|
 "Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease triggered by
environmental factors," said lead author Dr. Celine Phan, a
dermatologist at Hopital Mondor, in Creteil, France.
"The Mediterranean diet, which is characterized by a high proportion
of fruits, vegetables, cereals, fish, extra-virgin olive oil, etc.,
could reduce chronic systemic inflammation thanks to the
anti-inflammatory properties of these foods," she said in an email.
Some people seem to inherit a susceptibility to developing
psoriasis, noted Dr. Laura Ferris, an associate professor of
dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh, who wasn't involved in
the study.
"It's a condition characterized by areas or patches of skin that is
red and thickened and scaly," Ferris said in an email. "It can
really impair a patient's quality of life because of discomfort and
appearance. If there's red flaking, scaling skin on the face and
hands it really gets in the way of life."
About 2 percent of the U.S. population has psoriasis, Ferris said.
Phan and her colleagues tapped into a large ongoing French health
study that had collected dietary information on 158,361 volunteers
over two years. The researchers sent all of the study participants a
link to an online psoriasis questionnaire. Of the 35,735 who filled
out the questionnaire, 3,557 reported they had psoriasis, with 878
saying it was severe.
Along with information on food consumption, the original study also
collected information on lifestyle and health factors, such as
gender, age, smoking habits, body mass index (BMI), physical
activity levels, cardiovascular disease and depression symptoms.
The researchers rated volunteers' eating habits according to how
closely they followed the Mediterranean diet. Previous studies have
found the diet is associated with a lower risk of chronic systemic
inflammation, which has been linked to heart disease as well as
conditions like psoriasis.
After taking into account other lifestyle and health factors that
can raise the risk of psoriasis, researchers found that severe cases
of the disease were less likely in people whose eating habits were
more similar to the Mediterranean diet.
Compared to people whose eating habits scored lowest by
Mediterranean diet standards, those who scored highest on
Mediterranean diet adherence were 22 percent less likely to have
severe psoriasis, and those whose diets were moderately
Mediterranean were 29 percent less likely.
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The study found no association between diet and the onset of
psoriasis.
The researchers did, however, find an association between psoriasis
severity and several other factors, including BMI, smoking, activity
levels, heart disease, high triglycerides, high blood pressure,
diabetes and depression.
While the study doesn't prove that consuming a Mediterranean diet
will lessen the severity of psoriasis, "it raises some interesting
questions and is provocative," said Dr. Jonathan Silverberg, an
associate professor of dermatology, preventive medicine and medical
social sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of
Medicine in Chicago and director of the Eczema Center at
Northwestern Medicine. "Other studies have suggested a connection.
So this would be confirmatory of those studies."
What an observational study like this one cannot show is whether the
Mediterranean diet is causing improvement or whether there's some
factor shared by people who eat this way that is helping with
psoriasis, said Silverberg, who was not involved in the new
research.
But it takes studies like this to spur other researchers to do the
randomized controlled clinical trials that could answer that
question, Silverberg said. Even if it's shown that the Mediterranean
diet can help improve symptoms, "I doubt it would be effective
enough to replace the myriad treatment options we now use in
clinical practice," Silverberg said. But doctors might be able to
use it as an add-on treatment strategy, he noted.
For now though, it might make sense to steer patients toward a
Mediterranean diet because there's little downside, Ferris said.
Moreover, "there is an association between following the
Mediterranean diet and other health benefits," she explained. "And
maybe it will help with psoriasis."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2LjL6VX JAMA Dermatology, online July 25,
2018.
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