Thanksgiving can be a great time to be together with family and enjoy some good food. But all of that togetherness can sometimes put unwanted stress on the menu. Before you know it, your face has some uninvited guests in the form of breakouts and irritation.
Your skin’s overall appearance and texture is significantly impacted by how your body reacts to outside influences of stress and anxiety. So, when you vent to a friend that certain circumstances are getting under your skin, that can be exactly correct.
So what can you do about it? Good news is, Bubbles and Botox can work with you to find skin care solutions to get you back to your radiant self.
Stress Chemistry
Fight, flight, or mirror fright? As your body reacts to stress, it activates the adrenal glands, located at the top of your kidneys. This releases a variety of hormones including adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine. When trying to come down from a stressful episode, your body’s serotonin works like a buffer against stress reactions.
- Adrenaline: Used to boost your “fight or flight” response, when that stress is, say, an estranged family member talking about politics at the dinner table or burning the rolls, it’s a far less helpful response. Even though the body might not be in actual physical danger, adrenaline will still cause racing thoughts, rapid heart rate, and muscle contractions.
- Cortisol: This hormone is constantly released when your body is in distress, causing a chain reaction in your skin. So, you may sweat, have an increase in blood pressure, and your immune system can suppress itself, resulting in skin irritations of all sorts.
- Norepinephrine: This hormone causes you to be on guard, aware, and alert. It shifts blood flow to the parts of your bodies that are feeling the stress most strongly, which can also mean diverting the blood away from the skin, leading to acne, bumps, and rashes.
- Serotonin: a neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger in your body that helps lessen a physical response to stress.
The impact of all of these chemical reactions within your body, is that over time your skin can become increasingly sensitive and reactive. Some common skin reactions to stress are: rashes, acne, redness, cold sores, fine lines and wrinkles, dryness, itching, rosacea, eczema, hives.
What can be done? First, as much as is possible, try to reduce the impact of stress on your life. Some suggestions are: deep breathing, consistent sleep, exercise, a well-balanced diet, and cultivating a good system of support.
But once those stress responses have already occurred, it’s good to see out expert support, like what you will find at Bubbles and Botox, Northern Kentucky’s Neurotoxin, Dermal Filler, and Microneedling experts. Offering a wide range of solutions for all skin care stressors, Bubbles and Botox works with each client to create a care plan that will help meet your specific skin care goals.
Original Source Content: Arizona Dermatology https://arizonaderm.com/how-stress-affects-your-skin/