Health & wellbeing

Great advice to keep you happy and healthy

Q. My psoriasis always flares up during the winter months. Is there anything I can do to help to keep this at bay?

Dr Nisa Aslam, Typharm's Skin Life Sciences Foundation, is here to help.

Winter commonly causes psoriasis to flare due to the drying effect of cold temperatures, short days and indoor heating. Keep your skin moist and hydrated. Shower in warm water, just long enough to apply soap and rinse off, or relax in a warm bath for 15 minutes to help slough off scales and soothe itching.

Wear soft layers, such as cotton, and make sure you cover all exposed areas of skin when you go outside.

Topical treatments such as corticosteroids in the form of creams, ointments and tape are a vital part of managing flares. Talk to your doctor about using fludroxycortide tape, which is an effective, easy to use, waterproof medicated tape that can be cut to the size for a scaly area and worn in the shower or bath. Fludroxycortide tape is a transparent surgical tape that helps reduce redness, swelling and itching. You'll find more useful tips at www.slsf.uk.

In The News Pioneering Patch

Scientists at the University of Nottingham have developed a high-tech bandage that, when applied to the site of a skin cancer after the patient has undergone surgery, effectively "cooks" any remaining tumour cells that might have spread into surrounding skin, so reducing the recurrence rate.

The experimental bandage which looks like a sticking plaster can be used at home in conjunction with an infrared lamp, because a chemical in the dressing converts the light into heat.

Optimum Times

There's an emerging area of science called chronopharmacology, which studies how the time you take drugs impacts their performance.