TRIP

Smoking tied to higher psoriasis risk: study

Reuters Health News, 2012

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adding to the list of possible health consequences from smoking, a large study suggests that smokers have an increased risk of developing the chronic skin condition psoriasis.
People with psoriasis develop thick, red, scaly patches on the skin, which are often itchy or sore.
Experts believe the disease is caused by an abnormal immune system attack on the body's own cells.
Some studies have suggested that smokers are more vulnerable to psoriasis, possibly because the habit can affect immune activity.
But most have studied people at only one time-point, which makes it hard to be sure the smoking came before the psoriasis.
Of nearly 186,000 men and women followed for 12 to 20 years, 2,410 developed psoriasis during that time.
People who were current smokers at the study's start were almost twice as likely as lifelong non-smokers to develop psoriasis.
The findings, reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, do not prove that smoking, itself, causes psoriasis in some people.
But after accounting for those factors, the smoking-psoriasis link remained, Qureshi told Reuters Health.
"I think if there's one message, it's that for now, smoking seems to be a risk factor for new-onset psoriasis," Qureshi said.
Other studies have pointed to some reasons that smoking could contribute to psoriasis -- mainly its effects on immune system activity and inflammation.