Stupid Question

[bartfull]

OK, so I know that gluten, soy and corn can cause intestinal damage. But when I react to something like almonds, my psoriasis flares, but I'm not damaging my intestine, right? And when I eat a non-organic sweet potato, even though I get D, I'm not doing any damage, right?

Now, I can't eat any kind of white potato, organic or otherwise because of the psoriasis. I haven't tried any other nightshades, but from what I understand, they can cause irritation to the digestive system, but no actual villi flattening, right? So even though I get psoriasis from potatoes, I DON'T get D from them. Does that mean I could eat them without doing any damage (besides the psoriasis)?

I'm not going to run out and start eating things that cause my psoriasis to flare, but it would be a relief to know that every time I try a new food and it causes the psoriasis, at least I am not damaging my digestive tract.

Thanks.

[Skylark]

Bartful, that's not a fair question to ask. There is no way for us to know what is happening in your gut when the psoriasis flares. There is an association between psoriasis and malabsorption, probably because the intestines are also epithelial skin.

Whatever happens when you get a flare-up, you will heal plenty fast. Even GI viruses cause transient villous flattening and people bounce back just fine. It's the years-long, never-ending villous damage from celiac that causes such trouble for people.

[Carebear]

I find that when my psoriasis flares, I do seem to notice an increase in malabsorption of fructose and other things, so I would guess that there is some mild damage. However, it goes away in a few days, rather than a few weeks after a glutening, so I would think Skylark is on the right track

[Takala]

If people were going to croak off from mere skin rashes, I would have been gone 40 years ago.

I mean, really, if that last bout of poison oak didn't get me, I must have some sort of healing ability. Leaves of three, nuckleeyar annihilate thee !

[bartfull]

If people were going to croak off from mere skin rashes, I would have been gone 40 years ago.

I mean, really, if that last bout of poison oak didn't get me, I must have some sort of healing ability. Leaves of three, nuckleeyar annihilate thee !

I asked the question because I don't get digestive symptoms, even from gluten. Psoriasis is the only sure fire way I can tell if I have been glutened (or corned). I KNOW that even though I don't get digestive symptoms from those two, they are causing damage to my villi. I was just wondering if other things that cause a psoriasis flare were ALSO cauing intestinal damage.

So, yeah, psoriasis is not going to kill me, but if things like almonds (among SO many other things), which cause these flare-ups are ALSO damaging my gut, maybe over the long run it WILL kill me.

And I have to admit, if someone could tell me for sure that almonds (and potatoes and chocolate and even organic apples) ONLY caused psoriasis, I might just put up with that flare-up and eat some of these foods once in a while.