Ketogenic Diet Eases Psoriasis Symptoms in New Greek Trial

For people weighing keto for inflammation, the key takeaway is narrower than the headline suggests: a small Greek crossover trial found ketogenic eating improved psoriasis measures and inflammatory markers, but it does not prove keto is a cure or a stand-alone treatment. The strongest signal came from a 26-person study of patients with psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and obesity, where the diet reduced PASI, DAPSA, IL-6, IL-17 and IL-23 after eight weeks.

The trial, published February 20, 2024 in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, randomized participants to start with either a Mediterranean diet or a ketogenic diet for eight weeks, then gave them a six-week washout before switching to the other plan for another eight weeks. Both diets produced meaningful weight-loss and body-composition gains, including lower body weight, BMI, waist circumference, total fat mass and visceral fat. But only the ketogenic phase significantly improved the psoriasis and arthritis disease measures tied to inflammation, while the Mediterranean phase did not significantly change those markers in this group.

That matters because psoriasis is not just a skin condition. The paper describes it as a highly prevalent inflammatory disease driven in part by Th1 and Th17 immune activation, and the patients in this Athens-based study were dealing with the extra burden of obesity, which can worsen disease activity. The work was conducted at Attikon University Hospital in Athens, Greece, by Vaia Lambadiari, Pelagia Katsimbri, Aikaterini Kountouri, Emmanouil Korakas, Argyro Papathanasi, Eirini Maratou, George Pavlidis, Loukia Pliouta, Ignatios Ikonomidis, Sofia Malisova, Dionysios Vlachos and Evangelia Papavid.

The timeline also shows how small and specialized the study was: ClinicalTrials.gov lists a start date of May 20, 2020, actual primary completion on January 31, 2022, actual completion on August 30, 2023, and actual enrollment of 26 participants. That limited size and relatively short duration mean the results are useful, but not definitive. The National Psoriasis Foundation says no diet will cure psoriatic disease, and the American Academy of Dermatology says losing weight can reduce flares and improve treatment effectiveness.

Keto also should not be read as the only dietary path worth watching. A 2025 randomized clinical trial in JAMA Dermatology found a 16-week Mediterranean diet improved PASI in 38 adults with mild to moderate psoriasis, with 47.4% reaching PASI 75. Taken together, the newer evidence points less to diet tribalism and more to a practical lesson: weight control and overall diet quality can matter in psoriasis, and ketogenic eating may have a real anti-inflammatory edge in some obese patients, even if it is still far from a cure.