Lemon water for Psoriasis

When we talk about holistic healing of Psoriasis, there are certain practices that we should add in our daily routine to make this holistic healing possible. Drinking warm lemon water (lemon juice in drinking water) is surely one of those practices. Lemon water is one of the best natural energy booster. Lemon water contains vitamin C (boosts immunity and good for skin) and electrolytes (potassium, calcium and magnesium) in good quantities. Lemon water is a natural liver tonic and helps in regularizing the body metabolism process to speed up the smooth elimination of body toxins from your body through stool and urine discharge.

Lemon water for Psoriasis

Weight management (loss) and energy boost up are most popular health benefits of drinking lemon water in the morning. For a person with psoriasis, there are a whole lot of other benefits of drinking warm lemon water which you should know to convince yourself to start this healthy practice immediately. I have tried to assemble the major benefits of lemon water for psoriasis as below:

• Makes your body alkaline– There is a saying- disease can’t exist in a body that is alkaline. Bad bacteria and fungi grows rapidly in acidic conditions only. Your body works best in alkaline body pH conditions. We hear people complaining of acidity, but we never heard anyone complaining of alkalinity. Hence, it makes sense when someone advises to avoid hyper acidity in your body. Lemon water can do wonders here. Lemon water can shift your body pH towards the alkaline direction quite easily. Lemon comes under the category of citrus fruits and hence, it can raise your eyebrows when someone says that lemon has high alkalizing properties. But it is true. Lemon is low in sugar and high in minerals. These minerals are alkaline in nature. These minerals would overpower sugar to give an alkaline effect. Once this lemon water enters your body, it ionizes readily with more number of anions (negative charged ions) than cations and its overall effect on body metabolism is highly alkaline. In short, lemon water metabolizes during digestion to give an overall alkaline effect. This alkalizing property of lemon water helps in maintaining your internal body fluid pH at an optimum level. The optimum body pH range is 7.35 to 7.45. Body pH indicates the level of oxygen in your body. Lower body pH means a lower amount of oxygen. Lower amount of oxygen means an open invitation to various diseases. Any drift in body pH towards acidic zone (less than 7) can increase the toxin level in your body triggering your psoriasis. Hence, maintaining optimum body pH (slightly alkaline) is crucial.

Read more: Body pH and Psoriasis

Read more: The best alkaline water recipe for Psoriasis

• Aids in digestion– Stomach produces natural juices to digest the food you eat. Atomic structure of lemon juice (water) is similar to these natural juices. Hence regular intake of lemon water can aid in proper digestion of your food avoiding health issues like indigestion, bloating, heartburn and constipation. Also, citrus flavonoids in lemons act as a great digestive tonic by assisting the hydrochloric acid (stomach acids) in your stomach to break down the food properly to ensure perfect digestion.

• Liver detoxification- Liver is the chief eliminatory organ of your body with prime responsibilities of eliminating body waste and toxins from your body on a continuous basis. It acts as your body’s filtration system. As in case of Psoriasis, there are high chances that your liver would be overloaded with high level of accumulated toxins and this continuous state of overworked liver ultimately make it impaired and less efficient. Regularly drinking warm lemon water can do wonders here. Lemon water contains d-limonene, an antioxidant. This antioxidant can active the enzymes in liver to speed up the detoxification process. Lemon water dissolves uric acid and other toxins and flushes out these sludge and residual toxins and going further, it helps in the digestion process by ensuring the increased production of bile salts. These bile salts help in the digestion of fats. Lemon water also decreases the amount of mucus and phlegm produced by the body. Hence, lemon water reduces the present toxin level and helps in avoiding any further chances of toxin accumulation. So, it is a win-win situation for you with lemon water 🙂

Click here to read more: Body detoxification for Psoriasis

• Decreases mucus and phlegm production- Mucus and phlegm are toxins that are produced by your body. The undigested food in your body started to decompose through the action of bad bacteria and fungi. Your body produces mucus and coat these undigested food to prevent further decomposition until these undigested foods reside in your intestine. Drinking lemon water can help in the elimination of these undigested foods by excreting mucus and phlegm from your body. It is my personal experience that mucus formation decreases by drinking lemon water.

• Promotes healthy gut flora– Drinking warm lemon water can help in maintaining a healthy balance of gut flora and avoid any sort of yeast infection (Candida). Bad bacteria proliferation happens in an acidic environment. Lemon water neutralizes such acidic environments due to its powerful alkaline effect on internal body metabolism. Hence, lemon water can destroy the safe heavens of these bad bacteria and yeast to maintain a healthy gut flora.

