Researchers reveal a link between lower physical fitness and increased risk of psoriasis

In a large chart-based study, scientists at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have now revealed a link between inferior physical fitness in young adults and an increased risk for autoimmune disease psoriasis. For the men recruited to mandatory weapon training deemed most appropriate, the risk of developing psoriasis later was 35 percent higher than for the most suitable.

The study was based on data on more than 1.2 million men, aged 18, enlisted in the Swedish Armed Forces between 1968 and 2005. During the registration process, all of these young men were subjected to the same. exercise bike fitness test. The researchers divided the data, according to the suitability of the men, into three levels (low, medium and high fitness). They then combined the data with other records, using the Swedish National Patient Register to obtain diagnostic codes for psoriasis and the diseased psoriatic arthritis. The men who had undergone one of these studies were found before being excluded from the study.

Later in life, between the ages of 37 and 51, just over 23,000 of the patients developed psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis. In the low-fitness group, 2.5 percent developed one or both of these diseases, and only 1.7 percent did so in that high-fitness group. In measuring this risk difference, the scientists adjusted for other risk factors, such as body mass index (BMI).

Society or causal

Thus, the smaller the men when recruited, the higher the proportion who would be ill with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis. In the low-fitness group, the risk of developing psoriasis was 35 percent higher, and the risk of developing psoriatic arthritis 44 percent higher, than in the high-fitness group.

We show a link between lower fitness and a higher risk of developing psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, but we do not show a causal link. So we cannot say that these health conditions can be prevented by exercising. “

Marta Laskowski, S.tudy First Author, D.Octoral Student, Dermatology, University of Gothenburg & Resident Physician, Sahlgrenska University Hospital

An organization that needs to be investigated

The most suitable group of men was also the smallest: just under 48,000 or 3.9 percent of the writings in the study. This is an organization that health care services should try to monitor regularly.

“Low mood was already known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, and psoriasis is therefore associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease as well. The results from our study confirm the reasons for evaluation. people ‘s well – being early in life, to put individuals at higher risk for adverse health outcomes later in life, “Laskowski says.

Previous research has shown that, in general, people with psoriasis are less likely than those without to engage in an equal amount of physical activity. However, the reasons for this difference have not been fully clarified.

“One weakness in our study is that we were unable to monitor men’s fitness trends in the years between, between writing and disease. We also lack data on smoking, which is known to be a risk. for psoriasis, “Laskowski explains.

Scaly skin patches

Some 300,000 Swedes have psoriasis in a mild, moderate or severe form. It is a systemic infectious disease that affects women as often as men. What motivates it is not entirely clear, but heredity is known to play a major role in conjunction with external factors. The most common type, plaque psoriasis, causes reddened, flaking, and itchy skin lesions (“plaques”).

Other diseases are often accompanied by psoriasis. Some 30 percent get the joint inflammatory condition called psoriatic arthritis. Other known comorbidities are obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and depression.

In recent years, treatment options have greatly improved. Today, in addition to ointments with local effects, there are drugs that have systemic effects. In recent years also effective biological agents have emerged that alter the inhibition of symptoms in the inflammatory process that drives psoriasis.