Oral health and hygiene and dietary practices may be associated with the development and severity of psoriasis, according to a study in Dermatology Online Journal.

“The biggest surprise was that frequent consumption of fresh fruit is associated with a lower severity of psoriasis,” Paul Macklis, BS, MS, study author and medical student at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, said in an interview with Healio Dermatology. “While this could potentially be explained by a confounding variable such as fruit consumption being linked to more health-conscious behaviors in general, it does raise the question of whether fruit consumption could be shifting the microbiome to a less inflammatory constituent.”