Having arthritis is not a pleasant experience, nor is having psoriasis. Unfortunately, it has been found that there is a connection between arthritis and psoriasis. In order to understand the connection, we need to first examine each one individually.
What is Arthritis?
Arthritis is actually commonly misunderstood by most people. In fact, most people believe that arthritis pertains to only one type of medical condition. This is not accurate. Arthritis is actually a term used which can describe more than 100 different medical conditions. Arthritis afflicts 46 million adults and approximately 300,000 children across North America alone.
People who suffer from arthritis commonly suffer from systematic arthritis. This means that their entire body is affected by the joint pain. Most people believe that arthritis is strictly limited to just a certain part of the body. However, if you have arthritis, chances are good that your whole body has joint pain. As a matter of fact, systematic arthritis goes beyond just joint stiffness and pain.
An attribute of a systematic disease, arthritis specifically, is that the disease not only affects the joints it also affects our organs and systems. Believe it or not, arthritis can actually cause problems for our heart, lungs, blood vessels, and kidneys to name a few. In fact, arthritis can even affect our skin. This is where the link to psoriasis comes from.
What is Psoriasis?
Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition often resulting in a red, scaly rash located over the surfaces of the elbows, knees, scalp, and around or in the ears, navel, genitals or buttocks. Approximately 10-15% of patients with psoriasis develop joint inflammation (psoriatic arthritis). Nail changes are also common, and psoriasis can also even cause hair loss. Psoriasis is thought to be an autoimmune condition.
In regards to the correlation between arthritis and psoriasis, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration. It is also important for you to know that one condition can bring on the other condition. Therefore, if you suffer from arthritis or psoriasis individually you need to see your physician immediately. They will be able to help diagnose you and prescribe a treatment for you. By seeing your physician you may be able to stop psoriasis from turning into arthritis or vice versa.
The matter of arthritis and psoriasis is an incredibly important one that must be taken into the most serious consideration, and since arthritis and psoriasis are so closely correlated, you may not even recognize the symptoms of one or the other before it is too late.
Thus, it is important to get regular checkups so that hopefully your physician will notice the signs and symptoms of either and then appropriately tell you the proper treatment in accordance to your specific diagnosis.
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