Psoriasis was not only common skin disease. A recent study showed that people with psoriasis have increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Number of patients with psoriasis over the years continued to rise. In the United States alone, approximately 7.5 million people suffer from the symptoms of thick, red, scaly, and itchy skin. Not only physically ill, the patient had psoriasis will also experience a fatal health condition in the future if not controlled properly.

A new study published this week in the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta, the United States was mention of people with psoriasis are more likely to risk of heart attacks and strokes than those not having these skin disorders.

Researchers from Copenhagen University Hospital is to track the number of people with psoriasis, heart disease, stroke, and death in all teens and adults in the Danish population between 1997 and 2006. They found that people with severe psoriasis about 54 percent more likely to suffer a stroke, 21 percent more to get heart attacks, and 53 percent will die after 10 years of illness than non-psoriasis sufferers.

They are also more likely to require surgery such as angioplasty to open their heart arteries are clogged. While patients with mild psoriasis also have the possibility of increased risk of stroke and the angioplasty procedure. People with severe disease at a younger age at highest risk of cardiovascular problems, “said researcher Ole Ahlehoff MD, was quoted by webmd.com.

This analysis take into account other risk factors for heart disease, including age, gender, treatment performed and other health conditions. “People with psoriasis should not only seek care for symptoms of the disorder, but also should be examined to determine risk factors for heart disease and make lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems in the future, such as maintaining a healthy weight,” explained Ahlehoff.

Another study, presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in Miami Beach, Fla., the United States showed psoriasis is also associated with an increased risk of cancers, including skin cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma. Researchers from the Health Economics and Outcomes Research at Abbott Laboratories to get data from insurance claims database that holds information about 93 million people around the United States.

They identified 37,159 people with psoriasis and to compare their possible cancer with 111,473 other people without psoriasis, in the same age. Known, people with psoriasis are likely to suffer from high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and become obese (obesity).
During an average period of about 1.5 to 2 years, approximately 34.8 percent of people with psoriasis was diagnosed with cancer. In contrast, only 23.2 percent of those with healthy skin cancer. Researchers concluded, 56% higher risk of cancer for people with psoriasis.

The type of cancer that can be suffered by people with psoriasis is 75 percent for skin cancer, 87 percent of lymphoma, and 22 percent of prostate cancer. “Some of the medications used for psoriasis are likely to increase the risk of skin cancer.
But the link to other cancers can not be explained by the therapy, “said Alan Menter, MD, Director of the Psoriasis Research Unit at Baylor Research Institute in Dallas, United States.

Psoriasis itself is an immune disorder disease, which affected mainly by T cells (a type of white blood cells). Activated T cells will interact with skin cells (mainly keratinocytes) and resulted in the formation of a thick skin and scaly. The cause of this disease is still unknown, but the researchers have managed to find the abnormal gene that leads to the formation in patients with psoriasis. Thus, this disease has a hereditary disease risks.

Psoriasis is generally not life threatening, although very disturbing quality of life. Personal life, social, and work is also suffering greatly affected by the disease if the skin disorder of a particular place (eg the face, palms of the hands / feet, or genitals).

If not treated properly, complications may develop the disease (the disease becomes worse) as Psoriatic eritroderma (whole body skin becomes red) or generalized psoriasis pustulosa (psoriasis with small bubbles containing pus) that could endanger patients lives.

Nowadays, there are variety of psoriasis treatment is safe and effective. The treatment help to repair the skin conditions and reduce itching complaints. Of the many types of treatment, only a small portion can be cleaned with psoriasis treatment of skin disorders. The process is called clearance or remission.

Until now I have found no drug that can cure psoriasis in total. All the existing treatment can only suppress the symptoms of psoriasis. Most people never reach a state of remission of free treatment. Another thing that must be considered before selecting treatment degrees of severity of psoriasis was suffered. Also, disease location, type, age, sex and medical history, too patient.

