Medication prescribing

[Guest Posts]

Do you consider the human microbiome (gut or skin) when prescribing medication to patients with psoriasis? Thank you, Lianne

[Dr Thiviyani Maruthappu]

Thank you for your question, the microbiome in psoriasis is a very interesting and cutting-edge area of research, there are several groups in the UK studying this at the moment and we look forward to seeing the outcomes of their studies soon. The human microbiome has already been shown to vary in diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and obesity and there have been studies that have shown the benefit of oral probiotics in inflammatory bowel disease. Certainly, we know that skin and gut health are linked through the immune system and some diseases of the bowel can present with skin symptoms. However, as yet we do not know if altering the skin/gut microbiome in patients with psoriasis could be of benefit and what the effects of topical or oral medications are on the microbiome. I do recommend probiotic-rich foods as part of an anti-inflammatory diet, these include live yoghurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut and miso. It will be interesting to identify if specific bacterial strains are altered in the skin and gut of psoriasis patients and whether their alteration with supplements can improve the disease.