What Causes Psoriatic Arthritis?

« « Back Pain Treatment for Psoriatic Arthritis and Osteoarthritis | What Causes Rheumatoid Arthritis? » »

What Causes Psoriatic Arthritis?

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Psoriatic arthritis is a disease that usually appears in patients that already suffer from psoriasis, a condition that usually affects the skin and nails by developing red, thickened, scaly skin patches and broken and pitted nails. Once psoriasis is exhibited, sometimes people will also develop joint inflammation that makes out an important symptom of psoriatic arthritis. But what causes psoriatic arthritis?

The exact answer to what causes psoriatic arthritis is still not known. What we do know is why we notice joint inflammation. The reason behind this manifestation stands in the fact that cells of the human immune system end up attacking joints. Psoriatic arthritis is labeled as an inflammatory autoimmune disorder and this is exactly the reason why. Although there have been many studies conducted in order to find out what causes psoriatic arthritis, we still do not have any success in finding out a concrete reason.

Many theories have been issued but none are backed with proof. One of the most popular stands in the fact that bacteria that lives in patches of psoriasis can trigger an infection that ends up causing psoriatic arthritis. We do know that there is a trigger for the disease in individuals suffering from psoriasis but we do not know exactly which one that is.

What we do know so far is that what causes psoriatic arthritis is similar in both sexes as men and women do posses an equal exposure to the disease. On the other hand, we can notice that it is more common in individuals that show psoriasis affecting the nails. We do not see any link between the severity of skin problems and the severity of arthritis though, even if they do happen at the same time. The fact that nails are affected in most cases and the patient ends up developing psoriatic arthritis is also another reason why specialists tend to focus on the eventual presence of the bacteria mentioned above. Also, psoriasis often runs in the family but it does not have a genetic connection between generations and neither there is such a link visible in the case of psoriatic arthritis.

Unfortunately, until we find out exactly what causes psoriatic arthritis, we need to concentrate on treatment solutions available. There are a lot of medications for psoriatic arthritis and many other solutions are present in dealing with the disease. Even if it is not always 100 percent treatable, it can still turn to a condition that you can easily live with.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.