Sometimes it’s easy to see why there might be a connection between different diseases. For type 2 diabetes, it’s not surprising to learn that other health problems such as obesity and insulin resistance are commonly found alongside it. But it’s not always that simple. While on the surface it might seem unlikely that the skin condition psoriasis could have anything to do with type 2 diabetes, a new study appears to confirm that, actually, it does.
This isn’t a brand new concept. Researchers have thought for a few years that there might be some sort of connection between the two diseases. For example, a previous study noted that diabetes and hypertension were more common among people who had psoriasis compared to people that didn’t have psoriasis. But now a new study has found an even stronger connection between the two conditions.
The conclusion was based on 27 different studies looking at over 300,000 people with psoriasis with 3.7 million without the skin condition acting as a control group. The results were quite clear. If you have mild psoriasis you have 1.5 times the chance of developing type 2 diabetes. If you have severe psoriasis you are twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes than someone who doesn’t have psoriasis. It was also noted that ethnicity and where the person lives did not have any impact on the rates of diabetes.
The researchers suggested that while more research is necessary to understand the reasons why, there is a strong physiological link between the two conditions. One important area of research could be fat cells, which have been noted to function abnormally among people who have psoriasis.
The study is an indicator that doctors should now consider factors of both diseases when they have a patient who has either of the conditions.