Psoriasis and stress - the missing link?

In our clinic, we do deep assessments to try and understand the cause of health issues. Psoriasis is no exception. What we’ve seen, frequently, is the recall by the patient of one particularly stressful incident before their psoriasis became an issue, and flare ups when stress is high.

Psoriasis is a condition whereby the life cycle of your skin cells accelerates, which causes a buildup of dead skin cells, and often a rash with itchy scales. It presents most commonly on the knees, elbows, torso and scalp.

Common trigger events are things like sudden illness, immune challenges such as strep infections, skin injury (e.g. burns), deeply traumatic experiences (e.g. car accident, loss of a loved one) and certain medications.

Psoriasis is an auto-immune disease, whereby your own immune system attacks normal tissue in the body. So how does stress impact the immune system, making it turn on your body? Neuroendocrine hormones are involved here, and stress triggers immune dysregulation, eventually leading to an auto-immune disorder. This happens via Cytokines (small proteins that are crucial in controlling the growth and activity of other immune system cells and blood cells e.g. interferon, interleukin and other growth factors).

However, “reduce your stress” is not something we say outright to our patients, as we like to get more specific than this, and take into account what is practical, achievable, and moreover going to have the most powerful effect. We may look at things like sleep, hormone balance, environment, work, relationships and more to help the immune system, and assess fatty acids and minereals (e.g. zinc) to help also.

Fatty acid status is particularly important, so taking one of our Omega tests will share an accurate insight into where these are at for you. Omegas are critical to the health of all cells, and not least of all skin cells.

Addressing the cause of this often debilitating condition is paramount, and we work hard to ensure that no stone is unturned in the understanding of this for our patients. We’re here to help.