Treating skin conditions with food

In an interview with dvm360, Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD, talked about the role of food in holistic health, particularly when it comes to treating atopic dermatitis and allergic disease in cats and dogs. In discussing her lecture Food for Thought: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Diets for Derm Cases, presented at the 2025 Fetch dvm360 conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, Griffin shared types of foods that can help prevent and control skin inflammation and reduce allergic flare.

The following is the interview transcript, which has been lightly edited for clarity:

Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD: So, we are what we eat. Food has so many different applications in holistic health, especially when we're talking about treating atopic dermatitis and allergic disease. And dogs and cats use prescription diets to help to restore the barrier function of the skin because if you have diets that are high in fatty acids, that can help to restore that protective layer of the skin to prevent inflammation, reduce allergic flare, and holistically control overall inflammation in the body.

I think we're still learning about food as medicine, I think even in human medicine. So there's a lot that we still need to know, but I love the idea of starting to use prebiotics and probiotics to normalize the gut flora, because if there's inflammation inside the body, that will provide inflammation elsewhere in the body. And so, if we can balance bacteria in general, usually we have decreased inflammation, and that can be a source of improvement for some of these atopic patients. I'm starting to look at utilizing that for my patients that have chronic inflammatory conditions, and [it is] just really cool how we can use food, because everybody's got to eat. Use food. Food is medicine for controlling that inflammation.