My Journey to halt/end my psoriasis

[Caroline]

 
Thirdly, isn’t psoriasis an auto immune disease? I mean I respect what a topical might do for me on the skin, but the white blood cells are attacking my bodies organs as well with the liver being first and foremost. At least that is what I have read from reputable sites. Am I wrong here? I don’t know for sure, because, the internet isn’t the most reliable place to find info, but I feel that the sites I did check out, are reliable. New England Journal of Medicine, et al.
 

No… Psoriasis is no auto immune disease. If it was, than there would be anti-bodies detectable in the blood, which is the essential marker for auto immune diseases. But with Psoriasis you cannot find this kind of markers as they are not there. Which by the way makes the diagnosis of Psoriatic Arthritis also very difficult.
Still Psoriasis “is” a system disease which has an effect on the immune reactions in the skin. With psoriasis patients we see a surplus of a number of cytokines in the body, a.o. IL-23 and IL-17, these cytokines cause the problems. The real cause that this is happening is still subject of research and guessing. It is said that genetics are involved, but even people without genetic preconditions can get it, i is said there are triggers, stress, bacterial infections, etc. It is even said the cause is somewhere in the cells (my favorite).
The problems that are related to psoriasis can be in a wide range as these cytokine disturbances can cause trouble in several places in the body. The so called co-morbidities. So it certainly makes sense to put a halt to these cytokines, which certainly is not being done by the topicals, so the risks on comorbidities remain there if you don’t do some systemic medication.