Psoriasis in Spring and Summer

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By Hilary Parker

Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD

If you’re among the vast majority of psoriasis sufferers, you’ve probably found that your psoriasis symptoms improve in the spring and summer.

Doctors believe the improvement comes from increased exposure of your skin to the sun’s ultra-violet light, which suppresses the rapidly multiplying skin cells that are the hallmark of psoriasis. An increase in the amount of moisture in the air may also provide some relief, because dry skin can make psoriasis symptoms worse.

But some people find that warmer weather actually triggers psoriasis flares. And it can be hard to enjoy fun in the sun when you’re worried about how people will respond to the appearance of your psoriasis.

Here are answers to seven frequently asked questions about psoriasis in summer and spring.

1. How can I safely use sunlight as a psoriasis treatment?

“You certainly want to avoid burning if you’re going to use sun therapy,” says Mark Lebwohl, MD, professor and chairman of dermatology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York University. “The idea is to get gradually increasing doses of sun without burning.”

Building your exposure to the sun over time, increasing by around five minutes a day, will help you safely reach a psoriasis-easing dose of sunlight. Remember that the sun’s ultraviolet rays can harm your skin, though, and make sure you aren’t out in the sun for more than 30 minutes without applying sunscreen to minimize excessive sun damage. This will also help prevent sunburn, which can cause flares in some psoriasis sufferers.

Even when using sunlight as a psoriasis home remedy, you can take precautions to protect areas of skin without lesions.

“What I recommend for everyone is to put sunscreen on unaffected skin so that only plaques are exposed to the sunlight," says Melissa Magliocco, MD, acting chief of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Be aware that some psoriasis treatments make your skin more sensitive to the sun, so always discuss sun therapy with your doctor before you begin.

2. How will swimming in pools or the ocean affect my psoriasis?

The ocean’s saltwater has been touted for centuries as a remedy for many medical conditions, and its purported benefits extend to psoriasis treatment. The combination of salt and water may help slough off dead skin, leading to a reduction in psoriasis symptoms. At the same time, your time in the water will provide beneficial exposure to the sun.

If you’re headed for the pool, keep in mind that prolonged periods of time in heated water could make your psoriasis more uncomfortable. To reduce the likelihood that chlorine will strip your skin of its natural moisture and make your dry, flaky skin worse, rinse off in fresh water as soon as you can after swimming and rehydrate your skin with a gentle moisturizer.

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Op-Ed Contributor: This Is Your Brain on Summer

THE American ideal of lazy summers filled with fun has an unintended consequence: If students are not engaged in learning over the summer, they lose skills in math and reading. Summers off are one of the most important, yet least acknowledged, causes of underachievement in our schools.

Decades of research confirm that summer learning loss is real. According to a report released last month by the RAND Corporation, the average summer learning loss in math and reading for American students amounts to one month per year. More troubling is that it disproportionately affects low-income students: they lose two months of reading skills, while their higher-income peers — whose parents can send them to enriching camps, take them on educational vacations and surround them with books during the summer — make slight gains. A study from Johns Hopkins University of students in Baltimore found that about two-thirds of the achievement gap between lower- and higher-income ninth graders could be explained by summer learning loss during the elementary school years.

This learning loss is cumulative, summer after summer. It has a tremendous impact on students’ success, including high school completion, post-secondary education and work force preparedness.

As a result, no matter how effective other school reforms are, our traditional 180-day school calendar creates an incredibly inefficient system of learning. We cannot afford to spend nearly 10 months of every year devoting enormous amounts of intellect, energy and money to promoting student learning and achievement, and then walk away from that investment every summer.

This waste is preventable. According to the RAND report, good summer programs with individualized instruction, parental involvement and small classes can keep children from falling behind and reduce the achievement gap.

Yet many districts, including New York City, have not fully embraced the summer’s potential. In New York, around 34,000 third through eighth graders are required to take summer school classes this year in order to be promoted to the next grade. The classes typically last only half the day, leaving many on their own for the afternoon. And since such classes are primarily remedial, they often carry a stigma that can affect struggling students and their parents.

Fortunately, this remedial and often punitive model, which accounts for summer school’s bad reputation, is beginning to change. Dennis M. Walcott, New York’s schools chancellor, has expressed interest in more innovative summer school programming in collaboration with community partners.

Districts in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Providence and Baltimore have begun to move away from the remedial model and embrace a new vision of summer school that is both fun and an essential component of their education reform agendas. Pittsburgh is offering full-day summer programs framed as “camp” for all their elementary and middle school students that incorporate academics along with enrichment activities like judo and rowing.

Such programs are in high demand. A 2010 report by the Afterschool Alliance found that, while only 25 percent of students participated in summer learning programs, 83 percent of parents supported spending public funds on such programs and 67 percent of low-income parents said their children would enroll in a summer program if they could.

All students in high-need schools should have at least six weeks of full-day summer school that is comprehensive and engaging. Of course, summer school costs money, and money is tight. But there are many existing financing streams that can be tapped for summer schools, like the federal Title I program and school improvement grants. Schools could also do a better job of partnering with complementary summer programs run by libraries, parks and youth employment agencies.

Americans cherish the notion of summer as a time of relaxation and fun, but it comes at a heavy cost to poor students and the schools that serve them. This fall, despite any progress made during the school year, millions of students in urban communities will come back to school further behind than they were last spring. Until our nation addresses summer learning loss, efforts to close the achievement gap will continue to fall short.

Jeff Smink is the vice president for policy for the National Summer Learning Association.

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