How I Manage My Psoriasis Using Diet, Lifestyle, and Supplements

Hi, my name is Creek Stewart.  I am a Professional Wilderness Survival Instructor, best-selling author, and television host.  Along with my wife Sarah, I am a co-founder of GRÝS Skin.

In this article I'll be sharing what I do to manage and control my psoriasis using diet, exercise, supplements, and stress therapy.  My struggle with psoriasis has been lifelong and it wasn't until my 40s that I decided to finally get serious.

I have to preface this blog post with the following disclaimer(s):

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I've struggled with psoriasis and psoriasis flares since I was 10 years old.  I was made fun of by kids, and even a teacher once. In 1313, Phillip the Fair of France ordered that people with psoriasis (and leprosy) be burned at the stake.  I think I'd rather be burned at the stake than go to swim class with psoriasis.

Throughout my youth I received painful injections underneath of my psoriasis spots by my dermatologist.  These helped temporarily.  I used ointments and creams but they were only band-aids for a deeper problem.  My psoriasis always came back - worse.

In my 20's, and as my diet and stressors worsened, my psoriasis began to get worse.  It started to deform my fingernails and toenails, which I thought was some kind of fungus at first.  So did other people.  It's hard to hide your fingers.

Then, it started to affect my joints.  My dermatologist told me if I didn't get it under control that I could have permanent joint damage and that it could even affect my heart.  What was once "just dry skin" was now having a devastating and irreparable affect on my body.

Then came the biologics.  My doctor said I needed powerful immune suppressing injections to stop my body from fighting itself.  I did it because I felt like I had no other options.  But deep down I felt like these shots, while they did help, might be more risky in the long run than the psoriasis itself.

I ultimately decided that I'd rather risk the psoriasis than the shots.  I stopped taking them and my psoriasis came back with a vengeance like I'd never seen before.  This time it was real scary and I knew this wasn't something that was going to "go away" or get better on its own.  And, I could no longer cover it up.

I remember when I landed my first television show (FAT GUYS IN THE WOODS for The Weather Channel).  I prayed to God I'd never have to take off my pants or shirt.  My body was covered with psoriasis and now I was a television host.

It's hard to believe the photos below are of my own body.  I look at them now and feel so sorry for that person.  But that person is me, just over a year ago. 

But now for the good news.

Several years ago, when my skin was the worst it had ever been, I drew a line in the sand.  I believe the human body wants to be healthy.  I had to face the tough truth that my skin condition might be my own fault.  Maybe not when I was a kid, but definitely as an adult.  The more research I did, the more I discovered.  Despite my dermatologist insisting there was nothing I could do, I began experimenting with diets, supplements, exercise, and stress management methods.

My first move was to cut out sugar and processed foods.  Those seemed like obvious culprits for inflammation and almost every person who found healing through diet cut out these items.  I did see some improvement, but not nearly what I needed, or wanted.

Then, from everything I was reading, I needed to go vegetarian.  Everyone said that red meat caused inflammation.  All the vloggers must be right so I became a vegetarian.  That was a very hard transition for me.  I did it for a year.  Over that time, my health declined.  I lost weight and continually had people ask me if I was sick (one person even asked if I had cancer).  I started to lose my hair - a lot of it.  I had a sluggish libido.  I developed really bad brain fog and started to feel unproductive and unmotivated.  And, despite working out, I felt weak.  On top of all that, my skin got worse and I had more flares than ever before.  And, my joints began to hurt more (psoriatic arthritis).

I'm not knocking going vegetarian, but just reporting how I felt and what was happening to me when I was eating just plants (still no processed sugar and processed foods).

As a professional wilderness survival instructor, I study indigenous cultures and first peoples for a living.  Not once did I ever read or find any evidence of first peoples having psoriasis.  So, I thought about their diets.  They were HEAVY meat eaters.  In North America, for instance, the buffalo made up a HUGE percentage of first people diet.  In winter, it was almost 100% of what some of the plains tribes ate.  They ate seasonal fruits, nuts, and berries and some plants, but used plants primarily for medicinal purposes.

So, one day, I decided it was all the greens and vegetables that were the problem and I switched to 100% grass fed beef.  That was as close to a natural buffalo as I could think of.  I literally was a vegetarian one day and the next day only ate beef.  I probably should have transitioned a little better because I went through some pretty serious constipation until my body adjusted.  Not fun and lesson learned.

I ate only grass-fed beef for 3 weeks.  It was one of the hardest things I've ever done.  The cravings were off the charts for other stuff.  And then I went through some feverish-like symptoms as my body went into ketosis (burning fat instead of carbs).  Despite all that, I can't tell you how much better I felt.  For the first time in months, I FELT ALIVE!

My hair stopped falling out, I began building muscle mass, my libido bounced back, I started to get motivated at work again, I slept better, and I didn't feel weak.  I WAS BACK.  And, I noticed a dramatic improvement in my skin after just a few weeks.  My plaque psoriasis was less red and inflamed and the aches and pains in my joints started to dissipate.

