During the time in which I had psoriasis I trawled through the internet trying to find information on what it was and if other people had it trying to reassure myself I wasn't some freak, however I came back with limited findings. Therefore my hope with this series is to relate to other people out there who are struggling, as I for one know as a teenager once covered head to toe in psoriasis that it can impact your life in a very negative way, and potentially help someone, even if just a little bit :)
What is psoriasis?
Psoriasis is an immune condition, which causes symptoms on the skin which tend to come and go at different times. It affects around 2% of the population and can occur on any area of the body in small or large patches. It is not infectious and so cannot be 'caught'.
Everyone's skin is constantly renewing itself. The process normally takes around 28 days; when a person has psoriasis, however, this speeds up and typically takes around 4 days. This over-activity causes inflammation and scaling, forming raised 'plaques' on the skin.
This happens because particular immune cells are triggered and become overactive, acting as if they were fighting an infection or healing a wound. My doctor described it to me in the context of a factory machine. Imagine this machine became faulty and started to speed up, producing more and more items. However, the machine cannot keep up with this quantity being made and so the quality of each item worsens and the items just start to build up as there is no use for them.
Although there is not yet a cure for psoriasis there are many treatments which can be prescribed to help manage the condition and I will feature what prescriptions worked for me as part of this series as well as what I found by myself, confidence issues etc...
(Image from weheartit and specific psoriasis information from The Psoriasis Association and a hospital leaflet as I am no specialist!)
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