Indigo Naturalis: A Win for Skin

It’s an autoimmune disease that affects approximately 7 million Americans. When it rears its ugly head, it leaves unsightly red splotches that, in severe cases, can cover more than 10 percent of the body. And the worse part of it all – there’s no known cure.

The mysterious skin disease I speak of is called psoriasis. It’s mysterious because some kind of faulty message is sent by the brain that tells the body’s immune system to produce more skin cells when they’re not needed. What results are lots of hard, scaly skin patches that can wreak havoc on any part of the body, from the top of one’s head, to the bottom of one’s feet.   
You’ve likely seen lots of commercials promoting products that claim to get rid of psoriasis. The truth of the matter is there’s no known cure for getting rid of psoriasis, and as many people with the non-contagious skin disease will attest, the effectiveness of these products rarely bear fruit – especially for those who have treatment-resistant psoriasis.

That’s why it’s with a profound sense of satisfaction that there are natural treatments available that appear extremely effective in treating psoriasis, even the most commonly diagnosed (plaque psoriasis) and in cases where treatment rarely did anything to improve conditions.

The miracle mix is called indigo naturalis, made from a plant that’s been used for centuries by the Chinese for skin-related conditions.

In this study, conducted by researchers from Chang Gung University and the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital located in Taiwan, researchers applied medicated and non-medicated ointments to approximately 40 volunteers with treatment-resistant psoriasis. The volunteers had a number of psoriatic splotches and were instructed to apply one side of their body with ointment from the indigo naturalis, and a corresponding area with the non-medicated ointment (e.g. one knee with the indigo naturalis, the other knee with the non-medicated ointment). They were to do this every day for 12 weeks, with the researchers taking photographs at various stages to document any lessening of the redness that tends to characterize psoriasis.

At the conclusion of the 12-week study, the researchers found quite a contrast among the participants, depending on what treatment they used. Those areas treated with the indigo-naturalis ointment saw a significant reduction in the size of the affected region, the redness and hardening of the skin (psoriatic skin tends to callous) – almost a 90 percent improvement, in fact! The other psoriatic skin regions treated with the non-medicated ointment improved, but only by about 26 percent.

The improvements weren’t the only positive finding. Previous findings regarding indigo-naturalis’ effectiveness in treating psoriasis showed it adversely impacted people’s gastrointestinal tracts, the liver in particular (not in many cases, but in some). With this study, there were none – zero! – side effects in any of the participants after 12 weeks of use.

While future research is scheduled, in the meantime, the researchers believe indigo naturalis to be both “safe” and “effective” in treating a disease that’s anything but skin deep – it adversely impacts one’s quality of life as well (polling data suggests 60 percent of those with psoriasis say it’s a large problem in their everyday life; 30 percent of people with psoriasis go on to develop worsening cases, like psoriatic arthritis).