2009-06-10T15:35:00.001-07:00

Psoriasis facts

2008-12-09T00:30:00.000-08:00

Psoriasis is a non-contagious, persistent and long-lasting skin disorder. Psoriasis is characterized by episodes of aggravation and improving.

Normally, our skin regenerates approximately every month. In that period new cells move from the lowest skin layer to the upper layer, where they peel. In a patient who has psoriasis this process lasts only few days which cause damaging of the skin. Cause of this disease is unknown. Last medical researches point to abnormality of blood white cells functions. That activates inflaming skin reaction, which causes rapid withering and loosing of skin cells. Psoriasis can also be caused by infection, drugs, low immunity, loss of vitamins, mechanical injury...

If it is ignored, or if it appears in very young children or old people, psoriasis may affect overall human health. When a patient get it, psoriasis will not spread on other parts of a body and it can't be transferred by personal contact with other people. Locations that psoriasis attacks are scalp, genitals, face, arms, hands, feet and nails. Main characteristic of psoriasis are its cycles. Patient's skin can be "healthy" for weeks or months, but psoriasis will persistently appear again. Psoriasis is connected with family history (60-70 percent), but, it must be highlighted, a patient can inherit just a predisposition to psoriasis, not the particular type.

Although it maybe didn’t look like that, psoriasis is a very common disease. In the USA and Europe 1 - 2 percent of population suffer from psoriasis, while it is rare in Japan. Because of that scientists connect psoriasis with climate, social and economic factors. There are few types of psoriasis. They are different by lasting, localization, shape and affected area.

The most common form of psoriasis is plaque psoriasis. Its characteristics are red, white-silver skin changes. It can appear anywhere on a body including genitals or even inside patient's mouth. Plague psoriasis is caused by dry skin and because of that patient's joints may crack and bleed.

Psoriasis guttate usually attacks children and adolescents. It usually appears after infection of respiratory system. Skin changes are in form of small, water-drop shaped sores that attack trunk, legs, arms and scalp. Guttate psoriasis usually withdraws by itself after some time.

Inverse psoriasis appears under armpits, on groin and in ablauts of the skin. Because of that, a patient who has this type of psoriasis suffers from frequent skin inflammations, worsened by sweating and friction. It is more common in overweight people. Smooth patches of red, inflamed skin are main characteristic of inverse psoriasis.

Pustular psoriasis manifests with white bubbles filled with pus. Pustular psoriasis develops very quickly and attacks patient's hands, feet or fingertips, and it can occur in widespread patches. The patient can suffer from fever, weight loss, fatigue and severe itching.

Erythrodermic psoriasis is characterized by intensive red, peeling rash, that covers huge parts of the skin or whole body. General status of such patient is worsened by sizeable loss of fluid, proteins and body heat. Erythrodermic psoriasis appears in 1 - 2 percent of patients with psoriasis. It is one of the worst forms of psoriasis because of higher temperature and severe itching.

Arthritis follows psoriasis in 5 percent of cases. Psoriatic arthritis is characterized by pain, stiffness in joints caught with psoriasis, and pitted discoloured nails. Symptoms of psoriatic arthritis range from mild to severe. This type of psoriasis may lead to permanent deformation.

Those few types are the basic types of psoriasis. Every type of psoriasis demands constant medical attention and if patient follows dermatologist's orders disease can be controlled. If that is not the case, a long and exhausting battle follows.

Although psoriasis is not contagious, it may cause deep depression and loss of self-esteem. A patient can help itself by avoiding stress situations and by keeping skin clean to avoid secondary infections. It is also important to avoid rough skin scrubbing; that may irritate sensitive patient's skin. Infections of respiratory system or some other infection need to be treated immediately.

There are a lot of medical treatments that are going to be described later. By now lets say that medicinal plants extracts can be very valuable in the control of many cases.

A highly effective mix of herb extracts is offered by Doctor Green 2008.

Psoriasis and medicinal plants

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Psoriasis facts