How Stress Affects Your Skin

Stress affects all aspects of our life. Our relationships, bodies, minds, health and unfortunately our skin end up showing all the signs. Stress is just one thing, in a laundry list of items, that takes its toll on our skin. Our emotions have a powerful effect on our skin and since stress is a part of our life what matters most is how we handle it.

Our epidermal skin cells lie on top of each other and are tightly packed together, which forms a strong barrier that blocks the penetration of bacteria and other pathogens. When we get stressed out this protective outermost layer of skin becomes impaired and our bodies produce cortisol and other hormones. This tells your sebaceous glands to produce oil. Stress also makes our skin more sensitive, reactive and also makes it harder for any skin problems to heal. For problems like psoriasis, rosacea, seborrheic dermatitis and eczema stress makes them worse. It can also cause hives and other types of skin rashes and trigger flare-ups of fever blisters. Which can also impair skin barrier functions and dehydrate the skin, which will allow more irritants, allergens, and infectious agents to penetrate the skin and cause problems. These problems just add more stress and worsen the problems.On the flip side, on a microscopic level, stress reduction can decrease the release of the pro-inflammatory stress hormones and chemicals. Release of neuropeptides can be reduced with stress management techniques. This will often result in skin that looks and functions much better.

Oh boy, that is a lot of scientific jargon isn’t it. What does it all mean? Well, basically in a non scienceincy way we are saying that when we get stressed out our skin gets stressed out. So then our bodies tell our skin to take care of the problem and because of that our bodies produce more and become more sensitive.

It is also shown that most people under stress tend to neglect or abuse their skin. They often lack the energy and motivation to adhere to their skin care regimens. Additional stress also leads to stress-related behaviors like scratching, pulling or rubbing.When a dermatologist treats both the skin and stress, the skin will often clear up much more quickly as the influences of stress are diminished. A domino effect will then emerge. As the persons face clears up, their overall anxiety will decrease, and the person will probably start to feel better about the way they look and how they feel emotionally.

Some ways to reduce the effects of stress on your skin

• -Do not neglect your skin. It is important to take care of your skin, especially if you are tired or stressed.
• -Get regular exercise. It is great for your skin and also the rest of your body.
• -Remember to take time for yourself, even if it is only 10 minutes.
• -Practice stress management techniques. Breathing exercises, yoga, visual imagery, and meditation are all great ways to manage stress.
• -Remember to get enough sleep.
• -Remember to say no. It is OK to set limits and boundaries to lower your stress.

There is a reason why our skin looks so amazing when we are just coming back from vacation. It is because we are so relaxed and at ease. It is important to try to adopt a little of that vacation mentality all year long. Doing so will help keep our skin looking healthy. It is hard considering all the demands we have in our lives, work, family, friends and what not, but when your skin suffers you feel like the entire world is watching you.