Autoimmune Skin Problems

Video Transcript

"Hello. I'm Doctor Loretta Ciraldo, a board certified dermatologist and author of the book Six Weeks to Sensational Skin. Let's talk a little bit about autoimmune skin problems. This concept of autoimmune really means that our body, and really specifically, our blood, our hematologic system is producing something called antibodies, which are proteins that attack our own body. When we talk about autoimmune skin disease, that means that these proteins or antibodies are attacking our own skin. There are, by the way, other kinds of autoimmune diseases, like autoimmune arthritis, where we're producing something that's attacking our joints. But for autoimmune skin diseases, there are many, there's an array of them. Some of the more common ones are blistering diseases, where our body is making certain proteins that start to attack our skin, and we form blisters. If you have anything where you are forming blisters, I'm going to suggest you not just to see your family doctor, but to ask for a referral to see a dermatologist, because dermatologists are really the best at treating the autoimmune skin diseases. So if you're getting blisters, we sometimes, some forms of psoriasis can go along with arthritis, and that can be an autoimmune kind of complex. So really what you should understand is that these are skin diseases where, although you see the end result as being in your skin, the real problem is a little bit more internal than just the skin itself. And typically, these diseases will need to be treated with what we call systemic medications, which means either taking pills everyday or there are new drugs for autoimmune disease where you may take an injection anywhere from everyday up to once a week or so."