Psoriasis Relief

Psoriasis is a common skin condition which can affect people of any race, age or gender however people between the ages of 15 to 35 seem to be affected the most by this skin disorder. Psoriasis is a chronic disease of the skin in which itchy, scaly red patches form on the elbows, forearms, knees, legs or scalp. Its’ main feature is thickening of the outer layer of the skin which bleeds when the scale is removed.

The underlying cause of psoriasis is uncontrolled cell growth. Normally, keratinocytes (a type of skin cell) have a life cycle of 28 days. Fourteen of those days are usually required for the keratinocyte to fully develop and move from the lower layer of the skin to the outermost layer. During the remaining fourteen days the keratinocyte dies and is sloughed off. With psoriasis, keratinocytes have a significantly accelerated life cycle, migrating to the surface in only four days.

Psoriasis is regarded as an autoimmune disease (meaning that the immune system begins to treat the body’s own tissues as foreign invaders). Long-term psoriasis of the scalp can lead to hair loss. Another theory of the cause of psoriasis proposes that liver and/or kidney malfunction may prevent endotoxins (components of the cell walls of bacteria) that are absorbed into the intestines from being filtered out by the kidneys and liver before they reach general circulation. Therefore these endotoxins enter the bloodstream and go on to cause psoriasis. Other researchers have proposed allergies as the underlying cause of psoriasis. Intestinal permeability (“leaky gut syndrome”) is a likely cause of allergy-related psoriasis.

The severity of the symptoms often fluctuates between remissions and severer flare ups on the skin and it is thought that there are several factors which can cause the flare ups to occur. Some of these factors can include stress, obesity, excess alcohol consumption, cold dry weather and poor intake of nutrients from their diet. As you can see the control of these factors is crucial to prevent flare ups and to minimise their severity when they do occur.

There are a range of products on the market which may help relieve the symptoms of psoriasis, and most psoriasis suffers have tried most of them. The importance with this disease is to primarily focus on their diets and lifestyle first and to then use the other treatments to support the disease, as the results of the treatments may be disappointing if no beneficial changes to their physical and emotional health have been attempted.