Change in the weather: does the climate affect your psoriasis?
First posted Dec. 18, 2003
Asking people with psoriasis whether their psoriasis acts up in the winter or summer quickly reveals one of the mysteries of the disease: it can be different for everyone. Some people experience flares in the winter, others in the summer, and some both or neither.
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Tips for inclement weather
Wear gloves while you wash dishes or clean inside, and when you're outside in the cold or driving.
Place a bowl of water or damp towel on the radiator, which will put water back in the air. Take care to redampen the towel.
Apply moisturizer while your skin is still wet from bathing or showering, which traps water in the skin. Avoid prolonged hot baths or showers.
Drink plenty of water. If the body doesn't get enough water, your skin's water reservoir can
become depleted.
Minimize the use of soaps. They dry out the skin.
Turn off the heat at night, and keep it low during the day. Cool air is less drying. |
Brian Pyatt, a Psoriasis Foundation member in Virginia, prepares each year for a battle with Old Man Winter. "I had gotten one spot on my nose one winter, and it went away when the weather got better. I have two spots at the top of my forehead, just under my hairline, which fade to almost nothing in the summer and come back in the wintertime," he says.
Anecdotal reports suggest it is more common for psoriasis to become agitated or flare during the winter, but some people do suffer more during the summer.
Amy Reed, a Psoriasis Foundation member in Michigan, says her best months are during the fall and spring. "During the summer I get much drier and very flaky and more spots appear," she says.
Because Ms. Reed also has lupus, an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in joints, tendons and other connective tissue, she covers up to avoid sunlight, which is a known trigger for the disease. She also uses more Tazorac, a prescription topical vitamin A derivative, during the summer to try to control the psoriasis.
Conversely, during a hot and humid summer, when the air contains more water vapor, the saturated air keeps us from sweating as we normally would, which essentially locks water in. This is perhaps why some people fare better with their psoriasis during humid summers.
A small percentage of people have psoriasis that flares when they are exposed to sunlight. Intensive exposure to sunlight, salty sea water or some other environmental factor also may play a role in why a person's psoriasis appears worse in the summer.
Stress and the weather?
In a study published in the January 2001 issue of Archives of Dermatology, researchers measured and compared the impact of psychological stress on the skin in students without psoriasis during three different stress level periods: after winter vacation, during final exams and after spring break. The researchers measured water loss in the students skin during these periods and found that during periods of stress, the skin's ability to maintain a normal permeability barrier and retain water appears to be reduced.
What's going on?
A person's legs and arms have fewer oil glands than elsewhere in the body, which already causes them to be drier. Our skin also has what doctors call a "permeability barrier"-an ability to prevent the passage of substances through it. In people with psoriasis, the level of water that passes through this barrier is increased-the skin loses its ability to hold water, which contributes to the formation of dry, scaly lesions. During the cold winter, when the air contains less moisture, even more water is stripped from the skin, which may contribute to a flare.
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Winter, according to researchers, is just a more stressful time. Researchers studying weekly and seasonal variations in heart attacks, which are also stress related, have found that Mondays during the winter months, especially January, have the highest rates of heart attacks.
In the home
The dehumidified air in most people's homes during the winter, whether from electric or forced air heat, fires or woodburning stoves, also strips the skin of natural moisture. More water escapes from skin at low humidity. Normal skin achieves a balanced level of water loss when humidity is at 60 percent. In most homes during the winter, the humidity is much lower.
Experiencing one heating environment at the office and another at home, with short, cold, "uncontrolled" moments in between, can also further dry out the skin and potentially make psoriasis worse.
Not everyone experiences changes in their psoriasis brought on by changes in the weather. Climate also may play a role. Someone who lives in dry, desert heat may find relief during the summer, but flare when they are experiencing a humid summer.
There is no firm scientific proof that winter or summer directly cause a person's psoriasis to worsen. Nonetheless, to the people it happens to it is pretty obvious.
This article was first published in our Member publication, the Psoriasis Resource. Look for more articles like this in the Psoriasis Advance Member magazine.
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