Defeating Psoriasis with Vitamin D
Defeating Psoriasis with Vitamin D
Added to milk and other dairy products, vitamin D has long been known as the cure for rickets, a disease that causes bone deformity and stunted growth in children.
Special receptors in your skin also make use of sunlight-produced vitamin D, a fact that has led some to try tanning in an attempt to end their psoriasis. In fact, nude sunbathing at the Dead Sea in Israel has become such a popular treatment for psoriasis that the Wall Street Journal suggested the influx (about 10,000 visitors a year and growing!) is creating a modern mecca for psoriasis treatment.
Why the Dead Sea? The location's low elevation prevents the sun's harshest rays from reaching sunbathers, allowing them to stay out longer without burning, experts say. The Dead Sea's mineral-rich water, so salty that plants and fish can't survive, is also thought to help psoriasis.
Researchers exploring the role of vitamin D receptors in the skin have found a way to help people with psoriasis. Dr. Holick discovered that skin cells have receptors for what is called activated vitamin D, essentially the hormone that prevents skin cells from growing and shedding too rapidly.
The next step was to develop a superpotent yet nontoxic form of activated vitamin D, strong enough to slow the growth of psoriatic skin cells. "We wanted to take advantage of the observation that we had made, using a high enough concentration to alter the growth of the skin cells without harm," Dr. Holick explains.
Applied to the skin as an ointment (Dovonex), activated vitamin D, available only by prescription, not only slows skin cell growth to levels much closer to normal but also reduces itching and inflammation, says Dr. Holick. "Among those who use Dovonex topically, upward of 50 to 60 percent have seen significant improvement," he says. Such improvement usually begins to appear in two to three weeks.
And all of this is accomplished without the common reaction to megadoses of vitamin D: raised calcium levels, which can cause kidney stones and high blood pressure. "It's purposely formulated as an ointment. That way, it stays in the skin and doesn't usually enter the blood," says Dr. Holick.