What Is Psoriasis?
Every person in the world wants to be healthy and have a great outlook but sometimes we faced with problems. On of such problems can be a common disease with tremendous name "psoriasis". So what is psoriasis?
After answering the question "what is psoriasis?" we can move to the next point. Where can you find it? Firstly you should pay attention to your knees and elbows. If you have those symptoms you have read about above you should quickly take your medical card and visit a doctor. But also you should remember that not only these areas (knees and elbows) can be affected by psoriasis. Often a person can find the psoriasis on his or her arms legs trunk nails or even scalp. But everybody should remember that this disease does not have a specific location on the body and can be found on any part of the skin.
What is psoriasis and how can it be transmitted to the other person?
First of all it is important to say that psoriasis is a noncontagious skin disease that is accompanied by red dry plaques of thickened skin. Some skin cells can proliferate very quickly and this can be caused by abnormal lymphocytes from the blood. In its turn this rapid proliferation is thought to be the reason of the dry flakes and skin scales.
So now you know that psoriasis is not an infection. This disease cannot be transmitted by touching. You can bravely touch the affected skin (if you have such a desire) and then touch somebody else with a normal skin (including yourself) and this will not be dangerous or you or the person you touch. But I want you to warn about splits in the skin. They can play a sad role because they raise the chances of the red scaly skin to become infected. You should always stay on the guard of your immune system because it plays one of the most important roles in psoriasis. This wonderful system in the organism of the person protects the body from psoriasis by making white blood cells.
The psoriasis cannot be transmitted from person to person by touching but parents can "leave in inheritance" this disease for their children. It is not a constant item in any family. In this case you family history will help you to make the right diagnosis.
I hope this article helped you in finding answers to several questions like "what is psoriasis?", "can I pass it on to my children?" and "is it contagious?"
What causes psoriasis?
Psoriasis is a skin disease that happens to 1-3 % of all population of the world. Medicine recognizes many types of psoriasis. The most spread variation of this skin problem is chronic plaque psoriasis.So, what causes psoriasis? There is no exact explanation of this disease’s formation. It is supposed that the cause of this illness is a combination of some factors that have big influence on its development.
The first reason of its development is a weak immune system.
If the immune system works normally white blood cells generate antibodies to such invaders as viruses and bacteria. They also produce the chemicals that help to cure the body and attack the viruses and bacteria. In the case of psoriasis the white blood cells become very active. As a result the organism faces the overproduction of these cells.
So the other factors what cause psoriasis? This is the list of the reasons that help in developing of this disease.
First of all this is stress. It usually causes this problem. Stress can increase the formation of psoriasis and the organism receives the chronic form of this illness.
Some medicine can also cause psoriasis. If you use a number of drugs for curing high blood pressure, heart diseases, malaria, bipolar disorder you may have psoriasis. But you must understand that reaction of some medicine is individual and some people can have milder or more severe symptoms of the illness.
A number of infections, for example, strep throat can also cause this disease.
If you drink too much alcohol the chances of psoriasis increase greatly especially for men. Some scientists think that alcohol might be harmful in any portion.
Skin damage can also be an answer to the question “what causes psoriasis”. Skin traumas like bruises, cuts, burns, tattoos etc can become a reason of this disease.
Despite it sounds strange but sunlight may also increase the symptoms of psoriasis, and if you spend too much time outside in the hot summer day sunburns can make the problem even worse.
Smokers have very big chances to get the chronic plaque psoriasis. The risk is bigger with the smokers then with those people who drink alcohol too much or have bad diet.
The hormonal changes also often lead to psoriasis. This disease frequently happens with women during the period of puberty and menopause. Pregnant women usually avoid such problems. Sometimes the symptoms of psoriasis may appear in the postpartum period.