5Environmental Factors
Certain environmental factors may increase the risk of oral psoriasis. These include:
– Stress: Too much stress may affect the immune system, which subsequently increases the risk of oral psoriasis. In contrast, psoriatic flare-ups would increase stress and worsen the symptoms.
– Smoking: Tobacco products contain many harmful chemicals that may increase the risk of oral psoriasis and other health conditions. Studies have shown that the more you smoke, the more likely you will have recurrent or new symptoms. Smoking would affect treatment as well because it may lead to systemic inflammation, which reduces the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory medications.
– Gluten: Some people with oral psoriasis have high amounts of gluten antibodies linked to celiac disease. It indicates that gluten would increase the risk of this condition. Certain studies have also shown that a gluten-free diet would help improve the symptoms in those who resist traditional treatments for oral psoriasis.
– Cold, dry weather: Flare-ups of oral psoriasis tend to occur during the winter. This is mainly because the air in low temperature may lack moisture, which causes dry skin. Winter is also linked to less sunlight. As a result, the body is deprived of UV radiation that may benefit psoriatic skin.
– Infections: Any form of infection may affect the immune system and lead to flare-ups of psoriasis.
– Skin trauma: A sunburn, burn, tattoo, surgical wound, scrape, or cut would possibly lead to a psoriatic flare-up. Researchers are not fully understood why this occurs, but they suspect that the skin may be overstimulated by inflammatory proteins. This activates autoantibodies in the body the leads to an inflammatory response. [5]