• Immunity booster– Drinking Lemon water is rich in vitamin C and antioxidants. Drinking lemon water regularly can strengthen your immunity system and hence your body will be able to defend against unwanted foreign substances like bacteria, virus and germs. Benefits of lemon water is fighting against common cold and the flu has been proved in various medical studies.

• Helps in skin repair–Lemon contains a good proportion of vitamin C (40-50 mg per 100 grams) and antioxidants.Due to these nutrients, lemon water is an anti aging agent that helps proper cell regeneration to repair your skin. Also, it helps your body to combat free radical damage and make you an owner of glowing and vibrant skin.

• Promotes weight loss- Lemons contain pectin (a soluble fiber). Pectin helps to suppress hunger cravings by giving a feeling of fullness. By feeling fuller, you are less likely to make poor food choices (high calorie foods). Also, lemon water is considered a fat burner because it stimulates the production of bile salts to utilize the fats stored in your body. A lot of people consume warm lemon water in morning for weight loss, very rightly so.

Click here to read more: Obesity and Psoriasis

• Anti-inflammatory in nature- Yes, you heard it right. Lemon water can reduce pain in joints and muscles because it is anti-inflammatory in nature. Lemon water dissolves the uric acid which is stored in your body in the form of crystals to relieve joint pain.

• Regulate bowel movements (relieve constipation) – Lemon water helps to regulate bowel movements. Warm lemon water is one of the oldest known natural remedy to deal with constipation.How stubborn or chronic your constipation might be, warm lemon water on an empty stomach will slowly but surely help you out. It is my personal experience. I have always considered my chronic constipation problem as one of the contributor towards psoriasis development. Drinking warm lemon water is helping me a lot in avoiding the constipation problem.

Click here to read more: Constipation can trigger Psoriasis

• Better absorption of minerals from your food– Due to good quantity of vitamin C, lemon water boosts mineral absorption from the food you eat.

• Proper functioning of the nervous system (mental health)- Lemon has a high content of potassium. Mental fatigue, depression and mood swings are few of the psychological effects of deficiency of potassium. Your nervous system needs a good amount of potassium to ensure optimum signals to the heart.

Good to know

Interestingly, lemon water reduces craving for sweet, pastry and gluten food products (which all cause acidic environments in the body which can cause indigestion, hyperacidity). Hence, lemon water will help you in your resolution to avoid white sugar and added sugar food preparations.

Why WARM lemon water

You should have noticed that I have written WARM lemon water everywhere. Why so? Why can’t we drink cold or normal lemon water?

The logic is simple: When we are drinking something for cleansing, it will be better if it is a little hot or warm at least. Because warm fluid entering your body will dissolve the uric acid and other toxins hiding in deep corners and will flush them out in a far more effective manner than normal or cold lemon water. Avoid chilled water because drinking chilled water in the morning after waking up can give a shock attack to your digestive system and hamper the metabolism process. Hence, go for balance; avoid HOT or COLD; go for WARM.

You may find it interesting: Drinking warm water is beneficial for Psoriasis

Best time to drink Lemon water

In general, it is the morning time after waking up when you should drink warm lemon water empty stomach.

In Naturopathy, they advised drinking warm lemon water at night also before going to bed because as per Naturopathy, body detoxifies best during night sleep.

Also, apart from these two standard timings (morning and night), I would recommend drinking warm lemon water whenever possible throughout the day.

So, the best strategy can be: Drink warm lemon water in the morning empty stomach. It is mandatory. Then, gradually start drinking warm lemon water after meals and before going to sleep as well.

I would request you to stick to this plan for at least 4 weeks and then monitor the results.

How much to drink

Morning:      About one liter of warm water with at least one full sized lemon squeezed in it.

Night:          About half a liter of warm water with half lemon squeezed in it.  Lemon water is diuretic in nature. Hence, you can reduce the water quantity if you don’t feel comfortable with night urge for urination.

Read more: The best alkaline water recipe for Psoriasis

Precautionary measures

When you are drinking lemon water regularly, try not to eat or swallow the lemon seeds. Consuming one or two seeds occasionally is not a big issue. But, as you would be drinking it regularly, try to discard those seeds from your glass of lemon water before drinking.

Also, try to drink it without any added sweetener. If you are finding it too difficult to handle the tangy taste of lemon water, try to dilute it with normal water as per your comfort. But, don’t add any sweetener.

Conclusion

Consider replacing your morning coffee/tea with warm lemon water. It is an intelligent idea. Coffee makes your body dehydrated and deficient in essential minerals and electrolytes like sodium, potassium and calcium.

On the other side, warm lemon water will make your body hydrated and provide antioxidants and electrolytes. Consume warm lemon water at least 4 times a day (morning empty stomach, night before going to bed and after lunch and dinner).

A whole lot of benefits of lemon water for psoriasis are just waiting for you. Now, the choice is yours!!