The Gut-Psoriasis Axis

REPOSTED FROM DR. MARVIN SINGH, MD WRITTEN BY DR. MARVIN SINGH, MD

Have you all heard of the Gut-Psoriasis Axis? Well, you have now! These days there is so much discussion about the gut microbiome and how it is connected to everything else in our bodies.

For those who are not familiar, the gut microbiome refers to the trillions of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that live inside of our gastrointestinal tracts. Believe it or not, these microbes would weigh the same amount as the human brain if you were to lump them all together into a ball. There are ten times more microbes inside of our gut than we have human cells making up our bodies!

Even more amazing is the fact that the DNA from all these little bugs outnumber our human DNA by a factor of 100 to 1! So, yeah, the gut microbiome is definitely a formidable force.

There have been a lot of links between the gut microbiome and chronic diseases, namely inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. One of the ways the gut microbiome is connected to the rest of the body is felt to be through a circuitry of various other different microbiomes. Yes, there is a skin microbiome too!

Some feel that there is possibly cross-talk between the various microbiomes and that could influence the bacteria on our skin and our immune system. Changes in the skin microbiome have been demonstrated to promote inflammation of the skin and perhaps this has to do with communication and interaction between the skin and gut microbiomes.