Bad gut = bad skin?

Is there a relationship between inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis? Now researchers have discovered: yes — but not for everyone.

1.5 million people in Germany are from psoriasis, also known as psoriasis – a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the skin and sometimes the joints and other organs as well. newly Published study Head of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Augsburg Gamma Dermatology It now appears that one of the causes of psoriasis is the presence of a chronic inflammatory bowel disease The sufferer can suffer from regular diarrhea, bloody stools, and abdominal cramps.

Gut, skin and genes

“Intestinal diseases and psoriasis are often seen to occur together. We took this as an opportunity to check if there is a relationship between these two diseases,” explains Dr. Dennis Freuer, research associate in the department of epidemiology and first author of the study.

“We used a Mendelian randomization approach for this: as part of this method, we used mathematical models to process the genetic information of nearly half a million people that we obtained from genetic studies,” the statistician continues. If genetic information is related to both diseases in a very distinct way, then sound mathematical conclusions can be drawn about causal relationships.

Increased risk of psoriasis

The results were clear: if a person had chronic inflammatory bowel disease, the risk of developing later psoriasis, with or without arthritis, increased. On the contrary, however, no connection can be demonstrated.

In particular, subgroup analyzes suggested that Crohn’s disease and not them ulcerative colitis responsible for the risk or increasing the risk. More studies are now necessary to clarify exactly how the disease is treated in the body.

However, the results of the current study are of great importance to medical care, as they not only contribute to a better understanding of how psoriasis develops, but also demonstrate that the disciplines responsible for the two diseases must work together in the future when it comes to diagnosis and treatment. “It is important that clinicians and gastroenterologists, who are primarily responsible for the care of patients with chronic intestinal diseases, know that these patients are at increased risk of developing psoriasis. They should pay special attention to this so that they can diagnose psoriasis at an early stage if skin symptoms occur. or joint problems and to be able to start the appropriate treatment,” adds Professor Christa Messinger, co-author of the study.

The publication is based on a press release at the University of Augsburg. We have the post for you over here and link it to the text.

Image source: Katerina Helznetsova, Unsplash