I am 42, female. How does psoriasis affect my immunity?

Question

Hello doctor,

I am really worried about my immune system. I have psoriasis, and I am scared of getting infections. My cousin told me it is an autoimmune disease and that maybe I am more vulnerable.

Last month, I got a weird skin infection that took forever to heal. I am a 42-year-old female and can not afford to get sick in my profession. Can you explain how psoriasis affects my immune system?

Should I be taking extra precautions? I am worried about my overall health and want to understand what I am dealing with.

Kindly help.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I understand your concern.

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease. An over-reactive immune system that creates inflammation in your skin causes psoriasis.

Your immune system is supposed to destroy foreign invaders, like bacteria, to keep you healthy and prevent you from getting sick. Instead, your immune system can mistake healthy cells for foreign invaders. As a result, your immune system creates inflammation or swelling, which you see on the surface of your skin as skin plaques.

It usually takes up to 30 days for new skin cells to grow and replace old skin cells. Your over-reactive immune system causes the timeline of new skin cell development to change to three to four days. The speed of new cells replacing old cells creates scales and frequent skin shedding on top of skin plaques.

Psoriasis runs in families. There may be a genetic component to psoriasis because biological parents may pass the condition down to their offspring. An outbreak of psoriasis, or a flare-up, causes symptoms of psoriasis as a result of contact with a trigger, which could be an irritant or an allergen. Psoriasis outbreaks differ from person to person. Common triggers for psoriasis flare-ups include:

Emotional stress.
An infection (streptococcal infection).
A skin injury, such as cuts, scrapes, or surgery.
Certain medications, such as lithium and beta-blockers.
Changes in body temperature due to the weather.

Psoriasis is not contagious. You can not get psoriasis by coming into contact with another person’s psoriasis skin rash.

I hope this helps.

Kindly follow up if you have more concerns.

Thank you.