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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Women with psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, appear to have an increased risk for developing diabetes and high blood pressure, Harvard researchers said.
In a study involving more than 78,000 women who were followed for 14 years, those with psoriasis were 63 percent more likely to develop diabetes and 17 percent more likely to develop high blood pressure than those without the skin disease.
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Other recent studies have also linked psoriasis, which affects between 1 percent and 3 percent of the population, with an increased risk of other illnesses and death.
The researchers said the inflammation associated with psoriasis could explain the associations between psoriasis and hypertension and diabetes. Inflammation is a known risk factor for high blood pressure and may also contribute to insulin resistance, a pre-diabetic stage where the body does not respond to glucose-regulating hormone insulin, the study's authors said.
They said their findings illustrate the importance of considering psoriasis a systemic disorder rather than simply a skin disease and future studies should investigate whether psoriasis therapies can reduce the risk for diabetes and high blood pressure.
SOURCE: Archives of Dermatology, 2009;145:379-382
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