Millions of people suffer from psoriasis but few understand what it truly is and how it can be helped.
Psoriasis is a skin disorder where the skin develops reddened areas and patches that become thickened, most commonly on the knees, hands, elbows, genitals, feet and scalp. The red and thickened areas are usually covered by silvery or flaky scales. Pustules and shiny areas can also accompany the areas covered by psoriasis. When the white blood cells in the area become inflamed by overstimulation in the body, the skin reacts and becomes reddened and patchy. In some rare cases, psoriasis can spread to the joints of the body – resulting in an arthritic-like response. The cause of psoriasis is still unknown, but it is generally inherited.
Unfortunately psoriasis in not curable but there are some ways to treat and prevent it. Flare ups can be triggered by stress, dry skin, certain foods – especially alcohol-, and changes in climate. If you notice your psoriasis flares up with any of these triggers, perhaps a simple lifestyle change can help greatly. Some doctors may prescribe topical creams, but in a lot of cases – these cause the skin to become dry, which in turn can irritate and even spur on psoriasis growth. UV light treatment has shown to be effective in some cases when supervised by a doctor, but studies are continuing to be done on the long term effectiveness of this treatment.
Other methods that have shown to be effective are using herb and vitamin treatments to strengthen your immune system, therefore lessening the chance of inflammation and overstimulation in the body. Oral intake of small doses of Vitamin D has shown to help greatly reduce symptoms, and topically applied Vitamin D has shown fantastic results in halting the growth of the abnormal skin cells.
When treating or preventing psoriasis natural methods such as Vit D and lifestyle changes seem to have as good, if not better, results than chemical, doctor prescribed treatments, and have less side effects and can be used safely long term.