If you have psoriasis or eczema, or you suspect that you do, your first thought may be where to go first. Do you visit your dermatologist or hope that the symptoms simply disappear by themselves? Dermatologists can be expensive and the doctor’s is not always easy to visit. Use the internet to find many websites dedicated to answering people’s questions about psoriasis and eczema.

Most of these websites are run by non-profit organisations and cover a host of topics from treatment, symptoms and community forums where you can share your experiences.

No one on these sites will judge you for suffering from psoriasis. The worst symptoms can be itching and burning pain, and the skin effects it has can make some people self-conscious which is understood by the people on the website. For this reason, you can always be sure that whoever you speak to from the foundation will listen with a caring and sympathetic ear.

Your GP can take you through a wide choice of treatments available to use, each with different strengths depending on how severe your psoriasis and eczema symptoms are. Those people with severe forms of psoriasis like Erythrodermic psoriasis may require hospitalisation as the disease can cause heart failure and infections.

Most sufferers of the disease will only have mild symptoms caused by a less severe form of the disease. The most common form of the disease is plaque psoriasis as 80% of victims suffer with it.

There is no preventative for an outbreak of psoriasis and no life long cure. The cause of the disease is genetic, passed from generation to generation but in no particular order. The disease can skip several generations before it emerges again and so you may not have any living relatives with the disease. The initial outbreak can be caused by several factors including an infection in the throat like tonsillitis, stress or alcohol.

There is help and treatment available to you if you suffer from or have a loved one who suffers from psoriasis or eczema so do not worry!