Sun may be beneficial to psoriasis sufferers

WE’VE been chatting about sunlight and Vitamin D in this column over the last few weeks. The skin will magically make much needed Vitamin D when sunlight comes into contact with it, which is important for strong healthy bones among other things.

However there remains the need to get the right balance, depending on your natural skin colour, between allowing enough time for vitamin D production and preventing burning or sun-related skin aging.

Life throws us these conundrums as everyone will be slightly different here.

Some skin conditions worsen in the sun, or seem to, such as vitiligo, heat rash or photodermatitis. Others may actually improve, and psoriasis is one of those which could go either way!

Psoriasis is a skin condition which is often lifelong and causes red flaky skin patches which can occur all over the body, but is most common over knees, backs of elbows and the scalp.

These plaques of psoriasis are caused by skin replacing itself too quickly, so you see the red shiny skin which we’d normally only see when you’ve burnt or blistered your top drier layer off.

Psoriasis is not contagious and definitely has a genetic element as there’s often psoriasis which “runs in the family”.

It’s a real problem to many sufferers, not least because of its appearance, which many find embarrassing and so tend to cover up to hide their skin.

This can also lead to difficulties in relationships, mental health and even employment due to the stigma of skin appearance.

However, the summer can be a time when some sunshine could be beneficial to psoriasis.

Sunlight contains UVA and UVB. UVB penetrates the skin layers and slows down that rapid skin growth which is the problem in psoriasis. There’s also some evidence that the vitamin D being produced at the same time is helpful to promote skin health.

But always comes that constant caution not to burn! As with many things, moderation is the key.

UVA on its own is not particularly helpful unless combined with a light sensitizing drug called psoralen.

This is the basis of PUVA treatment at the hospital which is used for resistant or widespread psoriasis, but is carefully monitored and timed.

Incidentally, sunbeds emit mainly UVA light which ages the skin considerably and doesn’t help psoriasis without the psoralens, so I advise to avoid these in any case.