Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease characterized by long duration and a particular set of symptoms. These symptoms include raised areas of abnormal skin. Alongside this one will typically find red or purple discoloration. This can range from a small area of skin to complete coverage of one’s entire body. Additionally one will find specific causes or triggers which worsen these symptoms in people already diagnosed with psoriasis.
Most people find three specific psoriasis triggers especially worrisome:
1. Weather
Weather is one of the most overlooked triggers for psoriasis. This can be best understood by remembering the most common symptoms of psoriasis. The symptoms tend to involve one’s skin becoming dry, irritated and discolored. This is very similar to what people without psoriasis experience during the dry and cold winter months. When considering this one shouldn’t be surprised to find that the same cold weather can often act as a trigger for psoriasis symptoms.
Thankfully this can be prevented by carefully managing indoor environments during the winter. One should choose baths over showers in order to build up moisture in the skin. Moisturizing creams and ointments can help as well. Finally, a humidifier can raise the overall humidity in a room even in the midst of the driest winter day.
2. Stress
The connection between body and mind is more significant than many people realize. When people are stressed their brain releases a number of chemicals to help promote a fight or flight response. However, many of these chemicals also trigger an inflammatory response. This response, in turn, can trigger psoriasis symptoms.
Stress is harder to manage than direct physical issues. However, there are still measures one can take to prevent stress related flare-ups. Meditation, or even just forcing a moment of calm in tough situations, can prove immensely beneficial.
3. Infections, skin injury and severe sunburns
Directly working with the skin can make psoriasis symptoms better or worse depending on the context. For example, there’s some evidence that light sun exposure can improve symptoms and reduce flare-ups. However, too much sun will result in a sunburn. And this is an exceptionally significant risk factor for flare-ups. There’s also additional risk factors for a similar reason as with stress. Sunburns can cause inflammation in addition to direct UV based damage. The inflammation is itself a cause of flare-ups.
This might seem like significant risk from what might be seen as simple irritation. However, this can also be seen with direct injury to the skin. Even a small cut or graze to one’s skin can result in flare-ups. What makes this especially difficult to manage is the time delay. Minor skin injury can heal, and only show the flare-up much later. There can be as much as a ten to fourteen day delay with a minor scrape and a flare-up later on in the same location.
Skin infections are an issue for similar reasons to a scrape or cut. However, the infection itself might pose a separate risk from what it’s doing to the skin. For example, a recent study showed that people who suffer from psoriasis and who also have strep throat usually experience a flare-up. The reason seems to be that increased immune cells as a response to infection migrate to the skin where they contribute to inflammatory responses which trigger flare-ups.
