Question:
I read somewhere that stress can cause psoriasis to flare up.
What kind of stress is it talking about? Mental stress, emotional
stress, physical stress?
I only ask because my psoriasis has been getting worse these last few
months but my life has been pretty relaxing. I have been working out
lifting weights a lot recently and I was wondering if the physical
stress of this could be the cause.
Has anyone here had similar experiences or is it a different kind of
stress I should be concerned about?
Answer:
Well, it's mental/emotional stress they usually mean, but physical
stress, that is, injury to the skin, can also aggravate psoriasis. I
have no reason to think that exercise-style physical stress should
cause problems. When I already had a little bit of p I still worked
out pretty heavily, it didn't seem to make a difference either way.
But stress is not the only trigger for psoriasis, illness and
(perhaps) diet can be triggers, and it's quite likely that a fair
number of us see psoriasis develop and spread for basically pure
genetic reasons, no particular outside trigger needed. Aging itself
Yet, after you onset, exercise and the permeability it creates are a trade off
as far as living healthy goes.
My experience is not typical, but others have shared it. Severe stress
of the mental/emotional type makes my P *better*. This has happened to
me 3 times in a major way, and several other times in a minor way. I
can't really separate physical stress from this since it has usually
accompanied the mental/emotional. There may, of course, be other
correlating factors, such as diet changes when under stress, but I
haven't been able to correlate any. In all cases there seems to be a
delay of about 2 weeks before the P is noticeably different.
It always made sense to me - stress depresses the immune system, which
is overactive in P, hence the improvement.
The problem is, how is it possible to accurately study something that we
cannot control.
It's not exactly easy to divide 100 people into two groups, then
declare: "Group A will have stress free lives for the next 6 months."
Then go round up Group Bs family and shoot them all to ensure they have
6 months of emotional turmoil.... Who would sign up for that?
for me....its the mental stress.....lossing my job last month make my pso!
became like a monster!
My way of looking at it is this: take five guys off the street. Line them
up and put grocery bags on their heads. Sneak up behind the line and burst
another blown-up grocery bag.
Guy no.1 jumps, and farts. IBS develops. Has to go on a restricted diet;
farts all day long. It's stress-related.
Guy no. 2 clutches his chest and goes down with Angina. Pills every day,
cardiograms, a fitness regime - it's all stress related.
Guy no. 3 jumps so hard he grinds a lower lumbar disk. Off to the
chiropracter; loads of manipulation, meditation, wedges under the hips:
it's stress-related.
Guy no. 4 was feeling fruity until that fateful grocery bag went off.
Afterward, he's Mr Droopy. Unhappy wives and all that; Viagra,
Hypnotherapy - it's all stress related.
Guy no. 5: Psoriasis.
See my point? The same stress stimulus produces a wide range of "stress
related" syndromes, and somewhere in the heads of all those guys is a
"choosing mechanism"...
