Psoriasis Causes and Symptoms

Psoriasis is a non-contagious chronic immune mediated disease that shows up in the form of abnormal skin growths that appear when the immune system sends out faulty signals that speed up the growth cycle of skin cells.psoriasis

Psoriasis causes are not fully understood, though it is known that there is a genetic component that results in this disease and it is also thought that environmental factors, physical trauma or injury, stress, drug reactions and other reactions can be responsible for the appearance or the triggering of this disease.

Psoriasis is what is known as an idiosyncratic disease, which tends to improve or deteriorate without any seeming reason.

The main psoriasis causes, which are thought to be responsible for this condition, are:

Fault in the epidermis

One view is that Psoriasis is a problem of the epidermis and its keratinocytes and is thought to be a disorder where a disorder in the skin causes excessive production and growth of skin cells.

Immune related problems

The other hypothesis about the way that psoriasis is caused is it isn’t just a malfunctioning and overproduction of the skin cells but chiefly caused by problems in the immune system.

The T cells in the body, whose function is typically to protect the system against infection, tend to move to the skin and create a situation where excessive skin cells are produced and in a way that inflammation also occurs.

When the immune cells move from the dermis to the epidermis, the keratinocytes are stimulated. The fact that psoriasis causes are immune related is also demonstrated by the fact that those with compromised immunity, such as those who have HIV or AIDS often demonstrate symptoms of psoriasis.

Certain kinds of skin are more susceptible

Though psoriasis causes may not be fully understood, it is seen that dry skin is more likely to have psoriasis than oily skin, or skin that is moisturized regularly. For this reason, those who have this skin condition shouldn’t use shower scrubs because they leave the skin drier and also cause tiny surface scratches on the skin.

Related to this psoriasis cause is the fact that certain climate or weather can exacerbate this skin condition – some find that the condition get worse in colder climate.

Trauma to the skin

Very often, a starch, cut or severe sunburn can be the start of psoriasis. 50% of those with psoriasis find that about a couple of weeks after such skin trauma, a psoriatic lesion may start to occur where the trauma was; something called the “Koebner’s phenomenon”.

Stress

Many a time the thing that brings on the first symptoms of this skin disorder is stress. Many sufferers find that stress can also trigger future breakouts.

Genetic predisposition

Psoriasis seems to be an inheritable condition in a very significant proportion of cases. If both parents suffer from psoriasis, an individual has a 30% chance of developing this skin affliction.

Medications

Some medications, such beta-blockers, anti malarials, non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs and so on are among the psoriasis causes that can result in the first outbreak or act as future triggers.