Stress affects a body in many ways, especially our skin since it’s our body’s largest and visible part. The hormone – Cortisol is over produced due to stress.
If you are experiencing breakouts, acne, eczema, irritation or any other skin care complications, the underlying cause of your skin irritation could be something that you did not expect—stress. Stress plays a major part in the health of our skin. When we are stressed a hormone called Cortisol is released, causing many things to occur in our bodies, including accumulating fat, dryness, breakouts and acne.
If you are susceptible to eczema, you may notice that your symptoms start flaring up around stressful events or situations. In addition, unfortunately, even if your skin is typically clean and clear, stressful situations can bring skin reactions that you have not been exposed to.
Acne prone skin is the result of a combination of factors that lead to blocked pores, some of which are influenced by hormones—Cortisol and Androgens. These hormones as mentioned above are over produced due to stress. These hormones also escalate the production of sebum when human brain is under severe stress.
Not only does stress effect the functioning of our hormones, it can affect our entire bodily functioning. Constant high levels of cortisol can affect our blood sugar, thyroid, and sex hormones. This will eventually affect the production of serotonin in our body.
The first step balancing your hormones is to reduce the amount stress in your life.
From a physical perspective, when your body physically reacts to stress, it begins with your adrenal glands. Your adrenal glands are small, approximately walnut-sized glands that are located at the top of your kidneys. When you begin to experience a stressful situation, your adrenal glands receive distress messages from your brain. Once this happens, your body releases various hormones such as adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine, which cause the physical signs of stress to occur.
Furthermore, high cortisol leads to low thyroid function along with weight gain, especially around the stomach area. Cortisol negatively affects our blood sugar levels, which is why we tend to crave unhealthy food items like chocolates or end up over eating. Some people, however, also tend to lose their appetite which later leads to over eating once the appetite returns. This kind of weight gain may be the hardest to lose!
Many stressed people forget that they can embody a way of life that limits stress altogether. You should take time off occasionally to slow down, take breaks, relax, and try to take things not too seriously. Meditation, deep breathing, and quiet alone time can be just the thing to eliminate stress, and the effects that stress has on your skin and hormones.
