August marks Psoriasis Awareness Month, a time to learn more about this chronic skin disease and its treatments. It’s also an opportunity to offer support to the more than 8 million Americans who suffer with it.

There are several types of psoriasis. The most common type — plaque psoriasis — affects about 80 to 90 percent of people with the condition. It causes dry, raised, pink or red patches covered with white or silvery scales. These scaly patches, called plaques, are typically found on the elbows, knees, scalp, lower back, face, palms and soles of the feet but can occur elsewhere.

Other symptoms of psoriasis include dry, cracked skin that itches or bleeds, and thick, ridged or pitted nails.

About 25 to 30 percent of people with psoriasis have a related condition called psoriatic arthritis, which causes stiff, swollen, painful joints.

The symptoms of psoriasis typically go through cycles, getting worse for a while (flares) and then getting better (remissions).

While psoriasis can occur at any age, it has two peaks of onset. The first is between ages 20 and 30, and the second between ages 50 and 60. Men and women are at equal risk for developing the disorder.

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease, a condition in which your body’s protective immune system — which normally guards against germs such as bacteria and viruses — malfunctions and attacks healthy cells by mistake. With psoriasis, white blood cells called T cells mistakenly attack your skin cells, causing the skin cell production process to speed up.

Typically, new skin cells grow every 28 to 30 days. In people with psoriasis, however, the cycle of new cell growth is shortened to every three to four days. The buildup of new skin cells outpaces the sloughing off of old cells. The excess cells are pushed to the skin’s surface, where they pile up and form the scaly patches commonly associated with psoriasis.

Researchers don’t fully understand what causes this to occur, but they believe a mix of genetics and environmental factors are involved in the development of psoriasis. Certain factors have been identified that trigger an outbreak of symptoms.

Common psoriasis triggers include an injury to the skin; stress; infection that affects the immune system; certain medications, including lithium, high blood pressure medications and anti-malarial drugs; smoking; heavy alcohol consumption; rapid withdrawal from oral or systemic corticosteroids; and wintertime, when people are routinely exposed to hot, dry indoor air.

Your doctor can typically diagnose psoriasis based on your history of symptoms and a physical exam. The doctor may take a small sample of skin, which is called a biopsy, to examine it closely under a microscope. This helps your doctor determine the type of psoriasis as well as rule out other disorders as the cause of your symptoms.

There is no cure for psoriasis. The goals of treatment are to reduce inflammation and scales, slow the growth of new skin cells and remove plaques. Treatment for mild to moderate psoriasis often begins with topical creams, ointments or lotions, including topical corticosteroids, retinoids, synthetic vitamin D and coal tar extracts.

Light therapy is a first-line treatment for moderate to severe psoriasis. It may be used alone or in combination with medication. It involves exposing the skin to controlled amounts of natural or artificial light. The light, which may be sunlight, broadband or narrowband UVB light, or an excimer laser, can improve skin affected by psoriasis.

If your psoriasis is moderate to severe and has not responded to other therapies, your doctor may recommend an oral or injected medication. These include steroids, methotrexate and cyclosporine. Drugs called biologics may also be tried. They alter the immune system and disrupt the disease cycle. Common biologics used to treat psoriasis include ENBREL®, HUMIRA®, STELARA® and COSENTYX®.

To live your best life with psoriasis, follow your doctor’s advice carefully. Also try some of these self-care strategies to better manage your condition:

• Use moisturizer regularly, especially after bathing. Avoid harsh soaps.
• Maintain a healthy weight. Obesity makes psoriasis symptoms worse.
• Quit smoking.
• Drink alcohol in moderation.
• Expose your skin to small amounts of sunlight. Limited sunlight can help alleviate psoriasis symptoms, but too much can make symptoms worse. Seek advice from your doctor before doing this.
• Avoid known triggers.
• Lower stress. Try meditation, deep breathing, yoga or tai chi.
• Join a support group to learn more about living and coping with psoriasis.

If you develop a problem with your mental health, such as anxiety and/or depression, as a result of psoriasis, visit a mental health provider for support and treatment. Don’t suffer in silence.

Patti DiPanfilo

August marks Psoriasis Awareness Month, a time to learn more about this chronic skin disease and its treatments. It’s also an opportunity to offer support to the more than 8 million people in the US who suffer with it.

There are several types of psoriasis. The most common type — plaque psoriasis — affects about 80 to 90 percent of people with the condition. It causes dry, raised, pink or red patches covered with white or silvery scales. These scaly patches, called plaques, are typically found on the elbows, knees, scalp, lower back, face, palms and soles of the feet but can occur elsewhere.

Other symptoms of psoriasis include dry, cracked skin that itches or bleeds, and thick, ridged or pitted nails. About 25 to 30 percent of people with psoriasis have a related condition called psoriatic arthritis, which causes stiff, swollen, painful joints. The symptoms of psoriasis typically go through cycles, getting worse for a while (flares) and then getting better (remissions).

While psoriasis can occur at any age, it has two peaks of onset. The first is between the ages of 20 and 30, and the second is between the ages of 50 and 60. Men and women are at equal risk for developing the disorder.

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease, a condition in which your body’s protective immune system — which normally guards against germs such as bacteria and viruses — malfunctions and attacks healthy cells by mistake. With psoriasis, white blood cells called T cells mistakenly attack your skin cells, causing the skin cell production process to speed up.

Typically, new skin cells grow every 28 to 30 days. In people with psoriasis, however, the cycle of new cell growth is shortened to every three to four days. The buildup of new skin cells outpaces the sloughing off of old cells. The excess cells are pushed to the skin’s surface, where they pile up and form the scaly patches commonly associated with psoriasis.

Researchers don’t fully understand what causes this to occur, but they believe a mix of genetics and environmental factors are involved in the development of psoriasis. Certain factors have been identified that trigger an outbreak of symptoms.

Common psoriasis triggers include an injury to the skin; stress; infection that affects the immune system; certain medications, including lithium, high blood pressure medications and anti-malarial drugs; smoking; heavy alcohol consumption; rapid withdrawal from oral or systemic corticosteroids; and cold weather, when people are routinely exposed to hot, dry indoor air.

Your doctor can typically diagnose psoriasis based on your history of symptoms and a physical exam. The doctor may take a small sample of skin, which is called a biopsy, to examine it closely under a microscope. This helps your doctor determine the type of psoriasis as well as rule out other disorders as the cause of your symptoms.

There is no cure for psoriasis. The goals of treatment are to reduce inflammation and scales, slow the growth of new skin cells and remove plaques. Treatment for mild to moderate psoriasis often begins with topical creams, ointments or lotions, including topical corticosteroids, retinoids, synthetic vitamin D and coal tar extracts.

Light therapy is a first-line treatment for moderate to severe psoriasis. It may be used alone or in combination with medication. It involves exposing your skin to controlled amounts of natural or artificial light. The light, which may be sunlight, broadband or narrowband UVB light, or an excimer laser, can improve skin affected by psoriasis.

If your psoriasis is moderate to severe and has not responded to other therapies, your doctor may recommend an oral or injected medication. These include steroids, methotrexate and cyclosporine. Drugs called biologics may also be tried. They alter the immune system and disrupt the disease cycle. Common biologics used to treat psoriasis include ENBREL®, HUMIRA®, STELARA® and COSENTYX®.

To live your best life with psoriasis, follow your doctor’s advice carefully. Also try some of these self-care strategies to better manage your condition:

• Use moisturizer regularly, especially after bathing. Avoid harsh soaps.
• Maintain a healthy weight. Obesity makes psoriasis symptoms worse.
• Quit smoking.
• Drink alcohol in moderation.
• Expose your skin to small amounts of sunlight. Limited sunlight can help alleviate psoriasis symptoms, but too much can make symptoms worse. Seek advice from your doctor before doing this.
• Avoid known triggers.
• Lower your stress. Try meditation, deep breathing, yoga or tai chi.
• Join a support group to learn more about living and coping with psoriasis.

If you develop a problem with your mental health, such as anxiety and/or depression, as a result of your psoriasis, visit a mental health provider for support and treatment. Don’t suffer in silence.

Patti DiPanfilo

Let me ask you this: How often do you think about the health of your skin? When you do, how often do you consider the skin that’s NOT on your face? After all, the skin is the largest organ in the human body, safeguarding everything underneath. Want to learn a little more about this protective organ and how to take better care of it? Read on.

Skin has many functions, including shielding our bodies from germs and the harsh elements outside. It also helps control the temperature inside the body and enables us to feel touch. It is composed of three main layers, the epidermis, or outermost layer; the dermis, the middle layer; and the hypodermis, the deeper tissues.

Because it is exposed, skin is susceptible to a variety of health problems, including the serious and potentially fatal cancer, melanoma. There are also a number of other disorders of the skin that are less serious (although often annoying and unsightly) such as acne. This scourge not only affects the face, but also the neck, back, shoulders and chest.

Eczema, which causes itchy, dry and red skin due to inflammation; seborrheic dermatitis, which leads to oily, waxy patches on the scalp (as well as other forms of dermatitis); and non-lethal types of cancer are other common skin disorders. There’s also psoriasis, an autoimmune disease that can cause rashes. In many cases, these rashes turn into thick, scaly plaques on the surface of the skin.

Some of these disorders, like many skin cancers, can be avoided by taking the appropriate preventive steps. Others, like acne and eczema, you can’t escape but you can control with the right skin care products and proper skin care routines. That leads us into the second half of our story: caring for your skin.

Keeping your skin hale and hearty is the focus of Healthy Skin Month, which is celebrated in November. Just look on the Internet and you’ll find numerous articles with tips on being good to your skin. There are a few suggestions many have in common, like “drink plenty of water” and “avoid taking hot, hot showers and baths.”

