Psoriasis Articles

The importance of exercise in encouraging good health has been stressed by those within the medical profession for years. Research recently published by scientists at Harvard Medical School shows the positive effect exercise has on yet another chronic condition: psoriasis.¹

Psoriasis, the dry skin condition that results in patches of dry, red skin with silvery scales, affects 2% of people in Britain and more than 90 million worldwide.² The severity of the condition tends to vary from person to person, with some considering it a minor irritation and others stating that it has a negative impact on their quality of life. Psoriasis can start at any age, but the majority of sufferers will develop symptoms for the first time under the age of 35. Although the condition affects both men and women equally, the study conducted at Harvard involved women exclusively.

When the study began in 1991, 86,655 women between the ages of 27 and 44 were selected by scientists at Harvard medical school to take part in the research project. At the beginning of the study, the women were surveyed with questions relating to health, exercise patterns, weight, diet, alcohol consumption and smoking habits in an initial questionnaire in 1991. The women were later surveyed again in follow-up surveys in 1997 and 2001 with similar questions. Participants were later placed into different groups depending on their activity level. Researchers found that those women who carried out vigorous exercise each week (i.e. 105 minutes of active running or 180 minutes of other vigorous exercise such as swimming or playing tennis) had a 30% lower chance of developing psoriasis than those who exercised the least.

Although the reasons as to why psoriasis develops isn’t fully understood, it has been found that the condition is linked with problems within the immune system, with a psoriasis sufferer’s immune system attacking healthy cells by mistake.³ It does indeed make sense then that those who exercised most vigorously on a regular basis would have the best chance of not developing this condition as immune systems function better when strengthened by healthy living strategies.

Abrar Qureshi, assistant professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and senior author of the research paper, recognised how the psoriasis study results were consistent with other studies that have shown exercise having a positive effect on diseases marked by systemic inflammation such as type 2 diabetes, colon cancer, coronary artery disease & breast cancer:

"It is a systemic inflammatory condition. If exercise changes inflammatory biomarkers, it makes sense.

"This might be another good reason to adapt a physically active lifestyle."

If you’re living with psoriasis and you want to talk to others who are living with the condition, please join in the conversation via our talkpsoriasis forum.

1. The Association Between Physical Activity and the Risk of Incident Psoriasis, Archives of Dermatology, Sept 8 2016.
2. NHS Choices, Psoriasis, accessed September 2016.
3. Psoriasis patient journey, talkheath, accessed Sept 2016.