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Psoriasis-Hope is on the Horizon

© Shannon Evans

According to the National Psoriasis Foundation, nearly 3% of the United States population (over 7 million Americans) suffer from this agonizing skin disease. Psoriasis actually is a general term representing several different forms of the same disease. A thorough description of each type of psoriasis can be found at the National Psoriasis Foundation, http://www.psoriasis.org . I highly recommend this site as an excellent resource for news, research, treatments and patient support.

I also want to direct all of my readers who do suffer from this disease to visit Michele Hriciso's Suite 101 site, Living with Psoriasis, http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/livi... . I have been in-and-out of town for nearly two months now and was completely oblivious to the fact that a site exclusively devoted to psoriasis had been created. How wonderful!! This site is so desperately needed and I know will help so many of you.

Since my background and true love is in both biochemistry and genetics, as I delved into researching psoriasis over the past two months, I was thrilled and amazed to see the amount of genetic research specifically focusing on psoriasis. There are better treatments, possibly even a cure, for psoriasis on the horizon. At present, annual treatments for psoriasis on average are simply too expensive and often ineffective. Some people have had success with rotational therapies with two different drugs (most recently Dovonex and Diprolene); others have had great results from herbs, vitamins and diet (i.e. omega-3 fatty acids); and unfortunately still some have been taken in scams claiming a miracle cure. (For more information on psoriasis treatment scams see Psoriasis Hall of PShame, http://www.pinch.com/skin/pshame.html ).

As researchers begin to understand the genetic and biochemical factors causing this dreaded skin disease new successful treatments will become available. Unlocking the genetic mystery behind this disease will answer so many questions that perplex us today.

Why does one therapy work for one person and not another?

Why do some people have more severe outbreaks than other people?

Why do some cases simply spontaneously disappear?

For answers to these questions and more, researchers are searching our 23 chromosomes and the genes that make up these chromosomes. Research to date suggests at that least 8 different chromosomes might contain genes coding for psoriasis. If several genes do in fact code for psoriasis this might explain why people have varying degrees of severity and different varieties of the disease. For example, one person who has psoriasis genes on all 8 chromosomes would, as a result, suffer from a terrible case of psoriasis. Another person, however, might only have a mild outbreak of psoriasis, and therefore, probably only a couple of genes on one or two chromosomes coding for the disease.

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