VIDEO: Understanding risk factors for psoriasis

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The risk factors for psoriasis is interesting. You know, in allopathic medicine, you know, my bias is that we don't focus much on prevention of these chronic inflammatory diseases. It's just not where the market is. So really, the research focuses on treatment, and that's unfortunate, but true. So, the risk factors, not a heavily researched area.

There are many things that are known, and there's ongoing study in this area, but obviously genetics, there's many genes, over 30 that have been identified that increase risk for psoriasis. Many environmental risk factors are known to contribute. Obesity is chief among them as the fat is a endocrinological active tissue and releases TNF and IL-6, which increases risk for psoriasis and makes psoriasis harder to treat.

The microbiome is a burgeoning area across really all health and disease, which that's being understood more and more, but still, it's just a huge lack of information about how the intestinal and skin microbiome promotes the development of psoriasis And other things we've already known about, you know, cigarette use, excessive alcohol use, stress, it's been known for many years to be a risk factor for psoriasis.