Kim Kardashian candidly shared what it’s like to go through a psoriasis flare-up in a recent series of videos on her Instagram Stories. She showed a close-up of a red patch of raw skin on her leg.
“How crazy is my psoriasis right now guys? It’s like all up my leg. I don’t know what’s happening. But I gotta figure this out,” she said in one video. The text over the clip read, “Not gonna lie this is painful. I’m not sure what triggers me. I haven’t changed my diet. I’ve tried everything! Psoriasis sucks.”
Psoriasis, an autoimmune disorder, causes patches of inflamed, scaly skin to appear on the scalp, elbows and knees. An overactive immune system causes the skin cells to multiply quickly in a person with this condition. The symptoms of psoriasis can appear pink or red, with scales that are silvery in people with lighter skin tones. They may also be dark brown or grayish in people with darker skin tones. Psoriasis symptoms tend to occur in cycles: They flare up for a few weeks to months and that’s usually followed by a period of remission.
It is difficult to pinpoint what causes a flare-up of psoriasis. However, some factors are known to aggravate it, including intense stress, infections and very cold, dry weather. Other factors include skin injuries and certain medications. Ife Rodney, MD is the founder and director of Eternal Dermatology + Aesthetics at George Washington University.
“It is very, very common with a lot of these inflammatory skin conditions—whether psoriasis, eczema, or rosacea—to not figure out the exact triggers,” Dr. Rodney says. She says that this can make flare ups difficult to predict.
Kardashian has spoken out about her psoriasis and the emotional impact it brings in the past. She told in 2022 Poosh that eating a plant-based diet has helped her manage her symptoms (though the science on this is shaky—and, again, this is highly individualized); she cares for her flare-ups with lots of moisturizer and ointment too. (Last week, she also made headlines for sharing that she uses a tanning bed when her psoriasis worsens—a method that dermatologists spoke out against due to its risks.)
If you’re in the same boat and can’t figure out why your skin is freaking out, Dr. Rodney recommends doing your best to look back and try to identify any changes in your routine in the lead-up to your symptoms, including what you ate and drank, whether you had any illnesses, and what your stress levels were like. “See if you notice any trends,” she says. “But sometimes there is no noticeable trigger. Sometimes it’s just the nature of these conditions.”
Meanwhile, Kardashian is trying to find the humor in it all: “Am I tripping or is my psoriasis in the shape of a heart?” she said in one of the videos. “I totally see it…. Lucky me, I have a heart-shaped psoriasis for Valentine’s Day.”
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