6. Lifestyle Changes
Making lifestyle changes can also help manage the symptoms and reduce flare-ups of the disease. One crucial lifestyle change is to avoid stress. Stress can trigger psoriasis flare-ups. Finding healthy ways to manage stress, such as exercise, meditation, or yoga, can help improve symptoms.
Being overweight can also trigger psoriasis flare-ups. So, maintaining a healthy weight through diet and exercise can also help reduce symptoms. Furthermore, certain factors, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and exposure to sunlight, can also worsen the symptoms. Hence, it’s best to avoid them as well.
5. Protective Clothing
Wearing protective clothing, such as long sleeves and pants, can help protect the skin from injury and prevent flare-ups caused by friction or abrasion. Loose, breathable clothing can help maintain skin moisture and prevent itching and cracking, which can lead to flare-ups. Hence, skin irritation can be avoided.
Furthermore, protective clothing can also help block harmful UV rays and prevent psoriasis flare-ups caused by sun exposure.
4. Topical Medications
Topical medications, such as retinoids, corticosteroids, and calcineurin inhibitors, can help reduce inflammation and improve skin health. Other topical medications, such as tazarotene and calcitriol, can help slow down skin cell production and improve the appearance of psoriasis plaques.
Topical medications, such as salicylic acid and coal tar, can help unclog skin pores and improve the scaling associated with psoriasis.
3. Light Therapy
Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light can help reduce inflammation and improve the appearance of psoriasis plaques. It can also help slow down skin cell production and improve the scaling associated with psoriasis.
It is also worth noting that UV light exposure can help increase the skin’s production of vitamin D, which can help improve overall skin health. Light therapy is usually performed in a dermatologist’s office and can involve exposure to natural sunlight, artificial UV light, or a combination of both.
2. Systemic Drugs
Systemic drugs for plaque psoriasis are medications that are taken orally or given by injection to treat psoriasis affecting the whole body. Some examples of systemic drugs for plaque psoriasis are methotrexate, apremilast, cyclosporine, and biological modifying agents.
Systemic drugs can help reduce inflammation and improve skin health. They can help suppress the immune system and reduce the activity of cells and chemicals that trigger psoriasis flare-ups. Furthermore, they can also help improve skin cell turnover and reduce the scaling associated with the disease.
1. Biologic Drugs
Biologic drugs work by targeting specific parts of the immune system that play a role in the development of psoriasis. These drugs work by blocking the action of specific proteins, called cytokines, that contribute to inflammation and skin cell overgrowth. (3)
By blocking the action of these cytokines, biologic drugs can help reduce inflammation and improve skin health in people with plaque psoriasis. They can also slow down skin cell production, improve skin cell turnover, and reduce the scaling associated with psoriasis.
Biologic drugs are usually reserved for people with moderate to severe psoriasis who have not responded to other treatments, such as topical medications and light therapy. They can also be used in combination with other treatments for more effective results.
These are plaque psoriasis symptoms and treatments worth knowing.