When you’ve got psoriasis and allergy symptoms, perhaps you’ve got questioned in case your allergy flares make your skin situation worse.
There is not any have to guess: Medical doctors and researchers have not discovered hyperlinks between the 2 issues. Right here, 4 consultants break down each circumstances and clarify what can set off them.
Completely different Causes
Though psoriasis and allergies each contain your immune system, the causes for them aren’t associated.
Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease. Which means your physique’s immune system wrongly assaults a few of its personal wholesome cells.
An allergy occurs when your immune system has a extreme response to one thing that most individuals haven’t got an issue with, like pollen, pet dander, or sure meals.
Some individuals confuse psoriasis for allergy symptoms earlier than they go to the physician, as a result of each circumstances may cause itchy, purple pores and skin.
“Lots of people are available considering they’ve allergic pores and skin issues and after I see them, they have psoriasis,” says Clifford Bassett, MD, an allergist and immunologist in New York Metropolis. “If you happen to suspect it is one factor, it could possibly be one thing else.”
So, get checked by a dermatologist in case your pores and skin itches or flakes, he says.
The Stress Issue
When you’ve got psoriasis, stress could also be partly in charge when the illness first seems and when it flares. Stress may make your allergy symptoms act up.
“While you’re having an allergic reaction, your physique is working arduous,” says Julie Pena, MD, a dermatologist in personal observe in Nashville. “It is attempting to combat one thing. When your physique goes by way of nerve-racking occasions, it alters the immune system. We all know that stress can cause psoriasis to flare, [even] the interior stress of what your physique goes by way of.”
Medication Might Have an Impression
Medical doctors have observed that the medication used to deal with allergy symptoms may cause psoriasis to get higher or worse, though it would not occur usually.
Generally medical doctors deal with allergy symptoms with steroids like prednisone, says San Diego-based dermatologist Jeffrey Benabio, MD. “We all know that when the prednisone stops, psoriasis can flare.”
The alternative can occur, too.
Some individuals’s psoriasis reportedly improves as soon as they get handled for his or her hay fever, says Abby S. Van Voorhees, MD, director of the Psoriasis and Phototherapy Remedy Middle on the Hospital of the College of Pennsylvania. “It is arduous to know, was that only a coincidence?”
Additionally, individuals who take psoriasis medication that flip down the immune system would possibly discover that they’ve fewer allergy symptoms, “however this is not confirmed,” Pena says.
Blowin’ within the Wind?
Some medical doctors say that individuals who have psoriasis and allergy symptoms typically might have flares of each at comparable occasions of the yr. However they let their sufferers know that the seasons or the climate, not the well being circumstances themselves, are in charge.
Winter temps or dry air would possibly make some individuals’s allergy symptoms worse, and that sort of climate could make psoriasis flare, too, Benabio says.
Tricks to Keep away from Flares
Psoriasis cannot make allergy symptoms worse and vice-versa. However you’ll be able to decrease your possibilities for a flare of both when you keep away from issues that affect each:
- Ease stress. It will probably affect each circumstances, Bassett says. Attempt to chill out or keep away from drama at dwelling or work.
- Handle itchy skin. Psoriasis can flare in locations the place your pores and skin is broken. When you’ve got hives or an allergic reaction and also you scratch that spot an excessive amount of, the harm your nails do could make your psoriasis worse. Attempt over-the-counter cortisone cream, or ask your physician to prescribe a stronger model.
