Another reason why de-stressing is so necessary for our health (as if we needed to pile up reasons) is your skin: stress can easily produce breakouts. Not that we welcome them at any time, but you may have registered the fact that your face goes all pimply at the worst moment imaginable – say, the night before a first date or an important job interview. Here you are: it’s your nervousness that mars your skin. It may be flare-ups, spots, wrinkles, anything. So now you are having another worry on your mind.
Let’s look into how stress can spoil the beauty of your skin and how you can prevent it.
Stress hormones interfere with your skin health
As your stress reaches a critical point, your body goes into the fight or run mode, starting to generate stress hormones to assist you in either capacity. One of the things these hormones do is feed more blood to your internal organs and muscles. That will surely help you to become an Olympic Games champion, but it does nothing good for your looks, because, for instance, your skin gets a poorer blood flow. If the situation becomes chronic, you won’t have to wait long for the results. The skin receives fewer nutrients and oxygen, its condition deteriorates, breakouts and inflammation set in. It especially goes for one particular hormone, cortisol, that stimulates oil glands like there’s no tomorrow, so people who have a predilection for acne will feel the difference it makes.
Sleep deprivation will tell on the skin
An individual laboring under stress can have difficulties persuading their brain to slow down for the night. Still, it would be better not to interfere with sleep – it can reflect on your health in general and on your skin in particular. Doctors keep reminding us that sleep is the crucial factor that allows our body to rest and refresh itself after the day’s toils. Once you start losing on your sleep, the cortisol level goes up, oil accumulates, and it’s getting even harder to get to sleep – you enter into a vicious circle that’s difficult to break. Then sleep deprivation in conjunction with the aggravating burnout set to work on the immune system. At best your skin begins to look duller and more heavily lined.
Your skin problems get even worse
Those who have to struggle with bad skin problems (psoriasis, eczema, rosacea and so on) know that when they get besieged by worries their diseases tend to get worse. It’s not stress that causes these poor conditions, but it adds to the aggravation, especially for those whose skin is sensitive to overall deterioration. So, if you feel that your psoriasis begins to act up, think in terms of decompressing.
Nervous mannerisms can get you down too
Many people react to stress with reverting to various mannerisms that have roots in a nervous condition. It can be nail biting, hand clasping, and unclasping, pulling at your fingers or touching your face more often than it is needed. Such little habits that may seem innocuous but what they do is they infest the active body parts with more bacteria that can be responsible for breakouts. Also if you begin to indulge in more coffee relying on it to take the edge off your stress, be reminded that caffeine helps these nervous gestures along; water will actually do better work for your body.
You’re running a higher risk of developing skin cancer
No, no, you won’t be getting skin cancer because of being stressed out only. But there is always the risk, and through stress-related disimprovement of your immune system it becomes leveled up. As the immune system gets weaker, its abilities to cope with basal cancer cells also deteriorate. Anti-stress techniques are recommended together with SPF so you could alleviate the pressure on your immune system.
The aging processes pick up speed
At best you are not concerned with crow’s feet and nose lines; nevertheless, if you are under constant stress, there are going to be more lines, and the ones you already have will be more pronounced. While your body is trying hard to bring down internal stress it can put up less fight against environmental hostiles – pollution, UV rays, chemicals that find their way into your system. You don’t possess boundless defensive abilities, and as long as they are engaged elsewhere, your skin is left without the due fueling.
To conclude, you have a lot of good reasons to apply the many anti-stress techniques you must have heard about – walking, concentrating on your breathing, making time for sports or yoga, or whatever seems more suitable to the place you find yourself at. Enjoy quality time with family and friends. Scientifically speaking, tame your cortisol level and get a lighter heart and a cleaner skin for your efforts.
