Pustular Psoriasis Facts and Treatment

Author: Alien

Pustular psoriasis is an uncommon form of psoriasis. Psoriasis is a common skin disease that affects the life cycle of skin cells. Generalised pustular psoriasis is a rare form of psoriasis, which presents as widespread pustules on a background of red and tender skin. Pustular psoriasis is uncommon in the United States. Pustular psoriasis affects all races. The average age of those affected is 50 but the range is wide and rarely it can affect children. Generalized pustular psoriasis is often triggered by stopping topical or oral steroids. Oral steroids in psoriasis patients are actually dangerous. They do clear up the psoriasis while the patient is taking them, but after the patient stops, the psoriasis often comes back even worse.

People with pustular psoriasis have clearly defined, raised bumps on the skin that are filled with pus (pustules). The skin under and around these bumps is red. Large portions of your skin may redden.

Causes

As with other types of psoriasis, infections or stress may be a trigger factor in PPP. A strong association with smoking has also been identified, the mechanism of which is uncertain but may be linked to the products of smoking encouraging the inflammatory cells to accumulate in the epidermis (the top layer of the skin).

Around 6 per cent of the people who have psoriasis also get psoriatic arthritis in the joints. Psoriatic arthritis primarily occurs in fingers and toes, but is also quite common in the back bone.

Signs and symptoms

Initially the skin becomes dry, fiery red and tender. The patient may also have a fever, chills, headache, rapid pulse rate, and loss of appetite, nausea and muscle weakness. Within hours 2-3 mm pustules filled with non-infected pus appear on parts of the body especially the flexures and genital areas.

Pustular Psoriasis Treatment

As with all types of psoriasis, there is no cure for pustular psoriasis. There are, however, a number of treatments aimed at controlling the symptoms.

Topical medications are available over the counter and by prescription. Over-the-counter medications are designed for use on thick, scaly skin, not for use on blistering psoriasis. Prescription ointments may be used on blisters. They should be used with care because they may cause skin irritation and inflammation.

Phototherapy (ultraviolet B, UVB) and photochemotherapy (psoralent ultraviolet A, PUVA) are both used for widespread psoriasis. Many patients find that natural sunlight also helps.

Oral treatment with immunosuppressants such as ciclosporin (Neoral), or methotrexate (eg Maxtrex) or the vitamin A derivative acitretin (Neotigason) may be used for patients with severe, widespread or unresponsive psoriasis.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/pustular-psoriasis-facts-and-treatment-283422.html

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Are You Fed Up With Those Flakes Of Dandruff?

There is probably a strong guarantee that when you switch on the TV or lift up a magazine you can expect to see an advert for dandruff. And funnily enough all the companies that are advertising their product will claim that it is the solution that you have been waiting for.

You may be fortunate enough not be suffering from dandruff and when you do see white flakes on the shoulders of a sufferer then you might think that that person does not take care of themselves at all.

Now there are numerous products available for dandruff, some a medicated and some are just your everyday run of the mill products. But if you are currently suffering from dandruff then you need to be assured that your condition is not caused by you not taking care of your appearance or having a lack of personal hygiene at all.

Dandruff is not rare and it does not affect the few, it affects the many and there will be a great many people who will claim that they have experienced dandruff at some point in their lives. All dandruff is dry skin and no more.

It sheds itself from the scalp and falls on to the shoulders. But sometimes it can be a little more serious such as a fungal infection or even psoriasis of the scalp. It would be best to pay a visit to your doctor to get a correct diagnosis.

As mentioned dandruff is just dry skin from the scalp that is shedding itself, and dandruff generally appears because the skin on the scalp is being removed faster than normal.

Having said this, the rest of the body is also removing and renewing skin cells at the time too, so why do you not see skin cells from your hands flaking off? One of the possible reasons is that the skin on the scalp is generally exposed to a variety of elements such as the wind, rain and sun.

So the skin on the scalp is already actually dead skin. If this was not renewed at a frequent pace then the scalp would become very thick and this could lead to other problems such as poor hair growth. It is this rapid renewal of skin cells on the scalp that is known as dandruff.

A lot of people think that the reason skin sheds itself from the skin is because the skin is too dry. There is some element of truth behind this but then again there are people who have very oily hair and they too suffer from dandruff. It can often be worse if you have oily hair and the oil literally sticks to the scalp and large clogs of skin can often be seen.

There is also some suggestion that dandruff is a result of hormones and funnily enough it is men that seem to suffer from dandruff more than women.

Regardless of the cause you simply need to know what to do. Using natural based shampoos with a neutral pH level should help but if the problem continues then you need to visit your doctor.

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