"Psoriasis is a systemic disease and should be treated as such, a fact that Chinese medicine has identified for hundreds of years. A recent article published in the British Journal of Dermatology stated that people with psoriasis have an increased risk of heart disease. The authors stated that traditionally western dermatologists mainly focused on psoriasis in the skin and joint level, but failed to view any correlation to other organ systems.
Because psoriasis is an immunoinflammatory disease, affecting the body as whole, it makes sense that the same inflammation causing the skin manifestations could also aggravate other diseases known to be induced by inflammation, particularly cardiovascular disease. See research here.
Chinese medicine's view of psoriasis as a systemic inflammatory disease is seen in the main traditional patterns attributed to it, mainly fire toxins and heat in the blood with stasis. It has always held that psoriasis is a disease of the blood, hence any part of the body influenced by the blood can be affected, particularly the heart.
It is interesting to see that many of the herbs used to treat psoriasis in Chinese medicine also have cardiac protective properties. Dan Shen, Salvia miltiorrhiza, is one of them. I use the herb a lot in my prescriptions to treat psoriasis, as it's main functions are to cool and invigorate the bloods flow. Dan Shen has been used both traditionally and in modern times to protect and repair heart tissue. Many studies have been done on this herb and I recommend you look at my research section to view one of them.
The more western research that comes out showing that the body is an integrated whole, that problems in one area (like the skin) influence other body areas, the more impressed I am with the observations of the ancient Chinese. By treating the roots of a disease pathoglogy, then not only is the disease itself healed, but so is a multitude of other associated problems. This is wholistic medicine."
Trevor Erikson, March 25, 2009
;The Chinese Medical Dermatology Website
Mr. Erikson's Skin Disease Photo Gallery shows Before and After pictures of skin diseases treated with TCM.
Trevor Erikson's article is apt because of this April 8, 2009 article in the New York Times "Genentech announced on Wednesday a phased voluntary withdrawal of the psoriasis drug Raptiva from the United States because of a link to a brain infection.
Raptiva has been associated with an increased risk of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, a rare and usually fatal disease of the central nervous system."
