The National Psoriasis Foundation is the United States' leading patient-driven,nonprofit advocacy organization that serves the estimated 7.
5 million Americans affected by psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.
Psoriasis is a skin disease that causes itchy or sore patches of thick, red skin with silvery scales.
You usually get them on your elbows, knees, scalp, back, face, palms and feet, but they can show up on other parts of your body.
A problem with your immune system causes psoriasis.
In a process called cell turnover, skin cells that grow deep in your skin rise to the surface.
Normally, this takes a month.
In psoriasis, it happens in just days because your cells rise too fast.
Psoriasis can last a long time, even a lifetime.
Symptoms come and go.
Things that make them worse include * Infections * Stress * Dry skin * Certain medicines When do people get psoriasis? The disease can develop at any age beginning from infancy until old age.
Although most people who have it will develop it between the ages of 15 and 30 and about 75 percent of people develop the disease before they reach the age of 40.
There are also many others who develop the condition at between 50 and 60 years of age.
Types of psoriasis * Plaque (vulgaris) * Guttate * Inverse * Pustular * Erythrodermic * Palmo-plantar * Scalp * The nails The most common type of the disease is the Plaque that affects over 80 percent of the sufferers.
The most visible symptoms of plaque psoriasis are some thick, scaly skin whose color may be anything from white, silvery or red.
Although these patches thatare called plaques can appear anywhere in the skin, they are most common around the knees, elbows, scalp and lower back.
If your doctor determines that you have psoriasis, he or she will give you information about the type of psoriasis you have and recommend a course of treatment for the itchy, flaking skin and other symptoms.
You will probably have additional questions and concerns about psoriasis.