Kim Kardashian, 38, revealed that her “bad skin day” — what one outlet dubbed it — was actually psoriasis on her face on Feb. 5. You can see photos of the flare-up below. An entirely different skin condition than acne, psoriasis is a “chronic autoimmune skin disease that speeds up the growth cycle of skin cells” and “causes patches of thick red skin and silvery scales,” according to the CDC. Flare-ups typically occur on the “elbows, knees, scalp, lower back, face, palms, and soles of feet,” the government organization explained. Dr. Jason Emer, a board-certified cosmetic dermatologist that trained with Dr. Mark Lebwohl, one of the world’s lead experts in psoriasis, EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife that it’s especially worrisome if the skin condition makes its way to the face!
“Once it starts spreading to her face, she really needs to get it in control,” Dr. Emer warned to HL of Kim’s situation. “It may not be her’s or the doctor’s fault, it may just be that her immune system is out of whack.” He explained, “Psoriasis is an immunological disease, there is no cure. Once you have it, you have it, and you’ve got to treat it forever. So if you’re a young individual that has it on your whole body, you’ve got to get on that medicine and you’re going to be on it forever.” Right before ringing in 2019, Kim tweeted how her psoriasis was getting out of control: “I’ve never seen it like this before and I can’t even cover it at this point. It’s taken over my body. Has anyone tried a medication for psoriasis & what kind works best? Need help ASAP!!!”
So how did it get to this point? “Someone like Kim is constantly busy working, under a lot of pressure, being a working mom, it’s no wonder she’s going to have flares,” Dr. Emer explained, as Kim shares three children with Kanye West (North, 5, Saint, 3, Chicago, 1), in addition to running the KKW Beauty empire. And Kim’s expecting her fourth baby, via surrogate, this year! But it’s not yet known why someone develops psoriasis in the first place. “Nobody knows why people get this, and while typically it’s stress-related or genetic, it con pop up out of nowhere,” Dr. Emer went on. “So once that occurs, anything you can do to reduce inflammation in the body helps reduce the overall flare up of psoriasis; whether it be juicing, lower dairy, or anything else that’s been known to increase inflammation.” Keep in mind that these tactics are aimed at reducing the inflammation, and are not an end-all cure for the disease.
Luckily there are solutions, even with no cure in sight. “Kim could be doing this light therapy every week if she wanted to which would decrease overall inflammation,” Dr. Emer said. For anyone suffering this ailment, biologic therapy is another option which suppresses the immune system, as the dermatologist added, “The more popular ones are Enbrel or Humira [that] help scalp psoriasis or genital psoriasis, or Stelara for a patient with less arthritis.”
A doctor diagnosed the makeup mogul with psoriasis in a 2011 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, as you can see above. “My career is doing ad campaigns and photo swimsuit photoshoots!” she complained to the doctor, and later asked a haunting question: “I’m not going to get this on my face, am I?”