Stress is when our body or nervous system is in a distress resulting from different unfavorable factors, such as any kind of a mental trauma, physical trauma, bad news, feeling cold or being hungry, etc.).

Human’s nervous system is directly connected with the activity of the human’s brain. The brain is a very important organ, which maintains control over numerous functions of the human body, brain controls the emotions and the intellect. Emotions express the individual attitude of a person toward all sorts of experiences, including the sad and the happy.

When human being experiences negative emotions, our body starts to experience various chemicals, for example, the amount of adrenaline levels in the blood may start to rise, when we feel fear or anger.

Such emotions used to appear in people for many millennia, at the time of a real danger. Wise mother-nature supplied us with strong protective reactions. Increasing adrenaline in the body immediately leads to the increased blood coagulation, as well as it starts to contract the blood vessels. Such reactions were vital for our remote ancestors, to lessen the blood loss with injuries, to come to be more alert at the time of threat, and so on.

The 20th century brought major changes to such situations. Nowadays, a person would hardly ever “fight or flight” in any kind of a negative situation, unless it was life threatening. Instead, people do their best to look calm within the negative event, only to afterward think that event repeatedly.

The socially accepted behavior has gone through changes, but our genetic makeup practically did not change. Stress still makes our bodies to excrete adrenalin into the blood.

However, the excessive blood adrenaline isn’t being used up alongside the “fight or flight” reaction. Adrenalin stays in the blood and starts deteriorating internal organs of a human. This eventually leads to various disorders of the internal organs (e.g., kidneys, liver, intestines, and so on), and also it leads to the nervous system disorders.

Stress eventually triggers the pathologic psoriasis mechanisms, and that’s the nature of stress-psoriasis interconnection. Thus, learning to manage your stress is essential for effective psoriasis management.

Honestly, though we hear a lot of claims and success stories regarding successful diet-based treatment of Psoriasis, the fact remains that very minimal scientific researches have been done to substantiate those claims. The challenge is in alienating a psoriasis diet amongst the various factors responsible for occurrence as well as the cure of psoriasis. Yet it may be beneficial, from a statistical point of view, to know what  diet can alleviate or aggravate the skins’ diseased condition.

Psoriasis – as we know it – is the raised, red patchy, and lesion covered state of the skin. Statistically, 2% or 3% of world population (approximately 125 million people) suffer from this non-contagious condition. Over 7.5 million people in America are affected. Psoriasis diet is not the only approach to treating this condition but it is not harmful to try it out as long as it does not affect the overall well being of the body. Apart from genetics being the reason, it may also be caused owing to metabolic disorder.

Therefore, many dermatologists begin by prescribing psoriasis diet to help cleanse the overall body. They also suggest weight-loss as weight gain flares up psoriasis.

In the core diet, dietitians suggest to avoid acidic and gluten-producing foods like caffeine, coke, sugar, white flour, and alcohol as they worsen the situation. And they ask to increase the intake of water and fiber items like leafy vegetables, carrots, beet, and cucumbers serve well as psoriasis diet. Similarly psoriasis diet comprising of raw vegetables, lettuce, sprouts, and coconut milk do well to improve the itchy skin condition. As a rule of thumb, any food item that is difficult to be digested by the body – like butter, red meat, eggs – should be avoided. Also, Gluten free diet helps to improve the condition. Hence, food items like pasta, beer, barley, and white flour items should be avoided. Needless to say, this demands a high degree of self-discipline and radical change in the patients lifestyle.

‘Supplementary diet items’, as psoriasis diet items, have varying results. Supplementary items include essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals, proteins, and herbal supplements. Fish oil usage has demonstrated mild to moderate improvement in the ailing condition. Shark cartilage has anti-inflammatory attributes and has shown positive results in treating psoriasis but comes with nausea and rashes.

Turmeric, doctor prescribed multi-vitamin tablets and zinc-based tablets also work towards improving psoriasis. With psoriasis, the levels of vitamin B, C and E drop low and therefore Granular Lecithin is important part of psoriasis diet.

Finally, it should be realized that there is nothing is magic psoriasis diet or one food item that cures psoriasis. Dermatologist will suggest different food items to different patients based on their body condition, history, food allergies, and other factors. Psoriasis diet just reinforces meaning of well balanced diet in life.

Psoriasis is a significant problem for dermatologists in the US. Over 7 million people suffer from this chronic skin condition and it affects both women and men of all ages.

Recent research indicates that Psoriasis may be caused by liver dysfunction and may also be related to immune system functions. Generally patches of inflamed red skin called plaques characterize symptoms. While these are the most visible symptoms Psoriasis causes significant discomfort due to pain, itching, limited joint mobility and depending on the affected area, it may also cause emotional distress.

Human blood contains T-cells, which normally protect the body against disease. Research indicates that in Psoriasis victims these T-cells are over-active and become responsible for excessive skin cell reproduction resulting in the plaques.

Symptomatic treatment of this disease results in destroying the excessive skin production caused by malfunctioning T-Cells. This is done by use of Ultra Violet light, which can destroy these excessive growths. The process of destroying these skin cells is called Apoptosis and is included by many doctors as a treatment option.

