Can treating psoriasis help to unclog your arteries?
Study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood institute has found that treating inflammatory conditions with biologics may play a role in reducing cardiovascular disease risks.
Biologic drugs are produced from living organisms or contain components of living organisms. They can be derived from many sources such as humans, animals, or microorganisms.
Researchers have found that when treating patients with psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, with biologics it helped lower cardiovascular disease risks. The use of the biologics saw a decrease in early plaque buildup that can clog arteries and restrict blood flow. The build up clog can ultimately cause a heart attack or stroke.
The risk factors for a heart attack are usually diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, family history or smoking. This finding suggests that there may be a sixth risk factor, inflammation.
The use of biologics in psoriasis patients is to reduce the amount of systemic inflammation that occur due to the disease. This finding may also help other that have inflammatory disease such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. As cardiovascular events occur at a higher rate in people with inflammatory diseases.
The observational study consisted of 290 psoriasis patients, 121 who had used a biologic in their treatment of psoriasis. And 171 who did not elect to receive a biologic in their treatment.
An 8% reduction in coronary artery plaque were seen in patient that had used biologics in their treatment.
Beneficial changes in the plaque were also seen in the patients that were treated with biologics. The study noted that over the one-year study there were sub-component changes in the coronary plaque that included its necrotic core and non-calcified components. Both of which are culprits in many heart attacks.
For more information, please visit National Institute of Heath
Questions: Are there any other ways we can try and reduce the inflammation in our body through our lifestyle choices? How can we build on these findings?
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