It may be that her Vitamin A increased through her diet, but her D levels need to come up as well as Vitamin K & Magnesium. They all need to be in balance. Also, she is possibly deficient in zinc, which is really necessary for skin health.

Is she supplementing D3? Has she had her level checked?

Has she tried going no-poo? I haven't ever had my scalp diagnosed, but I had some terrible symptoms and now after going no poo for almost a year, my scalp is sooo much better. First few months are hell.

I just read 'Power of vitamin D' by Sarfraz Zaidi and he says low levels of vitamin d can cause psoriasis. I actually just bought some D3 today to see if I could get rid of a small amount of psoriasis that I have. If she isn't supplementing already she should be or she needs to up what she's taking. Obviously getting tested would be a good idea.

It could be dysbiosis. Some skin problems are. Specifically, I'd say yeast overgrowth. Paul Jaminet explains that Candida can feed off of keytone bodies, and so candida can actually become worse on a very low carb diet. Mine did. I'd try getting about 600-800 calories from carbohydrates like potatoes/yams/sweet potatoes. Perhaps also try taking probiotics and/or adding homemade sauerkraut. That's working for me.

I am sorry to hear this. Psoriasis is quite disabling for some people, and scalp psoriasis is very tough for women.

There is probably a vast underlying heterogeneity in Psoriasis patient, some with diet controllable disease, some with a a different disease. I am very leery of single unifying explanations for any human related phenomena.

Perhaps you guys could look into other anti-inflammatory measures, particularly topical treatments. I have heard garlic oil can be effective, as well as fish oil, possibly coconut oil. Psoriasis may have a long half life, so it may take a while for a treatment to be effective.

In general, reducing stress in your life is very good for psoriasis. Perhaps taking up a meditation practice if you don't already?

hope this helps!!!

Hi, I don't know if your GF is still dealing with this but I am on my 1st week of Paleo and my psoriasis has flared up something awful! I am going to stick through it because sometimes, the body has to get worse before it can get better. In the meantime, I am using a topical agent given to my by my Dermatologist. Its called Taclonex. It is pricey (over 50.00 a tube) but its last me a long time seeing that I only have Psoriasis in my elbows and ankles and 2 knuckles. (Weird how the joints are affected first.)

I used for a while (till I ran out) African Shea Butter. I got it from http://shop.oldcityremedies.com/ in St. Augustine, FL. That, coupled with Black soap, seemed to have helped a lot in the past. I should probably buy more. Anyway, if you guys know of anything else that can work I am all ears.

Diet doesn't control everything. Might it be that your scalp psoriasis just got worse?

My psoriasis is on my face and scalp, and has gotten worse since I went Paleo. However, my stress level at work is not healthy, so I think that is playing a larger factor in my flare-ups, then anything. I have read through all the above comments, and there are some things (supplements) that I need to adjust, that might help me. Sorry- I didn't answer the question, but I do thank you for asking it! Hopefully by now your girlfriend has found some relief.

I've a friend with a diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis, a type of rheumatoid condition. When you read about it, it seems it can present with or without skin involvement, and with or without joint involvement (he seems to have both). I didn't think too much of it until my own mother was diagnosed with it--erroneously, as it turned out. She had hip pain, but it was referred pain from a ruptured lumbar disc. They selected psoriatic arthritis based of the fact that she does have sort of psoriatic-looking nails, and had one bad blood test for possible rheumatoid markers. After a year or so of horrendous rheumatoid drugs, they figured out what was wrong and fixed her back. Meanwhile, my friend seems only to function with the drugs. (If only HE would consider dietary interventions!)

I suppose my point is that there may well be a non-dietary/lifestyle cause for the psoriasis. But it seems like it would be very hard to guess without knowing a huge amount of information about the patient, like environment, family history, lifestyle, a lengthy journal of absolutely everything going into the mouth, onto the skin, into the lungs, etc.--and even then, I gather psoriasis is a tough nut to crack. BUT, as you continue this exploration, if at any point psoriatic arthritis comes up, proceed with caution and healthy skepticism. I'm guessing you would anyway. It might be worth looking into, or a disaster. But I was pretty disturbed by my mother's experience so I feel like I have to share it whenever psoriasis comes up--just in case.

I think it's incredible that this community has so many helpful and intelligent people responding in such a thought provoking manner. It certainly wouldn't be like this in other communities. First of all I would like to say that I agree with almost everything I have read in response to your question and I do believe they are all potentially relevant to your problem. As you have not had tests to determine what is actually going on in your gut it is difficult to know what could potentially be the underlying cause of your particular problem. Is it candida or is it an infection or simply an autoimmune flare up with gut dysbiosis and gut lining permeability as the underlying issue. I think it would be fairly useful in this case to get some tests done eg some kind of stool examination which is available today, although it may be expensive. At the very least see what you can get tested for on the cheaper end. Maybe h. Pylori etc. In the mean time however I would like to note that if your girlfriend is eating a lot of dark chocolate this could be a problem for her gut due to the very high levels of photic acid which is a gut irritant and leacher of nutrients. I would recommend trying out something similar to the GAPS diet for a month or so to see what happens and hopefully you may be able to heal the gut from there. If she gets consistently worse on this diet you may need to seek other options like potentially reintroducing some starches back in. In any case get some tests if at all possible and maybe send an email to Chris kresser to get his opinion.

I've been paleo for almost a year and still have a few scalp issues; the only thing that has ever helped has been using a shampoo bar (all natural, only coconut oil, hemp oil, etc.) with tea tree oil. I have tried many commercial and homemade bars, but J.R. Liggetts has kept most of the inflammation, itchiness, and flakiness away. Bonus, it also makes my hair look great.

In all seriousness, diet is a major component in our skin's health, but there are some issues that can only be solved by other means. If that is the case with your girlfriend, it should be an easy fix. :)

Take a look at the following article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2133.2005.06811.x/abstract

Summary

Background  The dogma in psoriasis is that due to pathogen-induced inflammatory responses, an autoreactive immune response is induced that leads to tissue destruction. However, this model might be too simplistic. Literature data suggest that the expression of enzymes crucial for fatty acid oxidation is upregulated in the skin of patients with psoriasis compared with healthy individuals.

Objectives  To examine the influence of fatty acid oxidation on psoriasis with regard to expression and activity of the key enzyme in fatty acid oxidation, carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 (CPT-1) and the effect of the CPT-1 inhibitor, Etomoxir.

Methods  Experiments were performed with homogenates of lesional and healthy skin, fibroblast cultures and a model of human psoriatic skin transplanted on immune-deficient BNX mice.

Results  CPT-1 was highly active in lesional skin. Etomoxir was able to block CPT-1 activity in skin, implying that this antagonist may have the potential to suppress psoriasis when administered topically. In the mouse model, Etomoxir had an antipsoriatic effect that was at least as good as that of betamethasone, as evidenced by reduction of epidermal thickness, keratinocyte proliferation and differentiation.

Conclusions  We conclude that fatty acid metabolism and in particular CPT-1 may be an excellent target for treatment of psoriasis.

**This suggests that a VLC may worsen psoriasis via the fatty acid oxidation link: VLC diets work by this mechanism (and the ketones issue mentioned above is certainly relevant wrt candida-psoriasis).