Shingles and Psoriasis: Strange Connection

Both shingles and psoriasis are skin conditions.

But they are very different skin conditions that often bother different demographics, and for a very different reason.

So how could there possibly be a connection between the two?

A new study published in the Australasian Journal of Dermatology found a connection—a clear connection that some might even say is a weird connection.

A team of Korean researchers found that the existing literature on the relationship between psoriasis and shingles was inconclusive, so they decided to conduct their own large study to settle the issue.

Psoriasis is an autoimmune skin disease characterized by the formation of dry plaques on your skin. Shingles occurs when the chickenpox virus, called herpes zoster, exits its dormant state and reactivates in your body to cause blisters on your skin.

Previous research has found that people with psoriasis are more likely than the general population to develop shingles, so the Korean researchers decided to investigate.

They obtained data on a large sample of Korean adults from the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment System. These data had been originally collected between 2002 and 2013.

They identified 11,009 psoriasis patients and 44,036 control subjects without psoriasis for comparison. They matched these two groups for age, sex, income, and area of residence.

They found that shingles was more common in the psoriasis group than in the non-psoriasis group, with the psoriasis group having a 22% higher risk of developing shingles.

People with mild or severe psoriasis experienced the same increase in shingles risk, and the risk was the same for all ages. The relationship was especially strong in men.

This is fairly consistent with previous studies that have found a relationship between the two.

So why does this connection exist? Probably because both conditions have the same underlying cause: a problem with the immune system—specifically a problem with special gut bacteria that influence the immune system.

If you’re suffering with shingles or its aftereffects, click here to learn the exact approach for eliminating them…

And if you have psoriasis, click here to learn how to eliminate psoriasis permanently in days…