Three of the most aggravating skin conditions you can get are psoriasis, acne, and rosacea. They’re aggravating because nobody really knows what causes them.
As a result, nobody has any answers for treatment either. Now a new study is providing some answers.
And it shows that there’s a very simple cure for many people affected by these conditions.
Have you ever wondered how your skin defends itself against infections? After all, your skin is constantly exposed to a never-ending barrage of bacteria and fungi. So how does it protect itself?
The answer is that the innate immune system cells concentrated in the skin make substances called antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). These protein molecules are what protect your skin from infections.
So if your skin is prone to infections, the reason may be that it isn’t making enough of these protective proteins. One group of AMPs that’s receiving a lot of attention these days are called the cathelicidins.
Cathelicidins were among the first AMPs identified in human skin. And new evidence shows that they exert two primary effects in our skin. First, due to their antimicrobial activity, they kill germs directly — just like an antibiotic.
But That’s Not All They Do
These peptides also initiate a potent immune response to infection. And this immune response often results in inflammation.
For example, according to the authors of this paper, a disturbance in cathelicidin function occurs in several common inflammatory skin diseases (psoriasis, for example). This disturbance can stimulate an autoimmune response.
When your body processes cathelicidins abnormally, it causes the inflammation and increased blood-vessel formation in rosacea. Wouldn’t it be nice to know what causes these disturbances in the cathelicidins?
To know that, you have to know what regulates their function in the first place.
Until recently, we didn’t know how your body regulates the function of cathelicidins. But now, all that’s changing. In the past several years, researchers have found that vitamin D3 is a major regulator of both cathelicidin expression and function. Now this shouldn’t be too great of a surprise.
Curing Skin Infections 100 Years Ago
In my book Bursting With Energy, I have a whole chapter on the benefits of sunlight. In that chapter, I detail how doctors in the early part of the 20th century routinely cured skin infections and autoimmune skin disorders.
They cured them by exposing the patients to escalating levels of sunlight. How did the sunlight cure the infections? Probably by inducing the formation of vitamin D3.
In addition, one of the most common ways to treat psoriasis is by exposing the patient to sunlight. I’ve seen many cases of even severe psoriasis put into complete remission simply with some well-timed sunbathing.
In cases of rosacea, many patients go out of their way to prevent sunlight exposure because it seems to intensify their reaction. These patients may actually be worsening their overall condition by creating a decrease in their vitamin D levels.
One of the most accepted forms of treating rosacea is topical and oral antibiotics. Could it be that by simply increasing your vitamin D levels, you would be able to have the same antibiotic effect with your own natural cathelicidins? There’s one easy, safe, and simple way to find out.
What You Can Do
If you have psoriasis, acne, or rosacea, here’s a simple thing to do that just might cure your condition. Start taking vitamin D3. A good starting dose is 5,000 units per day.
Every two months, check your blood vitamin D3 levels and your blood calcium levels. Keep increasing the dose of D3 until your levels are between 70-100 ng/ml. Then maintain that dose once you get to those levels.
If your calcium level becomes elevated, you will have to decrease the dose until they are normal. This rarely happens, but it can occur.
If your condition does not improve after one year, then you are probably not going to respond to vitamin D. But this study and others like it certainly make it likely that vitamin D3 treatment can permanently cure certain people with these skin conditions.
Just remember, God designed your body to heal itself. All we have to do is to help that process along. In many cases, more vitamin D is just what the doctor ordered.
Sources:
Dombrowski, Y., M. Peric, S. Koglin, T. Ruzicka, J. Schauber. “Control of cutaneous antimicrobial peptides by vitamin D3,” Arch Dermatol Res. 2010 August;302(6):401-8. Epub 2010 March 10.