A recent study, led by UC Davis researchers, has found that there is a great likelihood that Diabetes is linked to psoriasis, as was published online in “Archives of Dermatology”. These findings are in an article titled, “Psoriasis and the Risk of Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis” In this study, April Armstrong (an assistant professor of dermatology at UC Davis) states, “Our investigation found a clear association between psoriasis and the risk of diabetes”. Professor Armstrong has been quoted saying that people with mild or severe psoriasis (along with their health care professional)must to be very aware that the risk of getting diabetes has increased, and diabetic screening should be done often to benefit from catching and treating the disease in its early stages.

This study examined 27 patients with psoriasis, with 5 of these studies looking at how many of them developed diabetes during the term of the 20 year study. All told 314,000 psoriasis patients were compared to nearly 4 million psoriasis-free people. The psoriasis was classified by how severe was the condition. The total information from these studies determined that those with even just mild psoriasis were 1.5 times more likely to get diabetes when compared to the overall population. However, those with severe psoriasis were twice as likely to contract diabetes. In addition, it was discovered that people who suffer with psoriasis had over a 25 percent increased risk of developing diabetes, if they had not yet, when compared to people that showed no signs of psoriasis.

Professor Armstrong has stated that, “The large sample size and consistent association between psoriasis and diabetes make these study findings very strong and suggest an underlying physiological link between the two diseases”.  Armstrong’s group does state however, that addition research is required to get an understanding as to how the two diseases are interlinked. There is evidence that points to the fact that fat cells in people with psoriasis may be disfunctional. She also says that “These cells secrete inflammatory substances known cytokines that increase insulin resistance in the liver and muscle and initiatedestruction of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas”.

This study adds to the research already performed on psoriasis patients that strongly suggests that psoriasis is not just a skin disease. The endothelial cells, which are cells that line the blood vessels, will be the next thing that Armstrong’s group will be studying to try to find out the physiological basis of psoriasis and exactly how Diabetes is linked to Psoriasis.