Radiant Skin from the Inside Out by md alan m. dattner md alan m. dattner

Author:md alan m. dattner, md, alan m. dattner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

A FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

FOOD, DIGESTION, AND THE SKIN

Let’s imagine that you have a skin condition that is itchy, red, or swollen. It is likely that a biopsy of that skin would reveal an increased number of white cells around the structures in the involved area. We would call this immune system attack “inflammation,” as we learned in Chapter 4, a word that indicates the heat and fire of the condition. White cells there are attacking something present in the structures or content of the skin. If you think about it, your next question might be “What are they attacking, and why?”

In some cases, the answer is that an infectious agent such as Staphylococcus aureus is causing the attack. Or it may be that, as in a disorder known as dermatitis herpetiformis, sensitivity to gluten stimulates an attack against the cells in an upper layer of the skin, leading to destruction of the cell attachments and formation of blisters. Sometimes the cause of inflammation is a chemical from a plant such as poison ivy or a preservative such as formaldehyde. In many other instances, the cause of the inflammation is unknown. Dermatology researchers may have found various body chemicals that are involved in specific skin disorders, but that is not much help in finding out what is triggering your particular skin condition. Indeed, most of the textbooks that I used during my training, in discussions of inflammatory skin conditions, listed the cause as unknown. When it is possible for dermatologists to find a cause by examination, history, or testing, they will try to eliminate that cause to control the condition. When the cause remains unknown and elimination is not an option, corticosteroids and other medications that suppress the immune system response or kill microorganisms are often used.

I found this answer of “cause unknown” to be unacceptable, and have devoted my life to finding better answers to that question of what is causing the skin condition. I had heard stories of skin conditions clearing when the patient eliminated certain foods from their diet. My research showed that cross-reactivity could be a cause for attack of one’s own tissue stimulated by exposure to a particular microbial product or food. Expanding on what was known already, I began to suspect that other chemicals and food ingredients played a role in these inflammatory conditions. Following our discoveries regarding the nature of cross-reactive immune system attack in the late 1970s, I began searching for the cause of stimulation of a patient’s inflammatory skin condition, two decades before these principles were published as common knowledge in the medical literature. As a result, I developed a deep understanding of the relationship between microorganisms, chemicals, foods, and skin inflammation. More than that, I was ready to accept teachings on food allergy, gut organisms, and digestion as scientifically founded, based on what I learned from my research. Accepting this premise helped me to understand the series of questions and answers required to translate this information into an ability to help

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