Inverse Psoriasis

What is Inverse Psoriasis?

Psoriasis is a disease that appears on the skin which is chronic and autoimmune. Inverse Psoriasis also known as flexural psoriasis occurs in skin folds like the genitals where it occurs between the thigh and groin, the armpits, under the stomach or pannus, under the breasts which is called an inframamamary fold. Since this type of psoriasis affects the skin folds or flexion creases, it occurs more to individuals who are overweight.

Some facts about psoriasis would be that psoriasis is not contagious so you will not get it from another person. Treatment of psoriasis could be difficult because the areas that are affected by inverse psoriasis are highly sensitive. Psoriasis goes through a cycle where it would flare for a few weeks or even months, and then, subsides for a period of time or even remiss. After remission, given some period of time, psoriasis returns.

Symptoms

In comparison to other common types of psoriasis like plaque psoriasis, inverse psoriasis does not scale. Inverse psoriasis causes the skin to inflame to bright red smooth patches of skin that can be painful and itchy.

Causes

The cause of psoriasis is when the immune system would send out faulty signals to the body that would speed up cell growth. The main cause of an inverse psoriasis is that the skin is being aggravated by the friction and the sweat. This type of psoriasis is vulnerable to fungal infections. Another cause of inverse psoriasis may be because of yeast overgrowth including the high sensitivity of the skin to both friction and sweating. Research also shows that the cause of inverse psoriasis might have a genetic component to it. Meaning, it might be passed on through the genes. Another possible cause would be from stress. The stress causes the skin to flare more which could only be avoided with relaxation and stress reduction.

Research also shows that cause of inverse psoriasis might be related with the immune system mainly the white blood cell called T cell or T lymphocyte. T cells travel through the body to detect and fight viruses or bacteria. With psoriasis, the T cells attack the skin cell mistaking it for a foreign body. The cause of the malfunctioning of the T cells is still under research but there are theories that it might be genetic or caused by environmental factors.

Some other possible triggers that cause inverse psoriasis that are still not scientifically proven would be allergies, diet and weather.

Some factors that would trigger psoriasis would be:

• Infections, such as strep throat or thrush
• Injury to the skin, such as a cut or scrape, bug bite, or a severe sunburn
• Stress
• Cold weather
• Smoking
• Heavy alcohol consumption
• Certain medications — including lithium, which is prescribed for bipolar disorder; high blood pressure medications such as beta blockers; antimalarial drugs; and iodides