Healthy Live Everyday

Psoriasis

A tenacious, recurring, unsightly disease affecting approximately 5 to 7 percent of the population in the United States, psoriasis involves mostly adults between the ages of twenty and fifty. Despite intensive research, the cause of this disease remains unknown. The few good things that can be said about it is that it is neither a threat to life and health nor contagious; but it remains, however, a very distressing ailment because of its unsightliness and discomfort.

The Danger: Psychologically only, except for occasionally associated arthritis.

Symptoms: Psoriasis first appears as small dull red patches (rash) covered with dry, silvery, or asbestos-like scales. The definitive symptom is a tiny bleeding point under a scale. The areas most affected are around the elbows, knees, low back, ears, and scalp. The small patches tend to coalesce into larger ones. The lesions heal without scarring. There may be itching. Fingernails are often affected. The nails may be split, cracked, discolored, pitted, and separated from the bed.

Treatment: Psoriasis is controllable but not curable. Remissions, which may last from weeks to months to years, occur about 20 percent of the time. More than half the remissions occur in the summer, generally a good period for this disease.  Although no specific treatment is available, a large number of different procedures are employed. The most consistently beneficial treatment, more than any other, is full body exposure to sunlight. Such topical measures as steroid creams and coal tar derivatives are often effective.

Recently medications derived from drugs used in cancer therapy (antimetabolites) have been administered internally but are dangerous except in very expert hands. Steroids taken internally are usually contraindicated because of their frequently dangerous side effects.

Psoriasis is an erratic disease that responds and behaves differently with different individuals-a medication that will help one patient will do very little for another.

Outlook: Modern methods of treatment have somewhat improved the outlook for psoriatic patients. Many patients have spontaneous remission, which may last for a prolonged period of time even after the disease has had many years of duration.

The human skin, the largest body organ, covers and protects the tissues, organs, and bones and acts as well as a thermostat, a waste disposal unit, a defensive wall against invasion, and a storehouse for fats, sugar, and salt.
As the skin most often absorbs the first blows from the outside world, it is, therefore, subject to many disorders. It often acts as a barometer, indicating the age of the body, and to the keen eye, its state of health. Additionally, it is often the first part of the body to manifest systemic disease occurring elsewhere.

Skin Diseases, General

ACNE
(common acne, acne vulgaris)

Although no one suffering from acne dies or is often hospitalized, it is not a minor disease, for it can be not only disfiguring, but also embittering, altering the personalities of many sensitive young people. Acne affects more than $0 percent of all teenagers in varying degrees of severity, striking hardest at those who have the misfortune of inheriting an oily skin.

The basic cause is a step-up in the production of androgen (male) and estrogen (female) in maturing teenagers. The increased production of these hormones stimulates the sebaceous glands of the skin to produce an oversupply of sebum, an oily substance that keeps the skin normally pliable and healthy. The sebum plus other biochemical factors clogs up the pores, resulting in blackheads and whiteheads (a blackhead is not dirt but the result of oxidation of the skin and oil). Acne has no relation to sexual indulgence or lack of it; nor will sexual intercourse cure this disorder.
Although not as deeply implicated as once thought, such foods as chocolate, nuts, milk, and so on are still a factor in a majority of cases, For girls, menstruation can be an aggravating factor.

The Danger: Besides the possibility of scarring and pitting, severe acne can cause psychological problems, affecting social development.

Symptoms: The lesions appear on the face, neck, shoulders, upper chest, and back, presenting a crop of pimples, blackheads, and whiteheads ranging in size from pinhead to a small pea. Some lesions develop into abscesses and cystic masses, which hang on for a month or more until they finally rupture and heal, leaving scars and pittings. The skin becomes flabby, without tone, and remains oily.