Waking to find your psorisis has appeared on your face and around your hair line can be very upsetting as its the most visual place for it to appear.
One of the most common psoriasis triggers that can cause 'morning psoriasis' can be skin reactions to chemicals in normal shampoos that can irritate and weaken the skin around the hairline and trigger a morning psoriasis outbreak on the face and scalp.
Research shows that people who are prone to psoriasis tend to have more ‘reactive’ skin, so skin reactions on the face and around the hairline to detergents such as sodium lauryl sulfate in many normal shampoos are much more likely.
Psoriasis is a recurrent skin condition that affects around 2% of the UK population. It is caused by an acceleration of skin cell production.
Normally a skin cell matures in 21-28 days. Psoriatic cells, however, turn over in 2-3 days and in such profusion that the live cells reach the surface and accumulate with the dead cells still in visible layers (hence the plaques).
5 triggers of Morning Psoriasis
1. Shampoo & hair products
Most ordinary shampoos contain chemical detergents in order to remove grease from hair. These detergents can be aggravating to reactive skin and over time may lead to contact skin reactions. Often with facial psoriasis it will appear around the hairline and behind the ears and this can be a sign of psoriasis that might be triggered by a shampoo or hair care product.
Morning psoriasis sufferer Clare Reece says: “In the morning the psoriasis on my scalp was always really bad; I would leave flakes of skin wherever I went. Since changing my hair care routine to Oregon haircare products, I’ve noticed that it was actually the shampoo I was using that was a big cause of my facial and scalp psoriasis”.
Oregon Shampoo and Oregon Conditioner contain the plant extract Oregon Grape Root.
A UK trial found that a natural hair and skincare range containing Oregon Grape Root (OGR), was highly effective in reducing the symptoms associated with the skin condition psoriasis.
The two-month trial, conducted on 50 people, found that the Oregon hair care products improved scalp and facial psoriasis for 86% of the patients, with 75% of these experiencing a marked improvement after just four weeks.
OGR is a native plant of North America and has been extensively examined as a treatment for psoriasis in several published studies. These studies have found that compounds isolated from extracts of OGR possess inhibitory activity against Lipoxygenase (an enzyme involved in psoriatic skin cell production). At the cellular level, OGR has been shown to guard against accelerated activity during the process of keratinocytes (skin cell production).
2. Allergies
Research has made links between psoriasis and skin allergies such as eczema and hay fever. Research shows that people with psoriasis are more likely to have a large number of inflammatory mast cells, which play a part in triggering allergic reactions like swelling and itching.
When skin allergies are triggered by things such as reactions to pollen in bed clothes from sleeping with an open window or reactions to washing powder used on bed clothes it's more likely that psoriasis flare ups may occur in the morning.
3. Stress & Insomnia
Studies show that stress is one of the most common psoriasis triggers.
Periods of heightened stress which often lead to insomnia are more likely to increase the risk of a morning psoriasis flares.
4. Infections
Common infections can trigger a sudden flare up of psoriasis. Throat infections, colds and flu are all known psoriasis triggers and can cause flare ups.
Symptoms of infections like this tend to get worse at night when the body's temperature rises, adding to a higher risk of triggering morning psoriasis.
5. Sunburn
While a bit of sun exposure can actually help reduce or prevent psoriasis, sunburn or any trauma to the skin that causes inflammation can trigger a psoriasis flare up.
With trauma to the skin after sunburn the symtoms and heat often get worse at night so if a psoriasis flare has been trigegred it will often appear at the site of the trauma the next morning.
