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[moi]

Milk and soya withdrawal cured my daughter's psoriasis

At the age of 7 my daughter was diagnosed with severe extensive psoriasis by the local GP and a paediatric dermatologist at Great Ormond Street.
I could not disagree with this awful diagnosis having watched her dreadful skin condition fluctuate for 4 years between not too bad to so severe pedestrians moved away from her in the street, and she had now been off school for 7 weeks.
We tried all sorts of OTC products and dietary changes and the GP said she would have to start more active treatment, so we sought a rapid private consultation with a paediatric dermatologist with expertise in psoriasis.
As a medical student I'd seen kids like my daughter suffer terribly on hospital wards in the later 1970s and was feeling a little desperate about what might happen as a result of this consultation: as a last resort we decided to remove milk from her diet (the only thing we hadn't tried). Within 12 hours the redness in her skin patches and her itching began to diminish and within a few days there was a real improvement in her general condition.
A few days later, still with extensive but much less inflamed psoriasis we saw the consultant, who gave us a terrible prognosis, but agreed to allow us to continue with milk withdrawal and suggested we use calcium-fortified rice milk rather than soya products, which she said can contain proteins that cross-react with milk proteins.
Meanwhile the consultant wrote to me and the GP saying that my daughter would need immunosuppressant medication and phototherapy.
But my daughter didn't and she hasn't, and its now 3.5 years later. Except we do have to be vigilant about avoiding milk and soya products. Every time we relax restrictions she gets spots, which then progress to patches if we don't pick up on the offending foods (e.g. bread not made by us, which often contains milk).
OK this is anecdotal, but psoriasis wrecks lives and it is very difficult to remove all milk and soya products from a diet, so how well has this sort of dietary management been tested. All I know is that my daughter is now fit and healthy, has an apparently flawless skin and isn't on toxic drugs.

Competing interests: None declared

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