Stress And How It Affects Your Skin
Are your stress levels affecting your skin? Stress can take a toll on your skin, as well as the rest of your body. In fact, stress can wreak havoc on the immune system. A strong immune system plays a huge role in fighting off bacterial imbalances in the skin and exacerbating conditions such as eczema and psoriasis, which all can lead to irritated, red, and bumpy skin.
Florida Dermatology and Skin Cancer Center’s website states the following:
“Your body responds to changes in your psychological state; conditions like stress, depression, and anxiety can cause new skin issues to develop or existing skin issues to flare up. When you feel stressed, your sympathetic nervous system releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline into your body. Cortisol causes increased oil production in your skin glands, which can lead to clogged pores and acne breakouts. Chronic stress leads to constant increased levels of these hormones and can have a negative effect on your skin health.
Additionally, psychological conditions cause increased internal inflammation. When your body perceives a threat, the immune system sends out a response to handle it – that response is inflammation. Usually, inflammation helps protect and heal our bodies from microbes and wounds, but a body under stress causes the immune system to overreact and send out an inflammatory response.
Stress can also cause inflammation through the gut-skin connection. Stress impacts the balance of bacteria in your gut, which leads to a release of inflammation. Internal inflammation can manifest externally as skin conditions like acne, or eczema and psoriasis flare-ups. People with chronic inflammatory skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, and rosacea are more sensitive to flare ups when they are stressed.”
Cortisol and Unhealthy Skin
Stress also can lead to acne breakouts. This is possibly one of the most common side effects of stress. The level of cortisol is elevated when there is too much stress in your body. WebMD describes cortisol in the following way- “Think of cortisol as nature’s built-in alarm system. It’s your body’s main stress hormone. It works with certain parts of your brain to control your mood, motivation, and fear.” When cortisol levels are elevated, the body produces CRH (the hormone called corticotropin-releasing hormone). This stimulates the sebaceous gland, leaving the skin with too much oil production. Too much oil leads to more breakouts and the appearance of unhealthy skin. Excess stress will also age your skin by affecting the proteins in your skin, which reduces elasticity, leaving you with premature aging. The lack of sleep cause by stress will lead to dark circles under the eyes as well as the dreaded, puffy, under-eye bags. Along with those bags and circles, come fine lines and wrinkles.
How to Prevent Stress from Harming Your Skin
A good skincare regimen can help, but the underlying root should also be alleviated to have the best skin possible. Here are a few of our favorite ways to lower stress levels:
Breathe – Slow deep breaths can work wonders in calming the body and slowing the mind
Practice Gratitude – Start your day by listing 3-5 things you are grateful for
Get Active – Take a walk, stretch, dance, find movement you enjoy- this releases endorphins, aka “the happy hormone”
Listen to Music – relaxing, happy, inspirational
Laugh – It’s proven to increase blood flow and boost immunity
Get Some Sun – Studies show sunlight is an effective treatment for depression and stress- the vitamin D benefits are a plus too! (but make sure you’ve got your sunscreen on)
Sleep – Adequate sleep is essential
Also, read this blog about Mighty Maca– it also has nutrients that can reduce stress hormones. With all that said, your healthiest skin must start with the healthiest version of you!
