In a new study from UC Davis, researchers found that a diet rich in sugar and fat leads to an imbalance in the gut’s microbial culture and may contribute to inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis.
The finding suggests that switching to a more balanced diet restores the gut’s health and suppresses skin inflammation.
Earlier studies have shown that the Western diet, characterized by its high sugar and fat content, can lead to strong skin inflammation and psoriasis flares.
Psoriasis is a stubborn skin condition linked to the body’s immune system. When immune cells mistakenly attack healthy skin cells, they cause skin inflammation and the formation of scales and itchy red patches.
Up to 30% of patients with psoriasis also have psoriatic arthritis with symptoms such as morning stiffness and fatigue, swollen fingers and toes, pain in joints and changes to nails.
Food is one of the major modifiable factors regulating the gut microbiota, the community of microorganisms living in the intestines.
Eating a Western diet can cause rapid change to the gut’s microbial community and its functions. This disruption in microbial balance—known as dysbiosis- contributes to gut inflammation.
In the study, the team used a mouse model to study the effect of diet on psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.
They injected mice with Interleukin-23 (IL-23) minicircle DNA to induce a response mimicking psoriasis-like skin and joint diseases.
They found that a short-term Western diet appears sufficient to cause microbial imbalance and to enhance susceptibility to psoriasis-like skin inflammation.
There is a clear link between skin inflammation and changes in the gut microbiome due to food intake. The bacterial balance in the gut disrupted shortly after starting a Western diet and worsened psoriatic skin and joint inflammation.
One critical finding of the work was identifying the intestinal microbiota as a pathogenic link between diet and the displays of psoriatic inflammation.
The study also found that antibiotics block the effects of the Western diet, reducing skin and joint inflammation.
The researchers also showed that switching from a western diet to a balanced diet reduced skin inflammation.
This suggests that changes in diet could help reverse the proinflammatory effects and alteration of gut microbiota caused by the Western diet.
The team says that patients with psoriatic skin and joint disease should consider changing to a healthier dietary pattern.
If you care about diets and your health, please read studies about this diet linked to high colon cancer risk and findings of Know the flax: A little seed may be what your diet needs.
For more information about diets and wellness, please see recent studies about this heart-healthy diet may lower your ‘bad’ cholesterol and results showing that a spicy diet could be linked to dementia.
The study is published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. One author of the study is Sam T. Hwang.
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