Hello friends, today we are going to get acquainted with a common skin disease – psoriasis. Why is it common? It’s not because there are small advertisements for psoriasis plastered all over the walls of telephone poles and toilets that it’s common, but psoriasis does exist in real life around us. Many people suffer from psoriasis.
“Psoriasis is a common skin disease? Am I ignorant?” Perhaps the word “psoriasis” is too new to you, but I’m sure you’ve all heard of the name “psoriasis” at one time or another. Yes, that’s right, psoriasis is psoriasis.
Psoriasis is commonly known as psoriasis, but because in the medical theory, “ringworm” mainly refers to a class of diseases caused by fungal infections of the skin, and does not reflect the characteristics of psoriasis, so the name “psoriasis” has gradually been replaced.
What is psoriasis? Does it have anything to do with “psoriasis”?
Psoriasis is in fact a common chronic skin disease of unknown cause with its own unique characteristics of skin damage, and its characteristic damage is “silver flakes”. In psoriasis, the damaged parts of the skin appear as reddish papules or plaques covered with layers of silvery-white scales, which can be scraped off to reveal a translucent film and punctate hemorrhages, and white flakes often fall off after scratching, hence the name “psoriasis”. Although it is not as obvious as acne or alopecia areata, it is not empty talk to say that it is common. As early as 1984, the number of psoriasis patients in China exceeded 2.5 million in the National Psoriasis Epidemiologic Survey. Although it is included in the category of skin diseases, its power is much more than what we can see with the naked eye, not only make the patient’s skin seriously damaged, but also attack the patient’s organs, resulting in systemic damage, and because of its lingering course, easy to relapse, can not be cured, so it is included in the field of dermatology as one of the key research diseases.
How does “psoriasis” occur and is it the same thing as “dandruff”?
To understand this question, we need to understand the composition of the skin. The skin can be roughly divided into three parts, from the outside to the inside are the epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue. You can imagine an orange, a small orange from the center directly peeled, from the outside to the inside are sour orange peel, white orange complex and sweet and juicy orange flesh. The epidermis is equivalent to the orange peel, which plays a protective and defensive role; the dermis is like the orange skin, which contains tiny structures such as sebaceous glands, tactile vesicles, and erector spinae muscles; and the subcutaneous tissue is our orange flesh, which is where the muscles, small blood vessels, and nerve bundles are located.
The “psoriasis” is mainly related to the part represented by the orange peel. Our epidermis has the outermost stratum corneum and the innermost stratum basale, we can carefully observe the orange peel can be found, a little clean up the orange peel on the white orange complex, will reveal a full of particles of the beads, carefully peeled off the small beads, there is only a layer of the outside of the hard shell of the orange peel, the beads and the shell of the image of the skin on behalf of the stratum basale and the stratum corneum. Under normal circumstances, the orb provides a variety of nutrients to the orange shell, so that the orange shell to maintain a normal state, in time, the orange shell is damaged or due to normal metabolism and fall off, the orb part of the cell will gradually grow also called keratinization and replenishment to the orange shell part, which has reached a state of balance. In psoriasis, for some reasons, this equilibrium state is broken, large areas of orange shells in a hurry to fall off, and at this time, the beads have not had time to fully grow is the completion of the keratinization into the orange shells of the same, there is no way to replenish the missing part of the shells off the orange shells into the “white flakes”, and not well-grown beads is the “translucent film”, which is a “translucent film”. The ungrown orbs are the “translucent film” and “pitting bleeding”. But the production of dandruff is mainly related to chaffersporella, chaffersporella exists only in the dead cells of the scalp, under normal circumstances, the natural metabolism of dandruff is not easy to be detected, while chaffersporella should be normal shedding of orange shells are still piled up on the surface of oranges, the more more heaps of snowflake dandruff is also produced. This shows that “psoriasis” and “dandruff” are still fundamentally different.
In fact, so far, the pathogenesis of psoriasis is not clear, and scientists have only provided focused speculation, such as: genetic inheritance, infection with microbial metabolites, cellular immune dysfunction, mental and psychological stress events, negative emotions disrupt the metabolic balance of the body, hormonal changes, trauma or surgery and low blood selenium values. Although the cause of the disease is not well understood, it is not an ineffective preventive measure if the factors that trigger and aggravate psoriasis are controlled. The first is climate, with a high incidence in areas with low average temperatures and a low incidence in areas with high average temperatures.
