Leptin is a hormone that was discovered in 1994. It has been linked to higher levels of inflammation in the body that may increase the risk of developing heart attacks, Type 2 Diabetes, and osteoarthritis. It is also elevated in obese people.

A recent study showed that people with psoriasis have higher levels of leptin than people without psoriasis. They showed that the chronic inflammation associated with psoriasis is linked to metabolic disturbances like metabolic syndrome and coronary artery disease.

The good news is weight loss can decrease leptin levels in the bloodstream. One day soon we may see weight loss in the guidelines for treating psoriasis.

Chicken pox is a common, usually self-limited, infection caused by the varicella virus. Learn more about the varicella virus, what the chicken pox rash looks like, and how chicken pox is diagnosed.

Winter is the season for eczema, a red, itchy rash that plagues millions of children and adults.

What causes eczema? What's going on in your skin that makes you so miserable?

Now you can see what's happening to your skin in this video about eczema.

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Many children have allergic diseases like atopic dermatitis and allergic rhinitis. Parents of children who have or are at a higher risk of getting these allergic diseases sometimes worry about whether the usual childhood immunizations could make allergies worse or cause their child to get allergies.

In a recent study published in the journal Allergy researchers studied the effect of immunizations in 2184 infants between 1 and 2 years old. They found that none of the immunizations caused allergies or made atopic dermatitis any worse in children who already had it.

In addition, the researchers found that children immunized with the varicella and pertussis vaccines actually had less severe atopic dermatitis.

This study should reassure parents of children with allergies or at risk of developing allergies that early childhood immunizations will not make allergies worse or cause their child to develop allergies.