On Healthy Living

Oct. 29 is World Psoriasis Day, a global event to give an international voice to people with psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis.

According to Gail M. Zimmerman, president and CEO of the National Psoriasis Foundation, and vice chairman of IFPA, key message points for World Psoriasis Day help to raise awareness about the disease, educating the public that psoriasis is not contagious-and is more than a skin disease. While psoriasis symptoms appear on the skin, the disease starts below the skin’s surface, in the immune system.

“Awareness is a powerful tool in creating compassion for people with this disease,” Zimmerman said in a news release. “The burden of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis is significant; we must make awareness a priority with health-care policy makers so that people with psoriasis can gain better access to the treatments they need.”

The scaly, inflamed skin of psoriasis is painful and itchy. Because of the way the skin looks, people with psoriasis can become self-conscious, depressed and isolated.

Researchers have found that psoriasis causes as much disability as other major diseases. For more information, visit the World Psoriasis Day website.

Sarah White wrote this on October 28th, 2005 and filed it under Healthy Living, Women's Health, Men's Health, Health & Aging |