Smoking is dangerous, not only because it deals with lung cancer, but also because smoking is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The cumulative consequences of tobacco should be a good reason to quit smoking.

Although you have been a smoker for a long time, various studies confirm, there will still be recovering damages from smoking before.

In a study of 1500 smokers, it is known that after a year of quitting smoking, there was improvement in the arteries caused by the inhalation of cigarette smoke. This means, the risk of coronary heart decrease.

Although smokers who are separated from the cigarette has experienced a slight increase in weight, about 4 kg, the good cholesterol in the blood increase as well, according to research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Other studies have shown, after 15 years of quitting smoking, your risk for heart disease is almost the same as those who never smoked.

Risk to suffer from other diseases, such as bronchitis, emphysema, and cancer, are also reduced. In addition, you also will look and feel younger, more energetic than, more resistant, stronger, and your wrinkles diminish.

This is a series of body changes that will occur as soon as you decide to put down your cigarette 20 minutes ago. Change that are good for health will continue.

- 20 minutes after quitting smoking, heart rate decreased.

- 12 hours later, levels of carbon monoxide in the blood dropped to normal.

- Two weeks to 3 months after quitting, the risk of heart attack begin to drop. Lung function begins to improve.

- 1-9 months after quitting, complaining cough and difficulty of breathing began to decrease.

Diabetes clearly increases the risk of one of various cardiovascular disorders, including heart attacks, hypertension, or stroke. To reduce the risk of heart disease, doctors will usually give medicine to restore the abnormal levels of blood fats.

Unfortunately, recent studies show medicine therapy to control blood pressure and lower blood sugar does not help prevent cardiovascular disease. In fact, medicine therapy in some cases cause side effects.

A decade ago, health officials in the United States conducted three studies to see whether the three types of intensive therapy to lower blood sugar, blood pressure or blood fats are effective for preventing heart attacks and strokes in diabetics (diabetes).

A study of the blood sugar was stopped two years ago when researchers look at blood sugar control treatment was not much effect. However, two studies are in progress.

In studies of blood fats (triglycerides) which is done by researchers from Columbia University and involving 5500 people with diabetes who also have the risk factors of other heart disease, namely hypertension and high cholesterol.

All the respondents received statins, cholesterol-lowering medication. Half of the respondents have triglyceride-lowering medicines and the rest a dummy medicine. Five years later the entire group of respondents known to have the same incidence of stroke and heart attack. This means that medicine therapy does not help much.

From the results of research, proven therapies that incentives by medicine-oatan is not able to reduce the incidence of heart attacks, although it is able to prevent a stroke. However, experts do not recommend people with diabetes to stop taking the medication without consulting their doctors.

So what should people with diabetes do? Stay focused on diet and healthy lifestyle and keep trying medications doctors recommended to reduce the risk of disease, according to Dr.Clyde Yancy, a cardiologist and president of the American Heart Association.

For people with diabetes,  they are advised to eat a varied diet in order to achieve a balance between carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Some have diabetes can control their blood sugar by eating only three meals a day and avoid sweet foods. While the rest need a strict diet.

To reduce the risk of heart disease, do the exercise because it increases blood flow through blood vessels smaller and increase the efficiency of heart pumping power.

Diabetes mellitus or diabetes has become a global health problem. If not treated, complications of diabetes will lead to a variety of other diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, impotence.

Christian Dr. Bibbins-Domingo, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, USA, recently published his research results on the incidence of heart disease with softdrink consumption.

He said the increasing consumption of soft drinks which generally contain high sugar, affects 130,000 new cases of diabetes, 14,000 new cases of heart disease, and 50,000 people with heart problems in the last decade.

“From the results of this study can be concluded, all policies that could reduce the softdrink consumption may have positive impact on public health,” said Dr. Bibbins-Domingo Christian.

