Researchers from Denmark found that obesity and diabetes is linked to the skin disease psoriasis through a genetic link. While they all share a common genetic link, having psoriasis may be one of the factors that's causing these medical conditions to some people. It is also revealed that the more overweight the subject, the higher the risk of psoriasis.
Dr. Ann Sophie Lonnberg and her colleagues from the University of Copenhagen analyzed the health records of more than 30,000 twins. They found that more than 4 percent are afflicted with psoriasis, more than 1 percent has diabetes and more than 6 percent of the participants were obese with a body mass index (BMI) ranging from 30 to 34. The study done on twins was published in the journal JAMA Dermatology.
#Psoriasis tied to #obesity, type 2 #diabetes | WebMD https://t.co/mQDBjkAcrm
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What is interesting is that more than 7 percent of the subjects with diabetes had psoriasis while less than 5 percent had diabetes without the skin disease. They explained that those with psoriasis had twice the chance of getting type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, the BMI of those suffering from psoriasis were higher than people without it. They surmised that obesity and diabetes were linked to psoriasis when they noted that in the twin study, one suffered the skin condition while the other did not have it.
Lonnberg explains that their study did not provide evidence that psoriasis causes obesity or type 2 diabetes as they only found a genetic link, WebMD noted. Other lifestyle factors and habits such as smoking, alcohol habits or drug use have not been taken account for. She adds that it doesn't take away the fact that obesity and diabetes are still serious conditions that negatively impact one's health.
The researchers will conduct further investigation to find out how psoriasis, obesity and diabetes are link. Tech Times shared that in more research; they are hoping to find more effective treatment methods for all mentioned conditions.
