“For beautiful skin, lose weight”. This is not the last advertising promise but a piece of advice that could be given to people with psoriasis. Weight loss would indeed improve the condition of their skin with less plaques on the body. A study published in the American Journal of Nutrition shows that losing weight improves the symptoms of this skin disease. The red patches and scales usually observed on the skin of patients decrease in number and in surface area.
Danish researchers followed 60 obese patients with psoriasis. Half of them observed a low-calorie diet and lost an average of 15 kilos over a period of 16 weeks. The other half had no particular dietary restrictions or instructions. The researchers analyzed the consequences of the diet on the skin of the patients using the index of area and severity of psoriasis, and the dermatological index of quality of life.
Lasting improvements
People who lost weight saw an improvement in psoriasis symptoms, as well as a better quality of life. Psoriasis and obesity are two diseases known to be responsible for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes. Losing weight therefore has a double effect for these patients.
A year after the start of the experiment, most of the people on a diet remained ten kilos lower than their starting weight. The health benefits were also maintained. Professor Arne Astrup believes that “the findings underscore the importance of focusing on weight loss as part of a broad approach to treating psoriasis in overweight people. Weight loss would also improve the complications of obesity and therefore general well-being”.
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