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Reviewed by Ray Spotts

Like most conditions, stress is a leading factor associated with flare ups of psoriasis. Because of this, maintaining your stress levels and dealing with stress adequately, is of paramount importance. The way that stress impacts our body is very pertinent to our organs, glands and internal functioning.

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that affects one to three percent of the population. Psoriasis comes in various levels of severity from single inflamed and scaly spots - so-called plaques at the elbows or knees - to a very severe disease pattern affecting the entire skin. Around 20 percent of psoriasis patients additionally suffer from painful arthritis.

The skin condition psoriasis is still not fully understood. What we do know is that it is directly related to the immune system and how that influences the production of skin cells on the body. There is a T cell, which when it works properly, helps to fight off bacteria and viruses. Those who suffer from psoriasis have T cells that attack healthy skin cells, which causes the skin to show effects of the dilation of blood vessels that cause plaque on the skin. This is essentially what causes the skin to look how it does. When new skin cells transfer to the outermost layer of the skin too rapidly, dead skin and white blood cells gather and cause the skin breakouts.