as 7.5 million Americans—approximately 2.2 percent of the population—have psoriasis.
125 million people worldwide—2 to 3 percent of the total population—have psoriasis.
Studies show that up to 30 percent of people with psoriasis also develop psoriatic arthritis (arthropathy, joint disease).
Psoriasis prevalence in African Americans is 1.3 percent compared to 2.5 percent of Caucasians.
Psoriasis is not merely a cosmetic problem; it is a systemic inflammatory disease. Nearly 60 percent of people with psoriasis reported their disease to be a large problem in their everyday life.
Nearly 40 percent with psoriatic arthritis reported their disease to be a large problem in everyday life. Patients with moderate to severe psoriasis experienced a greater negative impact on their quality of life.
Psoriatic arthritis is an inflammatory arthropathy seen in patients with psoriasis that can have both peripheral (e.g., hands and feet) and axial (i.e., spine and sacroiliac joints) manifestations. This condition has frequently been referred to as psoriatic rheumatism or rheumatic psoriasis.
Similar to reactive arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis; strongly associated with streptococcal infections as well as staphylococcal infections.[1] Although many researchers have contributed to the literature which establishes psoriasis as a disease of multifocal dysbiosis, to the best of my knowledge the work of Patricia W. Noah PhD is exceptionally noteworthy; her 1990 review published in Seminars in Dermatology[2] is required reading for doctors wishing to gain independent peer-reviewed confirmation that multifocal dysbiosis is the major initiator and perpetuator of this systemic autoimmune inflammatory disorder. In this particular article, Dr Noah documents the experience of her group at the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee, their anti-dysbiosis protocol, and its success in the treatment of psoriasis.
Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis must be considered an autoimmune diseases based on the findings of autoantibodies directed against dermal structures—stratum corneum[3] and keratinocytes[4]—and antibody-dependent and antibody-independent immune-mediated tissue destruction. Although stratum corneum antibodies are found in healthy patients without consequence, what makes them uniquely pathogenic in psoriasis is their tissue penetration in lesioned skin, their ability to bind with autoantigens, and their activation of complement.[5]^,[6]

Commentary: Given the overwhelming basic science and clinical research implicating multifocal dysbiosis as the primary initiator of psoriasis—and by extension, psoriatic arthritis—it seems impossible that major allopathic textbooks such as The Merck Manual[7] and the widely read Principles of Dermatology[8] and Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment[9] would perpetuate the myth that the condition is “idiopathic” so that no cure can be hoped for other than additive, endless, and perpetually “new” medicalization. This is clearly an example of medical practice being incongruent with biomedical research—at the patient’s expense.

Citations:

[1] Klippel JH (ed). Primer on the Rheumatic Diseases. 11^th Edition. Atlanta: Arthritis Foundation. 1997 page 176

[2] Noah PW. The role of microorganisms in psoriasis. Semin Dermatol. 1990 Dec;9(4):269-76

[3] "… titers of IgG anti-SC autoantibodies in psoriatic patients were not specifically higher than in normal controls but were more variable, indicating that their circulating levels are dependent on a delicate balance between consumption at inflammatory sites and a secondary increase due to SC-antigen release following inflammation." Tagami H, Iwatsuki K, Yamada M. Profile of anti-stratum corneum autoantibodies in psoriatic patients. Arch Dermatol Res. 1983;275(2):71-5

[4] "It seems that autoantibodies, although they do not appear to participate in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, are an important feature, and that skin antigens, which appear in lesional immature keratinocytes, cross-react with S. pyogenes and contribute to the autoimmune process in psoriasis." Perez-Lorenzo R, Zambrano-Zaragoza JF, Saul A, Jimenez-Zamudio L, Reyes-Maldonado E, Garcia-Latorre E. Autoantibodies to autologous skin in guttate and plaque forms of psoriasis and cross-reaction of skin antigens with streptococcal antigens. Int J Dermatol. 1998 Jul;37(7):524-31. The authors found that all psoriasis patients had dermal autoantibodies and that these antibodies reacted specifically with endogenous dermal antigens; thus their finding that “Deposits of immunoglobulin G (IgG) were not detected in the lesions” is unexpected and inexplicable. This statement from their research is inconsistent with the findings of other research groups, and—specifically—must be placed in a context of other articles, most notably "… titers of IgG anti-SC autoantibodies in psoriatic patients were not specifically higher than in normal controls but were more variable, indicating that their circulating levels are dependent on a delicate balance between consumption at inflammatory sites and a secondary increase due to SC-antigen release following inflammation." Tagami H, Iwatsuki K, Yamada M. Profile of anti-stratum corneum autoantibodies in psoriatic patients. Arch Dermatol Res. 1983;275(2):71-5.

[5] "The stratum corneum (SC) antibodies are present in all human sera as seen by indirect immunofluorescent (IF) staining… IF tests with proper controls showed that the SC antigen in psoriatic scales is coated not only with IgG but in a majority of the lesions also with complement." Beutner EH, Jarzabek-Chorzelska M, Jablonska S, Chorzelski TP, Rzesa G. Autoimmunity in psoriasis. A complement immunofluorescence study. Arch Dermatol Res. 1978 Apr 7;261(2):123-34

[6] "Indirect immunofluorescent (IF) tests on sections of normal human skin reveal the presence of antibodies to the stratum corneum in most normal human sera. ...Direct IF tests of psoriatic lesions revealed the presence of in vivo bound IgG as well as other immunoglobulins and complement in the stratum corneum." Beutner EH, Jablonska S, Jarzabek-Chorzelska M, Marciejowska E, Rzesa G, Chorzelski TP. Studies in immunodermatology. VI. IF studies of autoantibodies to the stratum corneum and of in vivo fixed IgG in stratum corneum of psoriatic lesions. Int Arch Allergy Appl Immunol. 1975;48(3):301-23

[7] Beers MH, Berkow R (eds). The Merck Manual. Seventeenth Edition. Whitehouse Station; Merck Research Laboratories 1999 pages 448 and 816

[8] Lookingbill DP, Marks JG, eds. Principles of dermatology. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1986: 138

[9] Tierney LM, McPhee SJ Papadakis MA (eds). Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment. 35th edition. New York: Lange; 1996, page 101