Fast forward 1 year and I've landed on what I believe to be the anti-inflammatory diet for my body.  I essentially eat 4 food groups:

• Mainly grass-fed beef 1+ lbs. per day (lots of 85/15 ground beef & fatty rib-eyes)
• Pasture range eggs (2-6 per day)
• Raw grass fed cows milk from a local farm (2+ full glasses a day)
• Raw grass-fed cows cheese from my local Whole Foods Grocery
• Small Servings of seasonal fruits (blueberries, figs, an occasional banana, avacado, etc)
• I have an occasional avacado and sweet potato.
• Yes, I occasionally cheat when I travel but not very often (it's just not worth it)  (I've come to believe that most foods we eat are poison.)

I literally crave NOTHING ELSE.  I don't ever crave a vegetable (not kidding), and although I used to have quite the sweet tooth, a bite of fruit satiates that for me.  I do not eat candy, cakes, deserts, or anything like that - ever.  I try my best to stick to SINGLE ingredient foods from the list above.

Besides a few stress induced flares, my skin has been the best it's been in years.  I'm going on over 6 months now with no meds, no creams, no nothing.  I have a couple small spots here and there but hardly noticeable.  Below are a few pics my wife took out on the deck the morning of this writing  and then another of me with my shirt off for a photo-shoot.  Trust me, I never thought that would happen!

 Diet is only 1 piece of the equation for me, though.  I believe there are 5 aspects to my healing:

1. My diet.  I found what works for me.  Based on my research before I started, it clearly does not work for other people.
2. I exercise regularly.  I do body weight exercises 3+ nights per week using an app on my phone called HOME WORKOUTS.  It's free and simple.
3. I spend 30 minutes each day outside in the wilderness in solitude and prayer to help manage my stress.  I own several businesses and lead quite the life and this solitude time is critical to decompress.  (This was one of my missing links to healing I believe.)  Therapy is another option I'm considering.  In addition, 2 x each week I take a 1.5-hour walk with my wife in the morning and we focus on getting sun on our faces.
4. I have honed in on what I believe to be a really good supplement regimen for me (although I am constantly experimenting with this).  I've listed all of my supplements later in this post.  Collectively, these are expensive, but nothing like just 1 shot of immune-suppressing biologics!
5. And lastly, I use GRÝS on my skin every night.  GRÝS is not a "medicine" and does not heal psoriasis but it is what I use for relief from the symptoms.  Not only do I use it on my face but I rub it onto the parts of my body where I used to have psoriasis (legs, elbows, butt, feet).  And, if I ever have a flare, GRÝS is the only stuff I've ever used that gives me relief.  I've tried EVERYTHING on the market as far as creams and ointments go and nothing gives me relief like GRÝS does, especially after a shower.  After showers used to be the worst time and all the cream and lotions I used burned (probably because of the chemicals).  When my skin flares, I grab the GRÝS for symptom relief.

I'm not going to lie, controlling my psoriasis is a lifestyle.  But I can honestly say that it's a lifestyle I needed to choose anyway.  I'm 47 at the time of this writing and I'm in better shape and feel better than when I was in my 20s.  In fact, I look at other guys my age and think - "they need to try my psoriasis protocol even if they don't have psoriasis!"

The one question most people ask when I tell them about my mainly beef diet is - "Didn't your cholesterol go up?"

Yes, it did!  But, after ready this book (The Great Cholesterol Myth) I have total peace with that! LINK HERE: https://amzn.to/44dxrTS  I actually listened to it on Audible and it made me feel much better about my diet choices.  MUCH BETTER!  I learned that the type of cholesterol I'm eating is actually good for your body!

As far as supplements go, I'm currently using the following:

• WHOLE PACKAGE SUPPLEMENT (desiccated beef organs) 4 pills daily: LINK HERE
• IMMUNO MILK (cow colostrum) 4 pills daily: LINK HERE
• NUTRIFOL (not for psoriasis but to help prevent hair loss) 4 pills daily: LINK HERE
• Vitamin D 1x daily: LINK HERE
• Vitamin B12 1 x daily: https://amzn.to/3P5KfY8
• Skinsea Probiotics 1 x daily: LINK HERE
• Vitamin E 1 x daily: https://amzn.to/3OKpy2H
• Magenisum 1 x daily: https://amzn.to/3KPf0xS

I am on a constant journey with managing my psoriasis and am always experimenting.  But I can say with confidence that the protocol above has really helped me.  Like I said, I do still have flares and my skin isn't yet perfect, but I believe these to be stress induced and I'm still working on how to manage my stress better.  I have 2 kids, multiple businesses, and more, so it's not easy!  A shout out to all my Moms and Dads out there!

I hope and pray that something I've shared here is of value to you and your own personal journey with psoriasis!

Feel free to reach out to us if I can be of assistance to you!  I'm in your corner!