A new research study suggests that smokers have an increased risk of developing the chronic skin condition, psoriasis. People with psoriasis develop thick, red, scaly patches on the skin that are usually itchy and sore.Medical researchers believe the disease is caused by an abnormal immune system attack on the body’s own cells. While some of the researchers suggested that smokers are more at risk to psoriasis.

US health researchers followed about 186,000 men and women for nearly 12 to 20 years and during this time period 2,410 people developed psoriasis.

The largest research reported that current smokers of the study were almost two times as likely as lifelong non-smokers to develop psoriasis, while the past smokers (current not smoking) had a 39% higher risk than non-smokers.

However, the latest findings by the researchers do not prove that smoking itself causes psoriasis in some people.

One of the senior researchers of the study, Dr. Abrar Qureshi from the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston said that it is clear that the smoking came before the psoriasis.

Dr. Qureshi said that earlier research studies discovered the links between psoriasis, and both obesity and heavy drinking, but after accounting for those factors, the smoking-psoriasis link remained.

The U.S. leading patient-driven, nonprofit advocacy organization, National Psoriasis Foundation, reported that nearly 7.5 million Americans have psoriasis.

According to the health professionals, the Type 1 psoriasis starts in teenagers and young adults, and it is related to family history of the disease, while the Type 2 psoriasis occurs later in life, and it tends to be milder and less related to inheritance.

U.S. researchers led by Dr. Qureshi, noted that their current study’s people were middle-aged to older, so it is probable that they had type 2 psoriasis.

Dr. Qureshi said that smoking is one of the main risk factors for heart disease and quitting smoking seems important for people with psoriasis.

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