Oxygen and Psoriasis
Nature is trying to maximally use the biological potential of the oxygen. There seems to be present an evolutionary search for even better combination of the oxidation processes and the antioxidant protection. People with psoriasis may be the result of this search.
People with psoriasis (compared to people without psoriasis) are overly protected from the reactive oxygen forms. However, high activity of their antioxidant systems alters their protective mechanisms. In this case the protective mechanisms - inflammation, immune response, and endocrine (i.e. hormonal - see Hormones and Psoriasis Theory) regulation acquire a pathologic potential.
The body of a person without psoriasis finds the "happy median" between the oxidation and restoration of the oxygen. The upper layer of the skin (epidermis) in these people is formed from the dead skin cells. In a person with psoriasis the skin cells divide 5-10 times more rapidly. Not yet completely ripen cells are pushed out into the epidermis. When these cells contact oxygen, there starts a process of the cell death. Cells die, without having ripened and formed the protective layer on the skin. This endless process is responsible for the appearance of the psoriatic lesions (according to the Antioxidant Psoriasis Theory).
The normalization of the oxidation processes is one of the main ways to treat psoriasis. The stimulation of the oxidation (i.e. the peroxide oxidation of lipids) is widely adapted in medicine with the use of an external means, such as the UVA and UVB light, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (medical use of oxygen at a higher than atmospheric pressure with the aid of a special hyperbaric chamber) etc. Massage and aqua therapy improve the micro-circulation in the skin and also help to normalize the oxidation processes.
People with psoriasis possess:
- Very high antioxidant protection,
- High activity of the programmed cell death receptors.
Even though in a person this combination leads to the appearance of psoriasis, within the framework of the population as a whole this genetic mutation is useful.
The nature considering these mutations useful may be the reason why psoriasis yet wasn't "conquered".
There arise some questions:
- How may this special feature in the people with psoriasis ensure advantages over the rest of the people? Especially if a person with psoriasis does not have psoriatic flare-ups?
- What advantages for the survival and the reproduction does nature ensure with the people with psoriasis?
High Antioxidant Protection
- High antioxidant protection causes potential stability to the ionizing radiation. This shows possible high adaptive abilities of the people with psoriasis body to change its cells structures depending on what is presented to the body by the environment.
- High antioxidant status causes an increase in the lifetime of nitrogen oxide - an important mediator of the central and peripheral nervous system. Nitrogen oxide plays the main role in learning and memorizing.
- High antioxidant protection ensures the rapid growth and reproduction of new body cells.
High Activity of the Programmed Cellular Death Receptors
- Increased level of the programmed cell death receptors ensures rapid metabolism of the cells in organs and tissues. It is a fact that people with a low level of the programmed cell death receptors have a tendency to developing tumors. In other words, psoriasis ensures a unique protection from the tumors.
- Increased level of the programmed cellular death determines the increased disintegration of the nucleic acids, which leads to an increase in the content of the uric acid. Uric acid possesses a stimulating effect (similar to caffeine) on the nerve tissue. Scientists have long ago revealed the close connection between the high level of the uric acid and the high level of intellectual activity.
Evolutionary Advantages and the Damage of the Skin
Unfortunately, these positive biochemical advantages cause a person with psoriasis the forming of the defective corneal layer resulting in the development of one of the most severe dermatitises. People with psoriasis pay for their biochemical advantages with the damage of their skin.
High level of the antioxidant protection systems, balanced by the increased level of the programmed cellular death receptors, ensures rapid cellular metabolism in the body organs and tissues for the possibility of a fast reaction to the changing environmental conditions.
Psoriasis may be seen as a prolonged evolutionary experiment on the determination of the possibility of breaking out of the rigid framework, created by living in the atmosphere of oxygen.
Any evolutionary reconstruction provides a solution to some problems to the detriment of others. The evolutionary search for the optimum relationship of the oxidation processes intensity, the antioxidant protection systems activity and the levels of the programmed cellular death receptors continues.
The people with psoriasis can be considered a unique "gold genome" of humanity. By creation of people with psoriasis the nature has protected itself for the case of an abrupt change in the ecological conditions on the planet, for example with a sharp increase in the radiation as a result of the ozone holes increase; the consequences of ecological and nuclear catastrophes etc.
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