Psoriasis Treatment Options

Psoriasis is a skin problem in which the skin turns red, scaly and the patches are also formed. There is no particular known cause of this skin issue but most health care professionals believe that the issue is related to genetic aspect that can be activated by a extended skin injury. Psoriasis is not at all contagious, but it is a chronic condition which means the person has to live with this skin disease for life. In some psoriasis sufferers there are no episodes of symptoms, while there are those too who face the symptoms every other day. Psoriasis is considered as a serious disease as it affects the physical body as well as emotional condition of the person. Psoriasis has no long term cure yet but you can find multiple ways that can be used for controlling and managing its symptoms. Here I am sharing some of these ways.

1. Topical Therapy

In order to address mild to moderate psoriasis the ointments and creams are applied to the skin directly. In the category of topical therapies using topical corticosteroids, coal tar, moisturizers, vitamin D analogues, anthralin, calcineurin inhibitors, topical retinoids and salicylic acid are included. The best thing about topical therapy as a psoriasis treatment option is that the relief from skin flares is quick, and in order to enjoy its effectiveness it is important to use it repeatedly.

2. Light Therapy

In case of light therapy, in order to treat psoriasis natural or artificial UV light is used. To treat psoriasis with this method in a simple way is by exposing the skin to regulated amounts of sunlight (natural). As a result of exposure to sunlight the lesion formation does not take place as activate cells in the skin die. It also decreases the cell turnover and the inflammation and scaling also reduces with time. The only drawback to the sun exposure is that one cannot control the strength of the sunlight’s UV rays. If the sun exposure is intense then the symptoms can become more complicated and it can cause more damage to skin. Due to this artificial ultraviolet light is preferred as one can control its intensity. Another advantage of artificial UV light is that it is used for treating the damaged part only while the healthy skin area is not exposed to this light. In order to stay away from premature aging and damage to skin one need to shield the healthy skin from Ultra-violet light.

3. Oral Medicines

Those psoriasis sufferers who are experiencing the severe cases can be treated with prescribed oral medicines or injected drugs. As these medicines have side effects which can be severe too so its use is mostly limited for a certain period of time. The most common prescribed medicines include Retinoids, cyclosporine, thioguanine, methotrexate, immunomodulator and hydroxyurea.