Getting to Know Psoriasis Symptoms
When a psoriasis flare comes on, and you’ve never experienced it before, it can be quite a scary situation to deal with. The symptoms of psoriasis can vary from person to person, but most of them can come on quite severely, and there’s a level of discomfort and awkwardness that comes with it.
There’s also no one size fits all when it comes to psoriasis and psoriasis symptoms. What you might experience with one flare-up may be completely different from what you experience during a future flare-up. Also, your symptoms of psoriasis may be present in various locations around your body, not just the one.
There are also so many different ways to manage and cope with the different types of psoriasis symptoms you may encounter — everything from maintaining a healthy lifestyle and often exercising, through to exploring natural remedies and drinking enough water.
What Are the Symptoms of Psoriasis?
Here’s an outline about the most common psoriasis symptoms you may experience and where they may present themselves, as well as an insight into the variety of ways you can try to reduce a symptom’s impact on your life.
Red Patches
From my own personal experience, the red patches that indicate you’re dealing with a psoriasis flare-up are one of the harder psoriasis symptoms to hide. They can appear nearly anywhere on your body, but often they’re found appearing on the knees, elbows, back, and scalp. But don’t be surprised if red patches appear between your fingers, on your neck, or even on your buttocks.
Psoriasis redness can appear anywhere, especially areas that tend to be a bit more dry, like the knees and elbows. It’s a good idea to keep your skin moisturized as often as you can, as it may prevent the skin from splitting or scaling.
Unfortunately, having redness of the skin doesn’t help narrow down the type of psoriasis you may be suffering from. Plaque, guttate, inverse, pustular, and erythrodermic psoriasis all mention red patches or areas as a symptom.
Scaling Areas
This symptom of psoriasis can be particularly annoying. Suffering from psoriasis causes your immune system attacks the wrong cells, causing an overproduction of skin cells.
When the overproduction of skill cells occurs, your skin can start to scale and flake off. This is often seen when someone’s suffering from scalp psoriasis, and it can give the appearance of suffering from dandruff as flakes of skin can fall from your hairline at any time.
Many different lotions and potions are recommended for when your skin is flaking and scaling. One of the most important parts of this symptom is to keep moisturizing your skin. When your skin is dry, it will flake off more prevalently. But if it’s keep moistened, your skin tends to soften, and the flaking doesn’t happen as rapidly.
Dry, Bleeding Skin
While talking about keeping your skin hydrated while suffering from psoriasis, another symptom, and one that rears up particularly when your skin is very dry, is having dry, bleeding skin. This symptom can appear as deep cracks in the skin, which are called fissures.
There’s a wide variety of ways that you can help to treat this symptom to make it easier to manage and far less painful.
The first way to help treat this symptom, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record: keep your skin moisturized and hydrated. Coconut oil is a lifesaver for dry skin. It will soak in and keep your skin nice and moist for extended periods of time.
You also need to make sure you keep your hands super clean. Make sure you rinse out the cracks with lukewarm water to make sure you don’t get them infected. You can also seal the cracks as a temporary measure using something like a bandage or liquid bandage. Even things like a balm can help to seal the area and keep it clean.
