If you have ever had lice, you had a small taste of what it is like to have psoriasis vulgaris. Imagine that uncomfortable itchiness and dryness of skin everyday, for the rest of your life. Psoriasis Vulgaris is an autoimmune disease that attacks a person's skin and immune system. There are many side-effects and outcomes that affect your body from having psoriasis. To understand psoriasis better let us look at the symptoms, statistics, physiology and treatment options. Common external symptoms of Psoriasis Vulgaris are dryness and flaking of skin, itchiness, red bumps and bleeding. Although there are five different types of psoriasis vulgaris, many of them share these symptoms. The first and most common type is plaque psoriasis. This is when skin is red and raised with white scales around the risen parts. Plaque psoriasis is typically on a person's scalp, knees, back and elbows. Inverse psoriasis, also known as …show more content…
As a person with plaque psoriasis it seems like the community of people with psoriasis is small. I personally do not know anyone else who also has this disease. This makes it hard to explain when people ask what's wrong with my neck, or why there is so much dead skin on my shoulders. At a young age I came to the conclusion that if I were to mention in a conversation that I had AIDS or diabetes I would be more likely to get a response of, “Oh my cousin has that, too.” Or a, “Yeah, I know what that is,” simply because those diseases are more common and talked about in health classes and in the media. But contrary to my belief, many people are diagnosed with psoriasis. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, 7.4 million or approximately 2% of United States citizens suffer from psoriasis. Granted, this may seem miniscule compared to the whopping 318.9 million total population of the United States of America. However, there are 125 million people throughout the world diagnosed with