Psoriasis Impacts Not Only Your Skin

Woman scratching at psoriasis not realizing it can lead to hearing loss.

The word psoriasis usually conjures up images of people with skin problems like the ones on all those advertisements. Psoriasis affects your general health and not just your skin. Psoriasis is frequently misunderstood and minimized, due to a lack of knowledge of how psoriasis impacts sufferers as well as the serious conditions that can be related to this disorder. Psoriasis causes reactions through the whole body despite the fact that skin plaques are the most recognizable sign: The risk of metabolic disorders that are increased by chronic irritation and cardiovascular disease.

Psoriasis is also connected to another concern according to a different recent study: Hearing loss. Published in The Journal of Rheumatology, this study looked at connections between psoriatic arthritis, mental health, and hearing impairment. Psoriatic arthritis has an impact on the joints, and is a kind of psoriasis, causing soreness, difficulty with movement, and swelling. The normal plaques might not be experienced by people who suffer from psoriatic arthritis.

With psoriatic arthritis, the body is essentially attacking its own healthy cells in the same way that it does with rheumatoid arthritis because they are all autoimmune illnesses. But unlike rheumatoid arthritis, you might have psoriatic arthritis on only one knee because it’s asymmetrical, and that aside from joints, it commonly targets sufferer’s nails (leading to painfully swollen fingers and toes) and eyes.

Based on the findings of this recent study, inflammation caused by psoriatic arthritis might also affect hearing. A significant control group of individuals with neither psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis were compared to people who had one or the other problem. They discovered that loss of hearing was more likely to be documented by the group that suffered from psoriasis, and those reports were supported by audiometric screening. Even when other risk considerations are taken into consideration, people diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis were significantly more prone to have loss of hearing than either {psoriasis sufferers or the control group}.

But there is an evident link between psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and hearing loss. A 2015 study found that there is a substantially higher risk, for people with psoriasis, of getting sudden sensorineural hearing loss, or sudden deafness. With sudden sensorineural hearing loss, sufferer’s ability to hear diminishes substantially in three days or less. There are numerous possible causes for this, but scientists hypothesize that individuals who have psoriasis are in greater danger because of the kind of quick inflammation that occurs during a flare-up of psoriasis symptoms. If this takes place in or around the cochlea, it may impair hearing. This type of hearing loss, in certain situations, can be helped by treatments that relieve psoriasis., but hearing aids are often recommended when other treatments don’t appear to be helping.

If you suffer from psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, it’s important to monitor your hearing. Make regular hearing exams along with your yearly health-care appointments. Disease related to inflammation can lead to inner ear harm, which can lead to hearing loss and troubles with balance. psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis are both also connected with depression and anxiety, both of which can be additionally aggravated by loss of hearing. Loss of hearing is a condition you want to catch early because neglected hearing loss can result in other health troubles including dementia.

Awareness is key, and cooperating with your doctors and frequently getting your hearing tested can assist you in keeping in front of symptoms with early intervention. Neither hearing loss nor psoriasis should cause you to sacrifice your quality of life, and having the right team by your side can make a big difference.

The site information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. To receive personalized advice or treatment, schedule an appointment.