Should Coffee Be Eliminated When Healing Eczema and Psoriasis?

For years, I roasted my own coffee at home. I'd buy raw beans from Brazil, roast them myself, dial in the flavor profile, and genuinely enjoy the ritual every morning. For years, I drank 2–3 cups per day with no breaks.

Now that I'm focused on healing severe eczema and psoriasis, I've had to take a hard look at whether or not coffee is actually helping or hurting my healing process.

Ultimately, I made the difficult decision to completely eliminate coffee while I'm healing. This could be for 90 days or even a whole year. I hope I can return to coffee someday, but for now, it's off the table.

I’ve now been off coffee for 20 days. Here’s why I stopped and why you might want to consider it too.

1. First Principle: Eliminate Variables

When you’re trying to heal something as complex as autoimmune skin disease, clarity matters. It's critical that you remove as many variables as possible to understand what's actually helping or hurting your healing process.

I'm:

• Experimenting with diet
• Tracking blood markers
• Running all kinds of tests (stool, urine, blood work, hair mineral analysis)
• Adjusting sleep
• Testing fasting
• Supporting gut repair

Then I can’t have unnecessary stimulants muddying the data.

Coffee is a powerful biological input. It affects:

• Cortisol
• Adrenal signaling
• Gut motility
• Blood sugar
• Sleep architecture
• Mineral balance

Even if coffee is neutral for some people, I needed to ask:

Is it neutral for someone actively trying to repair a compromised gut lining?

The only way to know was to remove it.

2. Coffee and the Stress Response (Cortisol & Fight-or-Flight)

One of my main concerns was an overactive nervous system since healing requires safety.

When your body feels safe, it shifts into parasympathetic mode — rest, digest, repair.

Caffeine pushes you toward sympathetic dominance - fight or flight.

Research shows caffeine can increase circulating cortisol levels, particularly in people who are not fully tolerant or when consumed under stress (Lovallo et al., 2005, Psychosomatic Medicine). Even habitual users may still experience cortisol elevation under certain conditions.

Caffeine also increases adrenaline and stimulates the central nervous system.

That’s useful in short bursts.

But what happens if you’ve been artificially stimulating that system daily for years like I have?

I’m already stressed from having severe eczema and psoriasis. On top of that, I'm a dad, my wife is pregnant with our second child, and I'm running mutiple online businesses.

But with all this in mind, I was scared to lose the boost that coffee provided. How am I supposed to keep the "train" moving forward with out it? How will I have the energy to handle everything?

Fortunately, after 20 days of no coffee, I realized that it was actually slowing me down. Now I have more energy and better focus on the carnivore diet + intermittent fasting without any caffeine. When I did a 3 day water fast, I experienced a level of natural energy I didn't know was possible. It felt like a cheat-code.

Now I'm not trying to sell quitting coffee just to have even energy and focus for longer stretches of time. But it might help calm your nerves if you are in the same situation I was, where coffee felt like a necessity to keep a busy life going.

To put it simply, I'm really focused on ensuring my body shifts into parasympathetic mode as much as possible to promote healing. I don't want any additional stressors that could interfere with that. Outside of quitting coffee, I'm learning how to intentionally relax and activate my parasympathetic nervous system. I'm learning that I never needed caffeine to function in the first place. However, I still look forward to the day when I can have another fresh roasted cup of brazillian coffee (in moderation)!

3. The Gut Angle (IBS-Like Effects & Motility)

Coffee is well known to stimulate bowel movements.

Studies show coffee can increase colonic motor activity within minutes of consumption (Rao et al., 1998, Gut). It stimulates gastrin release and can increase gastric acid production.

Again — that’s not automatically bad.

But I had to ask:

If I suspect intestinal permeability…
If I suspect gut inflammation…
If I’m trying to calm the digestive tract…

Why am I aggressively stimulating it every single morning?

Some experimental data suggests caffeine and stress together may increase intestinal permeability in certain contexts. Additionally, individuals with IBS frequently report symptom exacerbation with coffee intake due to its stimulant effect on motility and visceral sensitivity.

If I’m trying to repair a fragile gut lining, I don’t want daily irritation — even mild irritation.

Also, when I'm paying attention to bowel movements and stool to gauge gut health, I don't want to have to ask myself "was that the coffee?"

4. Nutrient Absorption & Mineral Considerations

Healing skin requires nutrients.

Zinc.
Magnesium.
Iron.
Vitamin A.
Protein.

