Psoriasis is a horrible condition to endure. Symptoms can be mild or they can be severe. Either way, it is painful, yet its visibility on your skin is often the most difficult to both live with and to manage. Unlike most ailments that you cannot see, psoriasis is impossible to hide. It causes skin irritations that are extremely obvious and very unsightly. The frustration of dealing with it is palpable among sufferers.

Understanding Psoriasis

More and more, people are turning to CBD oil for relief, particularly when prescription medicines fail, and fail they do. There are five types of psoriasis, all presenting slightly different symptoms. Plaque psoriasis, or psoriasis vulgaris, is the most common, presenting in nearly 80 percent of cases. It shows on hands, nails, scalp, and other extremities, such as knees and elbows. The other four types are:

  • Erythrodermic Psoriasis
  • Pustular Psoriasis
  • Inverse Psoriasis
  • Guttate Psoriasis

Psoriasis flares up after triggered by environmental factors, such as stress, alcohol consumption, infection, and even the weather. It is an autoimmune disease, and once triggered, it causes an overproduction of skin cells, which grow faster than they should. Due to this, they are still immature by the time they reach the skin’s surface. As a result, they are rough and scaly, cracking and even bleeding.

Living with Psoriasis

This skin disease wreaks havoc on self-confidence, leaving mental, physical and emotional scars. It turns extroverts into introverts, as it makes people self-conscious, even ashamed. To hide it, sufferers dress differently, covering as much skin as possible and avoiding social interactions wherever they can. Nearly 7.5 million people have psoriasis in America, usually between the ages of 15-years and 35-years old.

Treating it is tricky. Standard therapeutic options include a variety of topicals, phototherapy, and prescription medications, which have nasty side effects and even lifelong consequences. The goal of conventional treatment is to target an overactive immune system and try to rebalance it. This is where cannabidiol, or CBD, proves incredibly effective, and is why psoriasis sufferers are using it in droves.

How CBD Oil Treats Psoriasis

CBD is but one cannabinoid abundant in cannabis plants. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is another. Unlike THC, however, CBD is non-psychoactive. It will not make you high. People commonly use CBD to treat an array of disorders already, such as inflammation, pain, and nausea. Now, people are using the unique benefits of CBD to treat psoriasis and other skin conditions too.

Science shows CBD using a three-prong approach to relieving psoriasis. Firstly, it provides the body’s endocannabinoid system with much needed support. The endocannabinoid system is complex and plays a crucial role in homeostasis, which maintains balance in all functions. Secondly, CBD has antipruritic properties, so it stops the itch, and thirdly, it suppresses any overactive immune response.

  • CBD Supports the Endocannabinoid System

The endocannabinoid system is largely responsible for skin health. Research proves that phytocannabinoids, those stemming from plants, such as CBD, can act as endocannabinoids when the body produces too little, which helps to rebalance the endocannabinoid system and give it a desperately needed boost. This, in itself, can relieve immune-triggered skin conditions.

Scientists believe that the endocannabinoid system “controls the proper and well-balanced proliferation, differentiation and survival, as well as immune competence and tolerance of skin cells.” Researchers theorize that, by treating psoriasis with cannabinoid therapy, patients can find significant relief for psoriasis and almost all other skin afflictions.

  • CBD Is Antipruritic

Antipruritic medications relieve skin irritation and itching. Itching, called pruritus, is a common symptom of psoriasis and drives all sufferers insane. A study exploring the effects of cannabinoid topicals on pruritus found an 86 percent reduction in itchiness. It concluded that, “Topical cannabinoid agonists represent a new effective and well-tolerated therapy for refractory itching of various origins.”

More importantly, it also noted, “Creams with a higher concentration of cannabinoids may be even more effective with broader indications.” This means that the more CBD you smear onto your skin, the more it will work to relieve psoriasis-related itching. With further study, scientists will learn more about how and why cannabinoid therapies are so effective at treating skin ailments.

  • CBD Suppresses Immune Response

Scientists, almost accidentally, connected psoriasis to immune malfunction back in 1979. Researchers discovered that the disease responded very well to an immunosuppressant drug they were testing. Evidence already shows that cannabidiol is promising as a natural alternative to conventional immunosuppressant drugs.

Since the immune system uses inflammation to fight infection and illness, autoimmune diseases go hand in hand with chronic inflammation. CBD is a powerful anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant, both of which enable it to stop an overactive immune response to triggers of psoriasis. Further study is underway to secure the future of cannabinoid therapy for treating this skin condition.  

  • How to choose CBD oil

CBD oil is safe, no matter how you use it, and effective, a claim that mounting bodies of research support. If you have psoriasis, you now have a natural alternative to other, often ineffective, treatment options. You can buy CBD oil online or at your local dispensary, and you can use it as often as you need to, whether you apply it topically, which is advisable, smoke, vape,  or even eat it.  

 

Author: Camilla Morgan is a blogger by profession with 5 years of experience. She is associated with CBD Safe and selling pure Cannabidiol & Best CBD oil products in the USA. She is an admirer of sharing her innovative ideas with others on the Wellness for Mind and Body.