Psoriasis is a skin disease that has a chronic course and is very difficult to treat. It looks very unaesthetic, can affect not only the skin, but also the nails and joints, significantly worsening the quality of life of a sick person.
How is psoriasis transmitted? What is a multifactorial disease?
The specific reason could not be found. The main role in the occurrence of psoriasis is played by a hereditary predisposition to it. Such a disease occurs most often in young people in whose family someone has skin manifestations of the disease. It is not the “psoriasis gene” itself that is inherited, but the “breakdown”, the body’s predisposition to abnormal division of skin cells .
Such a disease, which is also called “psoriasis I,” more often occurs at the age of 16-25, the probability of “getting it" if only the mother is sick - 8%, if the father is a little more (up to 14%), but if both parents are sick, then the "chance" increases significantly - up to 60%.
There is also “psoriasis II,” which appears more often in people over 40 years old. Stress, the frequent use of hard liquors, injuries to the skin and joints, and infectious diseases are called its causes.
Is psoriasis contagious ? What is psoriatic nail damage? Does it arise from the fact that a person combs his skin plaques?
Psoriasis is a consequence of the malfunctioning of the body, as a result of which skin cells divide much faster than normal, and do not have time to tear themselves away in time. This disease is not contagious. As a result, the so-called psoriatic plaques are formed, which over time become more and more, they merge with each other and itch. Combing a skin rash does not provoke
nail disease
. Nails can be involved in the process on their own, due to the same impaired cell division rate.
If it happened that in one family one person fell ill first, and then another, it means that the second had their own risk factors for this disease. And before blaming: “Now I also have psoriasis! What is this ?! ”, we need to remember whether the second person doesn’t like to drink, doesn’t he live in constant stress, does his next of kin get sick and is his work related to injuring the skin with physical and chemical means.
What does psoriasis look like, what is a psoriatic plaque?
Psoriasis is usually an element of a flat red rash that protrudes slightly above the surface of the skin. These spots are prone to fusion, covered with whitish scales, often appear at the site of skin injuries. This is psoriatic plaque. There are more such plaques in the winter, by the summer they usually disappear spontaneously.
If you take a clean glass slide and gently scrape the plaque, then at first it takes on the form of a stearin spot. If you scrape it further, the film will be visible, and if the plaque is completely cleaned off, there will remain a spot site of bleeding.
Psoriasis on the legs is usually located in the knees, on the hands - in the elbows. Plaques can appear on the head, and in the groin, and on the buttocks.
Psoriasis: treatments
It is not always immediately possible to choose for a person the treatment that will be optimal, often it is necessary to change the therapy more than once or twice, to combine its methods. The most effective at the moment is the use of ultraviolet radiation - PUVA therapy. Various ointments are also used, for example, Skin-cap cream, also Psorkutan, is considered very effective according to reviews. Hormonal ointments may be used .
Of the systemic drugs, drugs made from vitamin A derivatives, retinoids, are used. In rare cases, it makes sense to use hormonal pills or injections.