Most people know psoriasis as a skin disease, one that causes itchy and painful plaques on the surface of the skin.
Researchers have found that the problems with psoriasis are more than skin deep, and that having psoriasis may increase your risk of having diabetes, hypertension and also cardiovascular diseases.
In the study, women who were diagnosed with psoriasis were 63 percent more likely to go on to develop diabetes, and 17 percent more likely to go on to develop high blood pressure.
Neither weight, age, nor whether or not the women smoked appeared to make any difference, although all are factors that have been thought to influence rates of both high blood pressure and diabetes.
More research is required as only white women were included in the study; men and women of all ethnicities will need to be included in further studies to provide results more applicable to the general population.
Researchers believe that the increased rates of diabetes and hypertension among these women were due to psoriasis; it is a disease of chronic inflammation.
About 7.5 million people suffer from psoriasis in the United States. Complications of psoriasis include arthritis and depression. There is no cure for psoriasis ;psoriasis treatment focus on controlling the disease.
