Dr Noreen Akram
What Causes Psoriasis Flare-ups: Key Triggers and Prevention Strategies.
Learn about psoriasis triggers and strategies to manage flare-ups effectively.
What We'll Cover - Psoriasis Triggers.
Key Takeaways
Psoriasis triggers can be personal, environmental, irritants, or certain foods.
The Proton Health app aids in tracking personal triggers and environmental factors influencing your psoriasis.
Identifying irritants and allergies can be complex due to delayed reactions.
The Switcheroo Technique offers an effective approach to isolate potential triggers.
What Causes Psoriasis Flare-ups
Understanding the triggers of psoriasis is key to preventing flare-ups. These triggers instigate skin irritation, which then escalates into inflammation and disrupts the skin barrier. Recognising the different types of triggers is essential to keep them in check. Typically, these triggers fall into four categories:
Personal
Environmental
Irritants
Foods
Let's delve deeper into these categories:
Identifying Psoriasis Triggers
Personal - These triggers encompass aspects within your control that might instigate a psoriasis flare-up, such as your emotional state, sleep pattern, skincare routine, physical activity level, dietary habits, and hydration.
Environmental – This category includes uncontrollable factors like weather conditions, pollen counts, humidity levels, and air pollution, all of which can impact your skin health.
Irritants – Certain substances may exacerbate your psoriasis without your awareness. Common irritants are found in everyday products like soaps, shampoos, and fragrances, which have ingredients that could potentially irritate many people's skin, not just those with psoriasis.
Foods – Food allergies, intolerances, and certain food items may trigger psoriasis flare-ups in some individuals.
Identifying Personal and Environmental Triggers with Proton Health
Our Proton Health app offers a convenient way to track your symptoms and personal triggers. By monitoring your Skin Score daily, the app identifies potential factors causing your flare-ups and delivers personalised content to tackle them effectively.
For environmental triggers, our algorithms monitor local temperature, humidity, UV levels, and air pollution, providing a Threat Score that indicates the potential impact on your skin. With continued use, the app discerns which weather changes have the most significant impact on your skin.
Navigating Irritants and Allergies
Identifying irritants and allergies can be complex due to delayed Type II Hypersensitivity reactions often observed in people with psoriasis, which appear 48-72 hours post-exposure. Consequently, pinpointing what caused the reaction can be challenging.
Allergy tests to identify food intolerances are commonly used, such as skin prick testing that measures an allergy marker (IgE). Unfortunately, these results aren't always reliable, but there's a promising approach: the Switcheroo technique, designed to help identify irritants or food allergies without having to eliminate everything at once.
The Switcheroo Technique - Pinpointing What Causes Psoriasis Flare-ups
In essence, the Switcheroo Technique involves substituting various products and foods at different times to determine the underlying issue.
Here's how it works…
Enumerate all your potential irritants and food triggers.
Substitute one of these with a hypo-allergenic version or eliminate it from your routine or diet.
Continue using the rest of your potential irritants as usual.
Monitor your psoriasis symptoms for a minimum of 7 days, noting any changes.
If you observe improvement, the substituted or eliminated item might be the trigger. To confirm this, reintroduce the potential trigger and observe if your flare-ups return.
If your psoriasis symptoms remain unchanged or worsen, you'll need to repeat the technique with a different item.
Regularly tracking your Skin Score using the Proton Health app can help uncover your personal triggers. Additionally, the app provides an environmental analysis to safeguard against external elements and incorporates the Switcheroo Technique for a comprehensive approach to managing your psoriasis.
Further Reading:
What Causes Psoriasis Flare-Ups | National Psoriasis Foundation - https://www.psoriasis.org/about-psoriasis/causes/
Triggers of Psoriasis | WebMD - https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/psoriasis/psoriasis-triggers-to-avoid
Common Triggers of Psoriasis Flare-ups | Healthline - https://www.healthline.com/health/psoriasis/triggers-to-avoid
