A person’s vitamin D levels could play an important role in psoriasis severity, according to one of the largest studies to date.
The study was conducted in the United States at the Department of Dermatology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Rhode Island. The research team was led by Eunyoung Cho, ScD, (an associate professor in the department) who studies the role of nutrition and environmental factors in skin cancer and inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis.
Vitamin D is thought to influence the development of skin diseases by affecting the body’s immune response and through direct effects on the cells involved in skin repair. The analysis, which included almost 500 psoriasis cases from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), showed a linear relationship between increasing psoriasis severity and decreasing vitamin D levels measured through blood tests.
Rachel K. Lim, an MD candidate at the University, presented the findings at NUTRITION 2023, the annual flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, held recently in Boston.
Lim said:
“Topical synthetic vitamin D creams are emerging as new therapies for psoriasis, but these usually require a doctor’s prescription, our results suggest that a vitamin D-rich diet or oral vitamin D supplementation may also provide some benefit to psoriasis patients.”
Lead researcher Cho said:
“With growing public interest in vitamin supplementation, we wanted to further examine the connection between vitamin D levels and psoriasis severity, few studies have looked for this association in groups of people, especially in large U.S. populations, or examined this relationship through a clinical nutrition lens.”
The study included 491 people with psoriasis. The researchers looked at self-reported psoriasis-affected body surface area and other factors including age, gender, race, body mass index, and smoking status. They also extracted data on vitamin D levels.
After adjusting for lifestyle factors such as smoking, the analysis showed that lower vitamin D levels and vitamin D deficiency were significantly associated with greater psoriasis severity.
The researchers also found that people with the least amount of body surface affected by psoriasis had the highest average vitamin D levels, while those with the greatest affected area had the lowest average levels of vitamin D.
Although dietary vitamin D toxicity is rare, the researchers advise people with psoriasis to consult their healthcare provider before taking supplements.
Foods which contain vitamin D include: Oily fish, salmon, mackerel, sardines, egg yolks, red meat and liver. With all adjustments to your diet you need to make sure you have a full balanced diet of all food groups see our information on Psoriatic lifestyle and nutrition.