Suffering from itchy, scaly and red skin is usually one of the earmarks of psoriasis, a condition which affects the way your body grows, maintains and disposes of skin cells. In healthy skin, skin cells are regenerated on a monthly basis. When you have psoriasis, your skin doesn't shed old skin cells in time for new cells to grow, resulting in a thickened, scaly and irritated appearance. The National Institutes of Health estimates that 3 percent of Americans suffer from the skin condition, but daily care and prevention techniques make the visible signs less noticeable.
Step 1
Schedule an appointment with your dermatologist to have your scaly skin diagnosed and talk about treatment options. Creams and ointments which contain ingredients such as salicylic acid, corticosteroids and moisturizers all help to break down the thickened skin and moisturize dryness to help restore balance. Some ointments are available over the counter, while some are prescription only.
Step 2
Expose your skin to small amounts of sunlight in a responsible manner. While you should never intentionally burn your skin via the sun, exposing your scaly skin to sunlight is effective in helping to jump start cell shedding to relieve your scaly skin. Always use a good-quality sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher on your healthy skin before you head out into the sun and only spend 20 to 30 minutes in the sun at a time. Remember that sunburns often make your symptoms look even worse, so protect yourself if you're in the sun for longer than is recommended for therapeutic purposes.
If sunlight seems to help your symptoms, talk to your doctor about phototherapy, a type of therapy where scaly skin is treated using controlled ultraviolet light in a clinical setting for safe and effective results.
Step 3
Take warm, not hot, baths on a daily basis to help moisturize your skin and soften the thick skin of a psoriasis outbreak. Hot water dehydrates the skin, while warm water, especially when mixed with colloidal oatmeal as recommended by MayoClinic.com, helps to slough away dead skin and moisturize the new skin growing in its place.
Step 4
Keep your hands away from outbreaks. The itchy skin is tempting to scratch, but doing so worsens the inflammation and could result in broken skin and subsequent infection. If the itch is too much to bear, cover the affected area with a think later of hydrocortisone cream. Hydrocortisone cream restricts the blood vessels under the skin to help relieve itchiness while moisturizing the area.
Step 5
Evaluate and track your triggers so you know what type of stimulation typically causes an outbreak of scaly skin. Psoriasis isn't a continuous condition in most cases, but stress and anxiety, skin injuries and infection trigger episodes or make your psoriasis worse. Each person has different triggers, so keeping a journal and tracking the various triggers that cause a flare up helps you to avoid the behavior in the future.
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