Online CPR Certification Blog

The recent report released by the British Medical Journal in October 2013 is nothing to smile about. In fact, it comes as a shocker to many. The information detailing about Psoriasis reveals that the chronic autoimmune disease that affects that skin can as well affect the kidney as well causing kidney related maladies. For what is worth, the research serves as a threat alert for practitioners and the general public as a whole.

The sample data

With researchers drawn from the University of Pennsylvania, data was collected from at least 144,000 Psoriasis patients and compared to over 680,000 successful controls coming to a conclusion that; Psoriasis and kidney diseases have a very close association not only today but also in the past. To put matters to perspective, patients with temperate psoriasis condition were said to have their body skin affected (3-10%) while those with extreme conditions were said to be at a higher risk of kidney diseases (10% body affected), the study showed.
According to Joel Gelfand, an associate professor at the department of dermatology and the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania, no association is drawn in patients with mild disease but rather in moderate and severe affected Psoriasis patients whom constitute at least 20% of the total number on a global scale.
It is also true according to the study that the risk of getting kidney disease increases as once gets older as can be attested to the available data of patients between 40-50 years, who account for at least one chronic kidney disease for every 134 cases whereas those with 50-60 years account for one patient in every 62 cases presented.
As it is, researchers have not been able to demystify the association with Psoriasis and kidney disease, however; they offer a few recommendations that may go a long way in containing the situation. Nonetheless, monitoring can give researchers and practitioners that platform to find the association between the two conditions as they go about performing a few tests on the affected patients.

Recommendations

First and foremost, experts highly advocate for regular kidney screening for the affected patients-with Psoriasis. This translates to monitoring of their renal deficiencies of patients whose condition has affected the body skin/surface as this will allow for early discovery and intrusion, therefore, reducing the effects and death cases that come with chronic diseases. On the other hand, practitioners ought to be very careful in their interrogation as Psoriasis may not necessarily be linked to kidney disease as the study revealed. The disease can also be linked to other conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or at worst cancer, according to Dr. Goldenberg.
Still, experts deem losing weight as another way of controlling the condition because as was noted, most Psoriasis patients are overweight. Indeed, preventing kidney diseases has been found to be very difficult but one sure way of prevention is as mentioned. More exercise and weight lose. In addition, one is encouraged to constantly work with a team of doctors to manage the condition at an early stage as future studies promise to answer more questions regarding treatment for condition.