Psoriasis diabetes association shown

A new study confirming an association between psoriasis and diabetes has been released. The study looked at a large group of psoriasis patients and a large group of patients without psoriasis, and found "diabetes was significantly higher in psoriasis patients as compared to the control group...."

But the summary of the study (we have not yet seen the full text) does not indicate if the psoriasis group and control group had similar average body weights or other diabetes risk factors. Other studies have shown that psoriasis patients tend to be heavier than non-psoriasis patients. What would be most useful would be studies that tell us if it is the extra pounds on many psoriasis patients that bring about more diabetes, or something inherent in psoriasis (inflammation, genetics, etc.) that leads to more diabetes.

Until that's cleared up, the fact remains that the medical community seems pretty confident that psoriasis patients could improve their overall health (and perhaps their psoriasis symptoms) by reducing obesity, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption.