How much sunlight/UV therapy is safe to treat psoriasis?

Doctor's Answer

Hello Coco,

Thanks for the D2D. You are right that sunlight and UV therapy can indeed help to relieve psoriasis. You may have heard about dead sea treatment where people spend a few weeks lazing in the dead sea to treat their psoriasis. It is believed that it is the ultraviolet from the sun that helps in a large part to the improvement in psoriasis.

UV therapy is employed as part of medical treatment for psoriasis. You will require 2 or 3 treatments a week. There is a small increase risk of skin cancer with the treatment and generally, we not treat beyond 200 to 250 treatment sessions.

Natural sunlight is helpful but it is important not do develop a sunburn as this can aggravate and trigger psoriasis. 10 to 15mins in morning sun is probably a safe to avoid a sunburn. The skin damage from sun exposure is also cumulative, so the more often you do it, the more damage there is to the sun.

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