TCM Psoriasis Treatment – If you are looking at this page, you may be considering the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to treat psoriasis.
Traditional Chinese medicine is under-rated as a treatment for common skin conditions like acne, eczema and psoriasis, so this article should shed further light on how Chinese medicine is very helpful for treating diseases in dermatology, especially as it relates to a condition like psoriasis.
Psoriasis according to Western Medicine
Psoriasis is a systemic skin disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the skin. There is an abnormality in the rate of maturation of keratinocytes, resulting in dry, thickened and silver-scaled plaques.
Up to 50% of psoriasis start on the scalp, with most people seeing it as dandruff and an inconvenience, rather than a medical condition that can flare up if not monitored and managed.
Modern medicine will almost always include the use of steroids in the treatment of skin conditions; psoriasis is, after all, a disease of inflammation.
In addition, there are vitamin D derivatives (like calcitriol) as well as vitamin A acid derivatives (retinoids) that come in handy. Immunosuppressive agents like cyclosporine and methotrexate (MTX) are also commonly prescribed.
Psoriasis as a skin disease is largely linked to the vagaries of one’s immune system, and conventional therapy clearly DOES address the mechanisms that create the immune imbalance in the first place.
Support for TCM treatment of Psoriasis
Still, it is worth exploring approaches to dermatology from the traditional Chinese medicine perspective.
Browsing through a systematic review (SR) or meta-analysis (MA) will show that treatment with Chinese herbal medicine can
- Ameliorate clinical symptoms
- Decrease the psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) score
- Delay recurrence
- Reduce the side effects of Western medicine; as well as
- Enhance one’s quality of life.