What is psoriasis? Explanation of the psoriasis skin condition, including causes, symptoms and treatment. Psoriasis is a condition that is actually present in about 3% of the population. It appears as red...
Psoriasis is a condition that is actually present in about 3% of the population. It appears as red scaly plaques on the skin, and the basic change is that the skin cells are turning over very rapidly. So they don't have time to form the normal keratin layer, which is the outer layer of the skin. The cells are turning over so rapidly that they form an abnormal outer layer, and that's what you see as the red scaly area. We now know that this is due to an immunologic change in the skin. We are getting newer treatments available for this now that are aimed at altering that immunologic change in the skin.
It's a change in the immunologic control of the cells in the skin. These cells are turning over faster, and because they are dividing faster, they don't have time to form the normal outer layer of the skin. Normally the skin cells will divide and move up in the skin, and as they move up in the skin it takes it about 28 days to eventually form the outer layer of the skin, which has a protein in it called keratin. That is the smooth outer layer of our skin that you can see. If that outer layer of the skin becomes abnormal then we see it as dry scaling. In psoriasis the cells actually move up to the surface in about four days, which is seven times faster than normal. They don't have time to form the normal keratin, so we see an abnormal keratin, and it shows up as a scaly surface. The treatment is designed at altering the signals that are going to the cells that make them turn over faster. That's an immunologic control of the maturation of the skin cell.
