Dermatologists around the world have experienced the pain of psoriasis through patients. They agree that minimization of flare ups requires more than just taking your medication and/or treatments. The main tips from dermatologists to help you minimize your own psoriatic symptoms include:

1. Good Health Rules Are Important. Eat a balanced diet as recommended by the FDA, drink plenty of water (64oz a day is best), get your 8 hours of sleep. Not only will these help your body with your psoriasis symptoms, but they help fight other infections.

2. Smokers Need To Quit Smoking. Research shows that smoking may trigger psoriasis, specifically pustular psoriasis, a painful, itchy condition on the hands and feet. Often, quitting smoking clears the skin. Severe psoriasis has also been linked to smoking. Nicotine patches are not recommended with your dermatologist's advice. These can aggravate the skin, especially in psoriasis patients.

3. Stress Reduction is a Necessity. Stressful times often aggravate psoriasis, not only causing emergence of symptoms, but increasing them as the reemergence causes stress in itself. Support, counseling, exercise, and relaxation techniques are all ways to alleviate stress.

5. Limit Your Alcohol Consumption. Studies show that there may be a link between severe psoriasis and heavy drinking as well as preventing psoriasis treatments from working properly. If you do drink, you should do so in moderation. People taking methotrexate, a medication used to treat moderate to severe psoriasis, should not drink alcohol. Mixing the two can have serious side effects.

A) Pay Attention to the Details. Often products used on the skin contain perfumes and dyes that aggravate psoriasis conditions. Non aggravating washes, creams, and lotions are important. Neutrogena products, which can be found in most pharmacies and discount stores are safe for most psoriasis sufferers and recommended by dermatologists as an alternative to more expensive, prescribed products.

B) Apply emollients and moisturizers. Regular use of moisturizers can help prevent the itch and pain of dry skin and reduce scaling and inflammation. People often get good results by applying a lotion during the day and a cream or ointment, which are thicker than lotion, at night. It is important to consider ingredients in your creams and lotions. Perfumes and dyes can cause psoriatic symptoms to flare. Neutrogena has moisturizing products as well as soaps and is often recommended by dermatologists as a good product for sensitive skin. As with everything, check the packaging, as all products may not be as pure as others.

C) Avoid scratching. Derived from the Greek word for itch, "psora," psoriasis says what it is - itchy! Scratching can puncture the skin, allowing bacteria to enter and cause an infection. After scratching, psoriasis sometimes appears symptom free skin. To relieve itching, you can: moisturize, soak in warm oatmeal baths (always bathing in warm, not hot water and patting, not rubbing your skin to dry), don't pick at lesions, use sunscreen, wear cotton next to your skin, and apply cold compresses as well as ointments (menthol-based or topical steroids).

Psoriasis often worsens in winter months. This can be blamed partly to the lack of moderate sun exposure which you can get in warmer months, but is also the result of the dryer air, both inside the home and out. Humidity levels are lower in winter months and furnaces tend to dry air even more. The above skin care tips are extra important to you during winter months and the following tips should be added:

1) Use a Humidifier. As mentioned above, the air is much dryer during winter months. Humidifiers alleviate this, allowing the skin to hold more moisture. They are also a relatively inexpensive way to give you some relief from your psoriasis.

2) Approach Your Dermatologist. Because winter holds a much greater risk of psoriatic episodes, your may need to revise your treatment plan during this season. There are also regular advances in studies of psoriasis and your doctor may be able to tell you about new ways to minimize your flare ups from the home as well as through medicinal treatment for psoriasis.

3) Layer Your Clothing. Again, you should keep cotton clothes next to your skin, but winter brings other clothing issues, too. Overheating causes the irritation pf psoriasis to worsen and winter creates a need for warmer clothing. Layering clothing allows you to remove outer garments while indoors instead of keeping heavy clothing on and becoming too warm.