Ladies – Keep Off the Beer!

Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition that causes cells to build up rapidly on the surface of the skin, forming thick silvery scales and itchy, dry, red painful patches.  It’s an auto-immune condition, i.e. malfunction or over-activity of one type of white blood cells – the T-lymphocytes.  An association between alcohol consumption and an increased risk of psoriasis onset and/or worsening has long been suspected.  

Data from the Nurses’ Health Study II were used to study the possible association between alcohol consumption and the risk of developing psoriasis.  As reported in the Archives of Dermatology, more than 80,000 female nurses reported the amount and type of alcohol they consumed on biennial questionnaires between 1991 and 2005.  They were also asked to report physician-diagnosed psoriasis.

The nurses were aged 27 to 44 at baseline.  Those with a history of psoriasis at or before enrollment were excluded from the analysis.  There were 1,150 new cases of psoriasis during the 15 years.  After adjustment for a variety of risk factors (age, obesity, smoking, physical activity, and dietary patterns), the risk of developing psoriasis was 72% higher for nurses with an average of 2.3 alcoholic drinks a week, compared with non-drinkers.  And the risk was 76% higher for those nurses who drank at least 5 regular (i.e. non-light) beers a week.  Thus regular beer was the main factor for the association with alcohol.  There was no increased risk in nurses drinking other types of alcohol, or up to 4 regular beers a week.

The guilty party in regular beer appears to be gluten, a protein that is derived from the starch – often barley - used in fermentation.  Light beer also contains gluten, but the fermentation process uses smaller quantities of grain than with regular beer fermentation.  This is consistent with the fact that a gluten-free diet is considered a helpful strategy in managing psoriasis.  So, ladies, avoid regular beer – and regard the reduced calories as a beneficial side-effect.