Naturopath Harald Gaier reports similar success with his recommended daily diet of oily fish, such as herring and mackerel, melon and zinc supplements. He also approves of several herbal or homoeopathic combination products (see Alternatives, p 9).

Contrary to Gaier's findings, candida specialist Dr John Mansfield said that his food sensitivity programme was having no success with psoriasis sufferers. After an admittedly limited trial with 10 patients, he stopped treating the condition.

His interest was reawakened in 1982 when he attended a conference in Atlanta. There, for the first time, a link between psoriasis and candida was mooted. Pioneering this line of research are E William Rosenberg, Professor of Dermatology at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis, and Dr Sidney Baker, medical director of the Gesell Institute of Human Development in New Haven, Connecticut.

Rosenberg maintains that psoriasis is an inherited fault in the body's antigen antibody response to foreign organisms, particularly candida albicans, which can bring on psoriasis. Both have published studies on their success in treating psoriasis with an anti candida approach.

Dr Mansfield returned to England and began treating his psoriasis sufferers as if they had candida. They were given fungicide such as Nystatin, Fungizone or a newer preparation such as Sporanox, while recommending a diet free of sugar, all refined carbohydrates (those made with white flour) and all yeasted foods.

He claims a 75 per cent success rate, and looks for a complete clearance of the condition within four months, and an improvement after four to five weeks. He believes the remaining 25 per cent could have been treated successfully had he attacked the condition more aggressively. Dr Baker, for example, claims great success from applying very large doses of fungicide; however, this would cost about £120 a week, and with no guarantees of success.