From the psoriasis patient’s individual course of the disease, if there is no interference of treatment drugs, the vast majority of the winter skin is dry and itchy, lesions aggravated, easy to have a new rash issued; summer skin sweating and moisturizing, rash thinning and fading, or even all subside. So in the north of the dry weather partners should strengthen moisturizing. In addition is light, winter day is short and night is long, daylight irradiation time is short, is not conducive to skin lesions subside. Cold and dry stimulation, easy to cause upper respiratory tract infection and induce or aggravate psoriasis. There is another important factor that we often do is also aggravate psoriasis, that is, staying up late, because staying up late breaks the normal biological clock, which has multiple hazards to the human body. From 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. the next day is the resting time of the body’s immune function. Chinese medicine believes that this is the time when the body’s meridians run to the gallbladder and the liver, and if these two organs don’t get enough rest, it will affect the health of the skin. Psoriasis patients need to ensure adequate sleep and try not to stay up late. There is also drinking and smoking, which is also a clichéd topic, in the end, how many times do I have to say in order to make people extinguish the smoke in their hands? Smoking is very unfavorable to psoriasis, whether healthy or already suffering from the disease friends should quit smoking, and avoid passive smoking. Alcoholism, especially strong alcohol can directly dilate blood vessels and increase vascular permeability, which leads to proliferation of epidermal cells through a number of listed reactions. Therefore, psoriasis patients are advised not to drink alcohol, and those with normal skin should not abuse alcohol.
For the treatment of psoriasis, the main thing is to formulate a complete joint treatment plan under the guidance of medical professionals, so as to control the development of the disease, slow down the development of skin lesions to the whole body, reduce the symptoms of erythema, scales and thickening of local plaques, stabilize the condition, avoid recurrence, try to avoid the side effects, and improve the quality of life. Therefore, once friends are diagnosed, they should not take medication without authorization or gullible prescriptions, and don’t believe in those small advertisements, but go to regular hospitals for treatment in time.
While fully cooperating with the treatment, we also need to not let down our guard, there are some precautions in daily life. First of all, diet, psoriasis friends should avoid alcohol, avoid seafood, avoid spicy, light-based, do not eat food that causes allergic reactions, such as mutton, seafood and so on. Choose high protein, low fat diet, more beans, coarse grains, vitamin-rich foods such as fresh vegetables and fruits. There are individual friends after consuming a certain food to make the condition worse, which is mostly related to the allergic reaction caused by the differences in the body, it should be avoided accordingly. Some people advocate that general food can be eaten, just what food allergies on what to avoid, can not be generalized, but to ensure that dietary hygiene, prevention of enteritis and other diseases.
It is worth noting that hemolytic streptococcal infection is a predisposing factor for psoriasis, and colds, tonsillitis and pharyngitis should be avoided as much as possible. Once occurred should be actively symptomatic treatment, so as not to aggravate psoriasis. In daily medication, anti-malarial drugs and beta-blockers can induce or aggravate the condition. Meanwhile, endocrine changes and pregnancy can also induce psoriasis and make it worse.
When we suffer from psoriasis, we should also ensure that the living environment is dry and ventilated, and it should be easy to take a bath. It is advisable to use warm water to take a bath, and prohibit the use of strong alkaline soap and shampoo to take a bath. When washing the affected area, the action should be gentle, do not forcefully peel off the skin lesions, so as not to cause local infection, affecting the treatment and prolonging the course of the disease. Take care of the skin and scalp. Apply moisturizing creams frequently to keep the skin moist. A thick, oil-based moisturizer that locks in moisture under the skin is the best choice. Moisturizing lotion can also be used to remove scales. You can bathe regularly with a soothing body wash such as with a tar body wash. And wear clean, soft clothes and change underwear and bed linens regularly to prevent skin infections. People with pustular psoriasis should not rub the skin lesions to prevent erosion and secondary infections.
In summer, you can expose the area with lesions to sunlight more often, but not too strongly to avoid burning the skin. In the dry and cold season, it is best to use a humidifier to raise the humidity in the house to avoid trauma and infection, and to prevent scratching and strong stimulation, so as not to produce new skin lesions. Try to avoid mosquito bites. Do not use acupuncture treatment and tattoos.
After psoriasis is temporarily cured, its immune function, microcirculation and metabolism are still not completely back to normal, and it usually takes 2~3 months to recover. Therefore, after clinical healing, i.e., after the appearance of skin lesions completely subside, you should continue to take 2~3 courses of medication to consolidate, so that the toxins can be cleared more thoroughly and the recurrence can be minimized. To eliminate mental stress factors, avoid excessive fatigue, pay attention to rest. People and diseases are like people and beasts, you are not afraid of it, it may not go to hurt you; the more you are afraid of it, the more powerful it attacks you. Adjust your mindset, even if cancer has the possibility of healing itself, psoriasis will also have the hope of healing!