Coffee contains polyphenols and tannins that can inhibit non-heme iron absorption (Morck et al., 1983, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition). Drinking coffee with meals has been shown to significantly reduce iron absorption in some contexts.

Caffeine may also increase urinary excretion of certain minerals, including magnesium and calcium, especially in higher doses.

Is this catastrophic? Probably not.

But if I’m rebuilding tissue and calming systemic inflammation, I don’t want even small friction points working against me.

5. Blood Sugar & Insulin Sensitivity

Acute caffeine intake has been shown to reduce insulin sensitivity and increase blood glucose levels in some individuals (Graham et al., 2001, Diabetes Care).

Since blood sugar dysregulation can influence systemic inflammation — and since inflammation drives autoimmune skin conditions — this was another variable worth removing.

Again, this doesn’t mean coffee causes eczema or psoriasis.

But it means coffee isn’t metabolically neutral for everyone.

6. Was I Masking Fatigue?

For years, I felt like I needed coffee to function.

And at the start of my healing journey, when I decided to quit coffee, it was a difficult adjustment. It took my body about 3 days to adjust fully. During that process, I was afraid I'd never be productive again. I found it difficult to get out of bed in the morning and I just wasn't able to function at the same level I was used to on coffee.

But now that I'm 20 days in, I'm way better off that I was while on coffee:

• My baseline energy is steady and constant.
• I feel mentally sharp the entire day.
• I don't deal with a 3 PM caffeine crash and mental fog after the caffeine wears off.
• I'm not dependent on caffeine to function!

Caffeine withdrawal is well documented and can include fatigue, headache, irritability, and low mood for 2–9 days (Juliano & Griffiths, 2004, Psychopharmacology).

That made me question something:

Was coffee solving a problem —
or was it masking one?

If I need caffeine to feel normal, maybe I’m not actually well-rested.
Maybe my nervous system is dysregulated.
Maybe my body is asking for recovery.

That realization alone made quitting worth it.

Though like I said earlier, I'm not here to convince you that you should quit coffee to improve your energy (though I do think it's worth considering). In this context, I want to assure you that quitting coffee doesn't mean you won't be able to function - quite the opposite, in fact.

You need to make sure you can rest well and recover properly, which will maximize your healing progress. Coffee is a variable that can interfere with that.

7. Coffee and Skin: What Does Research Say?

The research here is mixed.

There is limited direct evidence linking coffee as a cause of eczema or psoriasis. Some large observational studies show no clear association between moderate coffee consumption and psoriasis risk. Others suggest stress and sleep disruption — both of which caffeine can influence — are associated with worsening inflammatory skin conditions.

While coffee may not directly cause these conditions, it's possible that it contributes to the underlying systemic issues.

8. What I Replaced It With

I already formed the habit of making coffee in the morning to start my day. This was especially jarring during the first few days of quitting since I had lost my morning ritual that I had been following for years.

I realized I needed to replace that ritual with something else.

So I replaced coffee with decaffeinated stinging nettle tea.

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) has been studied for:

• Anti-inflammatory effects
• Antioxidant properties
• Potential antihistamine activity

Some small studies suggest nettle extracts may help reduce allergic symptoms and modulate inflammatory pathways.

9. What I’ve Noticed After 20 Days

Here’s what’s changed:

• Stable, smooth energy
• No afternoon crash
• No feeling of “needing” something to function
• Clear thinking
• No digestive urgency first thing in the morning

I'm finding my coffee craving has diminished significantly and I don't think about it anymore.

It's easier to fall asleep at night

Final Thoughts

If you’re dealing with severe eczema or psoriasis and trying to get to the root cause, I'd strongly recommend eliminating coffee for a 30-90 day period while you narrow in on root causes of your skin condition.

You'll reduce extra variables that might be muddying your data and increase the chances that your body goes into "healing mode."

References

• Dr Jason Lee's case against coffee for eczema healing.
• Lovallo WR et al. (2005). Cortisol responses to caffeine in men and women. Psychosomatic Medicine.
• Rao SS et al. (1998). Effects of coffee on colonic motor activity. Gut.
• Morck TA et al. (1983). Inhibition of iron absorption by coffee. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
• Graham TE et al. (2001). Caffeine and insulin sensitivity. Diabetes Care.
• Juliano LM & Griffiths RR. (2004). A critical review of caffeine withdrawal. Psychopharmacology.