Many alternative therapies are also available and widely publicized. These include the use of Dead Sea salts and soaps with high salt content to purging liver treatments. None of these have been proven conclusively effective in removing the symptoms entirely. Because of the chronic nature of this condition and its often painful symptoms, patients often tire of non medical intervention and seek help from doctors.

Phototherapy treatments for Psoriasis can be done using UVB and UVA light. For most mild to moderate cases doctors generally elect to use UVB Narrow Band Spectrum treatments. Current knowledge of these treatments suggests that these Narrow Band UVB (NBUVB) treatments have better results than Broad Band treatment options.

When UVA light is used, doctors include topical and oral administration of a drug called Psoralen. This drug improves skin sensitivity to UVA light and improves the effectiveness of the treatments. While the disease may not be entirely curable, such treatments provide significant symptomatic relief to patients suffering from Psoriasis.

Psoriasis appears as raised, red patches or lesions covered with dead skin cells on the skin. Scalp psoriasis can be mild, with fine scaling or thick with crusted plaques, covering the entire scalp. The areas of the skin grow very rapidly and form red, scaling patches. Patients experience severe itchiness, a feeling of tightness and soreness, accompanied by hair loss. Scalp psoriasis is a common form of psoriasis affecting over 50% of patients.

Treatments for scalp psoriasis are generally temporarily effective and continued over a long period. Moderate exposure of the scalp to sunlight and regular washing of the head helps reduce the spread of the condition. Certain shampoo treatments control the spread of psoriasis. Other treatments prescribed by doctors include coal tar, dithranol, salicylic acid, cortico-steroids and Vitamin D derivatives.

The correct method of application of the treatment is important. The hair is parted into sections and the medication is rubbed into the exposed area. It is necessary to comb and brush the hair regularly in order to remove scaling. Shampooing with a coal tar based shampoo followed by a cortisone lotion rubbed into the scalp is recommended. A frequent break in the regimen ensures that the psoriasis does not become resistant to treatment.

Topical medications like corticosteriods are effective against scalp psoriasis. They are available in solutions, gels, creams, lotions and ointments. A two-week cycle of treatment is commonly recommended for strong steroids.

In cases of mild scalp psoriasis, doctors inject the scalp lesions with steroid medications. The medication is absorbed into the system and is therefore sparingly used.

Systemic medications or prescription medications are administered to patients with moderate to severe scalp psoriasis. Biologic drugs that are made from living human or animal proteins block or eliminate various immune system cells involved in scalp psoriasis.

Since psoriasis is known to be a waxing and waning condition, it usually subsides with regular treatment. It is unusual for anyone to suffer extensive scalp psoriasis for a long time, especially if they seek medical help and use treatments as directed. Any medical regimen for psoriasis needs to be closely supervised by a dermatologist.

Is Psoriasis Contagious?

Whether you’ve developed psoriasis yourself or you know someone who has, one of the first questions to cross your mind is probably: “Is psoriasis contagious?”. And the answer, thankfully, is no.

Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition that many people suffer from all their lives. In fact, it’s estimated that four to seven million Americans are diagnosed with psoriasis each year. Psoriasis is not contagious though, because it’s believed to be a problem created from your body’s own immune system.

When the human body is functioning normally, it produces new skin cells gradually. The skin cells on the surface of your skin need about thirty days to die off and shed themselves. During that time, new skin cells are being created deep below the surface of your skin, and these new cells gradually rise to the surface over the thirty day time period, arriving just in time to replace those that are ready to shed.

With psoriasis however, your body’s immune system is reacting to some sort of trigger. Commonly known triggers include getting a severe illness or infection, such as strep throat, or going through an extremely stressful period in life. Your body starts pushing the new skin cells to the surface much more rapidly than normal. In fact, the new skin cells reach the surface in just a few days, instead of taking about a month as they normally would. With these new skin cells rising so rapidly, the existing surface skin cells have not had time to die off and shed themselves. So you end up getting a “pile up” which tends to manifest itself in the form of dry, white, flaky areas known as psoriasis.

And since psoriasis is caused by something in your own immune system, you cannot pass the condition on to others. Thus psoriasis itself is not contagious.

Now if you develop psoriasis due to one of the common triggers such as a severe illness or infection, that illness or infection can of course be passed on to others. But not everyone develops psoriasis when a contagious disease or illness is caught, so the psoriasis itself is not contagious, but the underlying factors which cause you to develop psoriasis could be.

Even though psoriasis is not contagious, you are probably looking for a way to cure the problem. Some people have severe cases of psoriasis, and this can be quite uncomfortable… at times even debilitating. Most doctors and scientists feel that psoriasis cannot be cured, but they do have medications and treatments which will help relieve some of the most common and problematic symptoms.

Herbal medicine specialists however, believe that you can greatly reduce the severity and frequency of psoriasis flare ups, and some believe you can cure the problem completely.

Common alternative remedies for treating psoriasis usually involve treating the internal problems within your body. You can reduce the inflammation and itching with external applications of herbs such as aloe vera, but to actually reduce or eliminate the psoriasis itself, herbalists feel you need to cleanse and detoxify your body. This process is achieved through various diet changes, getting additional vitamins and minerals into your system, and cleaning out the liver, colon, and digestive tract to remove built up toxins and waste.

Note: Statements in this article are not approved by the FDA, and should not be considered as professional medical advice.