To make for a quicker read, I’ve put together a list of common tips for maintaining healthy skin, including some tips for winter skin care. More tips can be found in these articles. But to sum them up, here are a few highlights:

• Don’t skimp on sleep. The cells of your skin use the nighttime hours to refresh and repair themselves. If you don’t sleep, your cells don’t get a chance to do their thing. Then your skin starts to show the wear-and-tear of constant exposure to the elements such as the sun and air pollution.
• Get sweaty. Doing some form of aerobic exercise in the morning increases blood flow to your skin, which keeps it supplied with the oxygen and nutrients it needs to stay healthy and glowing.
• Resist over-exfoliating. Exfoliating too often can lead to microscopic tears in the skin that can result in inflammation, redness, dryness and peeling. Many common exfoliating scrubs recommend you use them no more than twice a week.
• Use softer soaps. Harsh bath soaps and laundry detergents can irritate the skin. Try softer soaps like fragrance-free or sensitive skin brands. The same holds true for deodorants. Try a sensitive skin or natural deodorant instead of scented versions.
• Remember to humidify. Use a humidifier, especially in the winter months, to keep moisture in the air, which moisturizes the skin as well.
• Avoid wet gloves and socks. If your gloves and socks get wet due to rain or snow, get them off. If you linger in these wet clothes, it can lead to itching, cracking and sores on the skin, even flare-ups of eczema.
• Support your immune system. The typical winter ailments, colds and flu, can stress your skin to the max. Try to avoid these illnesses by taking preventive measures, such as consuming Vitamin C and getting your flu shot. Practice general good hygiene to avoid picking up or spreading cold and flu germs.

There are many more healthy skin tips out there, so don’t stop here. During National Healthy Skin Month, take some time and investigate more ways to keep your skin looking and feeling its best!

We mustn’t forget that August is Psoriasis Awareness Month. As we close out the month, let’s take a closer look at this irritating, chronic condition. Psoriasis is more common than you might think. A recent national survey by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 6.7 million American adults suffer with the condition.

 

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease. It occurs when your protective immune system sends faulty signals to your skin. These signals tell the skin cells to grow at a faster rate than usual. Healthy skin sloughs off excess cells that hit the skin’s surface and die. But with psoriasis, skin cells multiply too rapidly, and dead cells pile up on the surface, causing thick patches to form.

These patches generally surround red skin and have loose, silvery scales on them. They most often appear on the elbows, knees, scalp, torso, palms and soles of the feet, but they can be found on other areas of the body as well. This is also known as plaque psoriasis.

For many people, psoriasis is embarrassing and unsightly, but it has some physical symptoms, too. In some cases, the scaly patches become itchy and painful. The skin may also crack and bleed. In addition, the patches may grow together and cover large areas of the skin.

Psoriasis in certain areas of the body may be mistaken for other conditions. When psoriasis affects the fingernails and toenails, you may notice small pits in the nails or yellowish-brown separations. Nail psoriasis is often misdiagnosed as a fungal infection. Psoriasis on the scalp can look like severe dandruff or a type of dermatitis.

People who have psoriasis experience cycles of remission and flare-ups throughout their lives. There are a number of factors that can lead to flare-ups, ranging from bacterial infections to injuries to emotional stressors. Nearly 80 percent of people with psoriasis report flare-ups after experiencing stress, such as a new job or a loved one’s death.

Certain medications, including ibuprofen, can also lead to flare-ups. Some people note a worsening of symptoms in the colder winter months.

Most of the time, psoriasis can be diagnosed from the physical examination and patient history alone. In cases where the psoriasis resembles an infection or another disorder, closer study of the tissue via a skin biopsy may be needed.

Treatment of psoriasis depends on the severity of symptoms. The goal is to control flare-ups and prevent infections that might develop due to the destruction of the skin’s normal protective barrier function. Treatment falls into three general categories: topical, systemic and phototherapy.

Topical treatments include topical steroids in various formulations and strengths; ointments containing salicylic acid, lactic acid and a form of Vitamin D; and a topical retinoid. Systemic treatments include medications such as methotrexate, acitretin, cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil.

Newer biologic injectable medications are now also available to treat psoriasis. These include Humira, Enbrel, Remicade and Stelara. Some of these can be self-administered and some must be administered through an IV by your physician or staff.

Phototherapy involves carefully monitored exposure of your skin to ultraviolet light. It can be used alone or in combination with a topical or systemic therapy. Phototherapy uses both UVA and UVB light, and the therapy is generally provided in a dermatologist’s office or a treatment center under close supervision.

Psoriasis is an irritating and often embarrassing condition. There is no cure, but it can be treated and generally kept under control. While this condition can look pretty bad when it flares, it’s not life threatening and not contagious. To get it, you must inherit the genes that trigger your immune system to send the faulty signals to your skin cells.

Research on psoriasis and additional treatments for it is ongoing. If you suffer from this disorder, consider joining a clinical trial of a new treatment. To find a clinical trial near you, visit ClinicalTrials.gov.