Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger. I'm thrilled that you've decided to join me today because the more I learn about the latest in nutrition research, the more convinced I am that this information can make a real difference in all our lives.

And I like nothing better than sharing it with you.

There's no cure for psoriasis yet, but there are different schools of thought on treatment.

In our first story, alo gel is put to the test, head to head versus steroids.

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that affects about 140 people and make it one of the most frequent chronic skin diseases worldwide.

There's lots of drugs for it, some of which cost more than $100,000 a year to get a response.

There are cheaper drugs like cyclosporin, but the carry the long-term risk of kidney damage, hypertension, and malignancies, the drug can cause cancer.

Kidney toxicity in more than 50% of the patients treated long-term and in terms of malignancies up to 42 times the rate of cancer.

And it doesn't even work that well, keeping the disease at bay in a little more than half of patients over a four-month period.

There's got to be a better way.

What about plants? Topical botanical agents for the treatment of psoriasis?

Well, alo vera gel is said to possess anti-inflammatory, anti-itching, and wound healing properties.

Yeah, but as I described before, when it was put to the test for wound healing, it actually made things worse.

The exploitation of aloe preparations has been accompanied too often by misinformation and exaggerated claims.

But there is some impressive evidence. For example, to test its anti-inflammatory properties, it was tested head-to-head against steroids for mustard gas exposure.

Mustard gas is probably the most popular chemical warfare agent starting in World War I.

The last widespread military use was in the 80s during the Iran-Irak war with more than 100,000 exposed and many still suffering from the long-term complications, predominantly itching, even decades after surviving a gas attack.

70 to 90% are still suffering. Topical steroids are the most frequently administered medications and they help.

But long-term uses not recommended and associated with a variety of side effects. Therefore, how about safer agents like aloe vera?

67 chemical warfare injured vets were randomized to apply aloe vera olive oil cream or the steroids.

And the aloe vera mixture appeared to work as well as the drug.

Okay, well then let's give it a try for the management of psoriasis.

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