A whopping 125 million people worldwide are living with psoriasis, so you'd think there would be more comprehensive info out there about it. Unfortunately, nope. There's still plenty of confusion...not to mention skewed representation of the condition as only really affecting people with white skin.
In fact, psoriasis affects 1.9 percent of the African American population in the U.S. and 1.6 percent of the Hispanic population, as compared to 3.6 percent of Caucasians, according to one study published in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology. But despite the fact that the condition can affect anyone, examples of psoriasis in medical textbooks and references are often shown on lighter skin tones, leaving a gap in understanding how psoriasis shows up on deeper skin.
“While many psoriasis patients can point to a family history, others report no one in their family that is afflicted with psoriasis,” says board-certified dermatologist, Corey L. Hartman, MD, the founder of Skin Wellness Dermatology in Birmingham, Alabama. The skin condition can develop at any time and in anyone.
Ahead, two board-certified dermatologists break down how to better understand how this chronic skin condition affects Black skin specifically—from how it appears on darker skin to how to keep it under control.
Source:
Women's Health
