Is Psoriasis Contagious?

Psoriasis contagious or not contagious? This is one of the questions which is most commonly asked whenever anyone falls victim to this most irritating and difficult of skin diseases. While the majority of psoriasis remains a mystery, this question can at least be answered in a definitive way.

No, whatever else psoriasis is, it is at least not contagious and cannot be easily passed from one person to another. It is true that there are greater incidences of the disease within families, so there is inevitably a hereditary element to it somewhere, but it is definitely not contagious. If you are in the situation of needing to deal with this condition, either for yourself or a member of your family, it will be important to separate the fact from the fiction before you start. Asking “Is psoriasis contagious?”, is only the first step in finding the truth about a condition which needs careful treatment. The answer is a definite “no”, so there is no need to worry on that score. Psoriasis is a skin disease which is caused directly by a malfunction of the immune system, although science can still not determine what causes the immune system to behave in this way.

The different types of psoriasis are all caused by the same fundamental factor within the immune system and the human body, and none of these types are contagious. The most common type of psoriasis is plaque psoriasis, which accounts for four out of every five cases. Even some of the cases which are not initially plaque psoriasis will develop into it, as can often be seen with teenage guttate psoriasis. If the patient is lucky, this condition can actually disappear, but if not it can turn into the more serious variety.

Because psoriasis is not contagious, there is no reason not to freely mix with other people, although you will obviously want to hide any unsightly blemishes as far as you can. Living as normal life as possible while you are undergoing psoriasis attacks is not easy, but it can be done. It is really as case of making sure that you eliminate as many of the risk factors as possible, which can cause an attack. If you do this, you can be sure of reducing attacks to the lowest possible number. When they do occur, you will need to be able to react quickly with the right skin treatments.

As there are those who consider psoriasis contagious, even though it plainly isn't, it is best to hide the condition as far as possible. Avoiding competitive sport and any other situation where is the likelihood of a skin injury is also essential because that it one of the most obvious trigger factors for a psoriasis attack. The skin can be treated from both the outside and the inside, and this is the obvious thing to do. The timings of the treatments, and the reasons for them, are slightly different. If you have an attack, you can treat it externally immediately and experience some relief.

Internal treatments, especially if they involve drugs, will take far longer to be effective, so you really need to be able to follow them consistently whether or not an attack is currently taking place. The internal management of psoriasis is a long term strategy, and will work best if it starts with he elimination of risk factors. These risk factors include anything which puts a pressure on the human immune system, such as tobacco smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and eating food which is over rich in saturated fat or refined sugar.

Although the psoriasis contagious rumor is nothing more than that, it will still pay you to be selective in who you tell about the condition. If it is relatively mild, and occurs in places where it is covered by clothing, there is no reason to reveal it. If you can maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle to prevent the onset of excessive numbers of attacks, you can manage to live a normal life. You may need help with this, in the form of vitamins or drug treatments, and these will need to be administered consistently.

Those who consider psoriasis contagious should become better informed, because it is in their interest to understand exactly how the disease develops and how it needs to be treated. If you have optimized your lifestyle and diet to cope with the condition, and it is still flaring up too often, you can use internal treatments which work on the immune system. Steroids can be used in the short term and are usually effective. If they aren't, a physician will usually recommend that you undergo ultraviolet light treatment. This will help to reduce the symptoms, and help to make you less visible to those who consider psoriasis contagious.