Psoriasis is a long-lasting, auto-immune skin disorder identified by patches on the skin surface. This skin disease induces the accelerated accretion of skin cells that causes peeling of your skin’s upper surface. These psoriatic scales are usually whitish-silver and grow in dense, red spots, and sometimes these patches will break and ooze.
While people can encounter psoriasis on any body part, this skin disorder highly affects the knees, face, elbows, back, scalp, feet, and palms. This auto-immune disorder goes away for some time but comes up again when triggered. Usually, psoriasis induces skin follicles to develop too quickly, ending in flaky, thick, and swollen patches of skin.
Even though this skin condition is not contagious, it can be a hereditary issue. In addition, psoriasis can affect a person when there is a slight irregularity in the immune system, which creates inflammation. Although the specific cause of psoriasis is still not identified, you can keep this disease in control by identifying the early signs of psoriasis and seeking timely medication without falling into the trap of any misconceptions.
What is Psoriasis?
Psoriasis is fundamentally an auto-immune disease, which generally begins with a disturbance of the human immune system. This is a non-contagious, chronic skin disorder that creates spots of hardened, rough skin.
Dry layers of silvery-white skin flakes are the outcome of an excessively accelerated growth of skin cells. Also, skin cell generation gets triggered by provocative elements generated by specialized white blood cells, also recognized as T-lymphocytes or T-cells. This skin disorder primarily affects these T-cells that act as a guard to protect the human body against infections and diseases.
The extent of this disorder varies from moderate with inadequate involvement of small skin patches to critical psoriasis with long, thick patches to sore red skin affecting the entire body. Psoriasis is usually an incurable, recurrent inflammatory skin disease that holds a mutable course, progressing and ultimately worsening.
Which Areas Are Commonly Affected by Psoriasis?
Psoriasis is the outcome of a sped-up skin generation process. Usually, skin cells develop deep in the epidermis and gradually spread to the surface, and ultimately peel off. The average life period of a skin cell is around one month.
However, in people diagnosed with psoriasis, this generation process occurs in a few days, and skin cells usually do not get time to fall off, leading to skin cell accumulation. While psoriasis can primarily affect any body part, this skin disorder affects joints such as elbows and knees.
Apart from this, psoriasis can affect the following body parts:
- feet
- hands
- neck
- scalp
- face
What Are the Causes of Psoriasis?
Even when the exact symptoms of psoriasis are still unknown, many healthcare experts believe it is an auto-immune disease.
In people with psoriasis, triggers can cause genes to direct the immune system to target the opposite cells. T cells react to a common trigger as if they were battling a contagion or treating a wound. They create chemicals that result in inflammation. In psoriasis, this auto-immune activity manifests as an excess increase of skin follicles.
Normally, it takes approximately 21-28 days for skin follicles to repair themselves. Nevertheless, in people diagnosed with psoriasis, they take roughly 2 to 6 days. While psoriasis triggers vary for different people, some of the typical causes of this persistent skin disorder are as follows:
- Stress and anxiety
- Regular alcohol consumption
- Smoking or vulnerability to passive smoking
- Skin injuries
- Cold, dry weather conditions
- Hormonal changes
Some of the medicines that trigger psoriasis are:
- Lithium
- Antimalarials
- Indomethacin
- Quinidine
- Hydroxychloroquine
What to Expect while Visiting a Doctor?
When you visit your healthcare expert for psoriasis treatment, the initial thing you can expect from your doctor is that they will initially ask you to undergo a psoriasis diagnosis.
Once you submit the diagnosis report, the doctor will examine the severity of your medical condition and then prescribe the appropriate treatment options for psoriasis.
Also, doctors usually opt for a physical examination or a biopsy to identify the stage and type of your psoriasis, find out the root cause of psoriasis, and suggest suitable medications.
What Are the Precautions to Follow?
Even though psoriasis is incurable, you can readily minimize its symptoms by following some precautions. Mentioned hereunder are some common precautions that can help ease and prevent psoriasis flare-ups:
- refrain from the consumption of alcohol
- consume a heart-healthy diet
- pick the right make-up product
- avoid trigger foods
- abstain from smoking extravagantly
- avoid taking stress
- keep your skin moisturized and follow proper skin care tips
- try aerobic activities as they can relieve stress
- refrain from hot showers as they can result in dry skin
- take timely vitamin supplements
What Are the Treatment Options for Psoriasis?
If you recently got diagnosed with psoriasis and are googling what does psoriasis look like when it starts and its medication, understand that several topical, oral, and injected medications are readily available to treat this medical disorder.
Some over-the-counter (OTC) medications can help in alleviating the symptoms of moderate psoriasis and, these involve:
- Coal tar: This medicine assists in treating plaque psoriasis, sores on the palms, scalp, and itching.
- Hydrocortisone creams: These creams can suppress soreness and relieve persistent itching.
Apart from this, if people get diagnosed with severe psoriases such as scalp psoriasis or joint psoriasis, doctors usually recommend phototherapy or topical treatments after identifying what causes scalp psoriasis or what factors triggers scalp psoriasis in a particular patient.
Some Important Things for Patients to Remember
If you are diagnosed with psoriasis, we understand that this problem can take a severe toll on your confidence. Mentioned hereunder are some crucial things for patients to remember when looking online for how to get rid of psoriasis.
- Try to lose some weight
- Consume a healthy diet
- Never skip your medications
- Take care of your mental health
- Consider taking your vital vitamin supplements
Conclusion
Patients diagnosed with psoriasis can often become self-conscious about their looks. This can likewise point to social withdrawal and despair. Only discussion and consultation with an expert dermatologist can make the condition better. If you are looking for an expert dermatologist to make your psoriasis better, Skin and Hair Academy can be your perfect partner.