By using computer simulation, heart disease associated with a variety of factors, such as obesity and consumption of food containing salt. “So far, we underestimated the incidence between heart disease and  softdrink because it is a popular drinks amongst teenagers. The focus of the disease research is adults over the age of 35,” said Domingo.

He added, the link between the incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes is very real. However, the increasing obesity factors may also be influential.

“Various studies show the impact of consumption of sugary drinks. For decades there have been an increase in sweet drinks consumption,” he said.

The experts warn, to prevent diabetes, we must reduce the intake of beverages with added sugar. If one has diabetes, then the blood sugar, weight, blood pressure and blood fat levels must be controlled. If doing sports could not control it, one should take medication.

Many people are afraid to drink coffee because it is considered to be quite dangerous for the heart. But coffee turnes out to hearth friendly. Coffee only gives a small effect on hypertension patients and is still quite tolerable.

The discovery made by heart researchers can make coffee drinkers in love. The results of this study were presented at a conference this week the American Heart Association (AHA) in San Francisco.

Coffee drinkers have a lower risk for abnormal heart rhythm disease. There is no indication that drinking a cup of coffee a day will increase the risk of atherosclerosis or thickening of blood vessel walls that can cause heart attacks.

In addition, other ingredients in coffee other than caffeine may reduce the risk of diabetes for women who regularly drink.

But not all reports on the AHA’s annual conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention and Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism were really a good news for coffee lovers.

One report found a potential link between drinking coffee and high blood pressure. But do not worry, the effect is described as very simple or minimal.

A study of the heart’s rhythm by examining the 130,054 members of Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program who has been treated in the hospital because of heart rhythm disturbances. Approximately 2 percent of those hospitalized for the disorder and the most common is the problem of atrial fibrillation.

Dr Arthur Klatsky, a senior cardiac consultant who led the study, said those who reported drinking 4 cups of coffee per day has an 18 percent lower risk of heart disease than those who do not drink coffee.

“It may be a surprise, because some people are afraid to drink coffee. And I do not think we’ll be ready to tell the people that they should drink coffee to prevent heart rhythm problems,” Klatsky said, as reported by USNews, Friday (5 / 3 / 2010).

This study does not give a reason why coffee may reduce heart rhythm problems. According to Klatsky, it could be because the coffee drinkers are on a diet or exercises more. But we also can not say with certainty that the coffee was not associated with minor (mild) heart rhythm problems which does not require hospital treatment.

In essence, coffee lovers do not need to stop drinking coffee just because they have problems with heart rhythm.

Another study that followed more than 3 000 men and women aged 20 years also found no relationship between coffee consumption and atherosclerosis for men and women whether black or white, smokers or nonsmokers. Participants in this study are people who do not consume coffee more than 4 cups a day.

“Based on these data, it seems that there is no substantial relationship between drinking coffee with an increase or decrease in atherosclerosis,” said Jared Reis, an epidemiologist at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

The third study, based on reports from the Women’s Health Study, explained that coffee drinkers experienced less diabetes type 2 (diabetes as a lifestyle).

Researchers compared 359 postmenopausal women newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and 359 women without the disease. The results showed that women who drank 4 cups of caffeinated coffee a day are 56 percent lower risk of developing diabetes than those who do not drink coffee.

“What seems to reduce the risk from the effects of caffeine because a hormone binding protein,” said Dr. Liwei Chen, assistant professor of the University of California, Los Angeles. But according to Chen’s initial findings it still requires further study.

Other reports to ensure the consumption of 1-3 cups of coffee a day affects only slightly increased risk of high blood pressure comes from Dr. Liwei Chen, assistant professor of epidemiology at Louisiana State University School of Public Health. He uses data from six studies that included more than 172,000 participants.

“Based on our results, for the long-term coffee drinking may have a risk factor for hypertension, but the effect is not too big,” said Chen.

But Chen also suggested, that it is important for people to reduce consumption of coffee,  if you are worried about blood pressure.