Psoriasis Linked to Higher Risk of Obesity, Type II Diabetes

A new study shows that psoriasis, obesity and even Type II diabetes is somehow connected with each other on a genetic level. The study also shows that people with psoriasis are more likely to develop obesity and Type II diabetes.

For the study, researchers analyzed the medical data of around 33,500 twins from Denmark. Among the participants, 1.4 percent had diabetes while 4.2 percent were affected by psoriasis. The average body-mass index of all the participants is 24.5, with about 6.3 percent were considered to be clinically obese, BMI between 30 and 34.

After crunching all the data, the researchers discovered that 7.6 percent of the participants who were suffering from psoriasis were also diagnosed with diabetes, significantly higher compared to the 4.1 percent of the participants with psoriasis that didn't develop diabetes. The researchers also found out that people affected by psoriasis tend to have a higher BMI.

The findings, published in the journal ">Dermatology, suggest that the association between psoriasis and obesity could partly be the result of a common genetic cause. Although the study shows a strong link between psoriasis, obesity and diabetes, it still doesn't have any concrete evidence to show a causal relationship between the three.

"Psoriasis, type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity are strongly associated in adults after taking key confounding factors such as sex, age and smoking into account. Results indicate a common genetic etiology of psoriasis and obesity. Conducting future studies on specific genes and epigenetic factors that cause this association is relevant," the authors concluded in their statement.

According to the report of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes patch of thick red skins and silvery scales that can occur to anyone, especially adults. About 3 percent of the world's population suffer from psoriasis, In the United States, about 150,000 new cases of psoriasis are reported every year.