In this blog post, I’ll tell you about the science of using an infrared sauna and psoriasis. I’ll first talk about the basics of the health condition and then explain several mechanisms in which infrared saunas can counter psoriasis symptoms. These symptoms include inflammation, pain, and others.
So let's begin with the basics:
What Is Psoriasis? Psoriasis Science 101
Psoriasis is a disease in which your immune system attacks itself and is characterised mostly by skin damage and pain (1; 2; 3). In people with psoriasis, the skin has bumps and plaques and is chronically inflamed. These skin problems are found all over the body and sometimes expand to the mouth and eyes. The symptoms appear because the immune system responds against the body's own cells.
Psoriasis is at least in part genetically inherited - if people in your direct family have the health condition you’ll be at greater risk too. However, environmental factors are thought to be the triggers of psoriasis. Adults are most affected by psoriasis.
If you’ve got psoriasis, your risk of getting other diseases also increases. These diseases include anxiety, depression, diabetes, heart and blood vessel conditions, arthritis, and other autoimmune problems (4; 5).
Standard treatments against psoriasis now include ultraviolet light exposure and prescription drugs. These drugs include creams and medication that suppress parts of the immune system - all of which aren’t without side effects.
So, that’s where the psoriasis and infrared sauna connection originates: the 2% of the population affected by psoriasis want to manage their symptoms without having to resort to interventions that include side effects. So in the remainder of this blog post I'll focus on natural treatments like infrared saunas.
How? Well, psoriasis is intertwined with increases in inflammation, for instance (6; 7; 8). Infrared saunas, in turn, can affect bodily inflammation at several levels - a connection I’ll explore in more detail in the next section:
The Infrared Sauna Psoriasis Symptom Countering Approach
Currently, there’s no fix for psoriasis. As a result, managing symptoms instead of resolving the condition becomes the main incentive. That’s where the psoriasis infrared sauna connection comes in - in this section I’ll explore several means through which psoriasis symptoms can be affected: