Smoking May Raise Psoriasis Risk

Study Shows Exposure To Secondhand Smoke During Pregnancy Or Childhood Also Ups Risk

(WebMD)  Smoking not only takes its toll on your body from the inside, but a new study shows it also affects how your skin looks and feels on the outside.

Researchers found that smoking increases the risk of psoriasis, which causes symptoms such as inflammation, redness, itching, and scaling of the skin.

The study shows the risk of psoriasis was 78 percent higher among current smokers compared with people who had never smoked and 37 percent higher among smokers who had quit previously.

Researchers say the results suggest that quitting smoking may help alleviate the symptoms of psoriasis in smokers with the skin disease.

"These findings, along with well-established hazardous health effects of smoking, provide clear incentives for smoking cessation in those at risk for and suffering from psoriasis," writes researcher Hyon K. Choi, MD, of Harvard Medical School, and colleagues in the American Journal of Medicine.

Smoking Linked to Psoriasis
Researchers looked at the relationship between smoking and psoriasis in more than 78,500 female registered nurses who took part in the Nurses Health Study II. The women were followed for 14 years, and during that period 887 cases of psoriasis were reported.

Researchers measured lifetime smoking exposure in pack-years. A pack-year is the number of packs smoked per day multiplied by the number of years a person has smoked.

The results showed that smoking not only increased the risk of psoriasis, but heavier smoking increased that risk further. For example, compared with women who never smoked, the risk of psoriasis was 60% higher for those with a smoking history of 11-20 pack-years and more than two times high for those with 21 or more pack-years of smoking.

Exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy or childhood also increased the risk of psoriasis (21 percent and 18 percent increased risk respectively).

Researchers found the risk of psoriasis decreased after quitting smoking, with the risk of psoriasis among former smokers comparable to nonsmokers 20 years after quitting.

[martublade]

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[erasmus6]

OMG!!! Don''''t start making smoking your excuse to BAD hygeine! My ex-mother-in-law is a nasty B^I^T^C^H^ and she is ATE up with some skin affliction. Do yourself a favor and try using a sink and get rid of the hundred cats you have stashed away in your apartment! And clean the G^O^D^D^AM^N^E^D place UP!!!Posted by trenticus at 10:21 PM : Oct 29, 2007

Get a grip, will ya? Psoriasis has nothing to do with hygiene or cats!

[erasmus6]

"I was born 7 years later, and did not start having minor symptoms of psoriasis until my late teens!!!" posted by rushman71

Sometimes it takes years to develop so it could have still been caused from the cigarettes smoke.

OR like you said it may be from something else altogether.

[grammawhamma]

Wow...just figured out my pack-year number. Yikes...I must be dead!!

[michellem99-2009]

No one in my family has it..I was a foster child..FYI,I can''t stand cats...I can wash things cleaner than ye by touch..I got it at age 10..I did not ask for it..

[rushman71]

Here''s another thing, my mother was born with a psoriasis skin problem. My grandmother did NOT smoke!!! My mother smoked since the age of 13. I was born 7 years later, and did not start having minor symptoms of psoriasis until my late teens!!! Does that sound like second-hand smoke related? He11 no!!! Sounds more inherited to me!!!

[rushman71]

I don''t understand this. They look at all the possible problems that are evolved throughout the whole society and point fingers at people who smoke, but ignore the fact that these problems can be caused by anything!!! IT''S THE SMOKERS FAULT!!! IT''S THE SMOKERS FAULT!!! Give me a friggen break!!! For all I know, it could be caused by the air we breath, the water we drink, or the food we eat!!! Come on, y''all, get real!!!

[incog-nito]

Is there an affliction NOT caused by smoking?

[michellem99-2009]

I HAVE THIS..IT IS AWFUL..THE ITCHING..THE REDNESS AFTER WATER HITS IT..WHEN I WAS A TEEN MY KNEES AND ELBOW WAS CAKED WITH IT..BECAUSE OF IT MY KNEES HURT.I have it on my head and when I wash my hair there is hair in the tub.It is hell..I HATE IT AND I SURE DID NOT ASK FOR IT..I NEVER SMOKED..