Why in all diets, in all the recommendations of doctors for the prevention of recurrence of chronic diseases, in all the rules for the treatment of psoriasis, special emphasis is placed on the prohibition of alcohol? Maybe doctors exaggerate somewhat the influence of alcoholic beverages on the patient’s condition and the course of the disease as a whole? How are alcohol and psoriasis related ? Let’s try to understand this issue from all sides.  

To drink or not to drink?

You don’t need to be an expert to understand how negative the effects of alcohol on the human body are. To do this, you do not need to conduct any research – each of us at least once in his life, but experienced this influence on himself. Intoxication, morning headache, dry mouth, trembling hands, chills – all these “delights” of yesterday’s “libation” are familiar to the vast majority of the adult population of our country.

Patients with psoriasis are no exception, because no matter how the disease changes a person’s life, he cannot deny himself the small joys, the desire to “relax”. Therefore, it is not surprising that after weekends or holidays, during which the patients of dermatological dispensaries left the hospital, their condition deteriorated sharply – the manifestations of psoriasis sharply worsened, or the results achieved during treatment came to naught.

There is nothing strange and, moreover, new, in this – alcohol always remains a hepato-toxic poison, which reduces important detoxifying functions of the liver. Moreover, in any kind of alcohol there are no useful substances necessary for the normal course of metabolic processes in the body, as there are no components necessary for building cells, including skin cells. It is also natural that the metabolism in the body of a patient with psoriasis is altered, and alcohol has a negative effect on biochemical processes, which cannot but worsen the general situation.

What’s happening?

The cells of the liver and brain absorb alcohol most actively. The more often and more a person drinks, the more irreversible the changes in these organs become. Alcohol metabolites are retained in all important internal organs of a drinking person for a period of two weeks, and with subsequent drinks they accumulate in the liver, stomach, brain, nervous system, heart, kidneys even more. And the consequences of this are dire, especially if you associate alcohol and psoriasis or another complex chronic disease of a neuro-allergenic nature.  

Alcohol consumption leads to a lack of vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins, and mineral components in the body. Because of this, the absorption and assimilation by the body of nutrients and water-soluble vitamins, especially the most important vitamins of group B, deteriorates.That is, alcohol aggravates the course of psoriasis, leads to generalization of psoriatic plaques and promotes the transition of uncomplicated psoriasis into psoriatic erythroderma.

According to the results of numerous observations of patients with various forms of psoriasis, it was found that alcohol consumption leads to an increase in relapses of the disease, outbreaks occur regardless of the seasons of the year, the manifestations are much more severe and much more difficult to respond to general treatment. Itching, which so torments psoriasis patients, under the influence of alcohol becomes pervasive and truly unbearable.

Moreover, in people suffering from alcoholism, cases of psoriasis are observed 5 times more often than in people leading a healthy lifestyle. In addition, in 55-60% of patients, psoriasis first manifested itself against the background of constant consumption of alcoholic beverages, and in the rest, the course of the disease became much more severe.

Conclusion: alcohol and psoriasis are incompatible. Even the smallest doses of alcohol, even very rare cases of drinking alcohol, are undesirable for patients with psoriasis. A frivolous attitude to this rule can lead to the most undesirable consequences. Be prudent and attentive to your own health!