Everywhere you turn, you hear people talk about how important it is to manage your stress levels. You hear this message on the radio. You see it in magazines. You read it between the covers of self-help books. These reminders are helpful! You’ve heard all about how your immune system is faulty when you don’t handle your stress. Low-grade, short-term stress is fantastic for making your immune system strong. Chronic stress? Not so. Chronic stress: 🤒 Raises cortisol levels, which seems to raise the level of everything you don’t want to raise, including your body’s production of cholesterol. 🤒 Substantially increases production of vasoconstricting hormones that make your blood pressure rise. You don’t want it to stay high, or repeat this too often. 🤒 Suppresses protective T-cells. 🤒 Alters neurotransmitter metabolism in the brain, making you more susceptible to depression and anxiety. 🤒 Brings on all-over inflammation. After looking over this list, it's not too surprising everyone has advice for how to deal with your (disease-stimulating) stress. Most of the time it’s great advice: sometimes, the focus is on cutting out what’s causing your stress & sometimes the message is about how to cope. By now, these are merely reminders. You do make a lot of amazing effort to handle your stress. I do, too. You and I: 🧘 Prioritize sleep. 🧘 Eat veggies daily for a boost of antioxidants and insulin support. 🧘 Fit in gentle exercise, such as daily walking and yoga. 🧘 Stare at a tree. 🧘 Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. 🧘 Write in a journal. 🧘 Make time for meeting up with friends and family that make us feel good. 🧘 Say “No.” 🧘 Minimize alcohol intake 🧘 Pass over sugary treats (this has ALWAYS been my weak spot) 🧘 Less potato chips, too!
But how do we know if any of it’s working? Do you have a yardstick to measure your stress-busting progress? For a time, I worked as a phlebotomist. (This means I did the blood draws in a lab). Getting your labs done is an excellent way to find out the status of your health. I recommend this to everyone! (Don't skip your yearly blood draw!) Problem is, though, your labwork only catches problems when your results are off enough that they require urgent fixing. Taking your blood pressure works the same way. With these kinds of tests, you’re either healthy or your not healthy. There’s nothing in between.
What your stressed out skin is telling your brain
I'm a strong believer of paying attention to the in between: where you figure out whether you're headed towards better health or worse health. How do you find out if you’re on the right track? If your efforts to soothe your (chronic) stress are working? There are quite a few ways, actually! But for me? The state of my skin is my most important measurement. When you read this: What your stressed out skin is telling your brain, do you fear I'm just going to try to sell you something? I know my on alarm would be going off right about now, if I was reading this. But there really is something to this! It turns out we have a direct brain-skin connection. As the largest organ and both your bridge and your barrier to the world, your skin plays an important role in alerting your nervous system about what’s happening to your body - including stressors. This includes physical stressors, yes, like a scratch or an infection- 🥰 or a loving caress. Your psychological stressors are included, too. I don’t think you need me to give you examples of what's causing your mental stress!
Have you heard of the skin to brain connection?
Like physical stress, psychological stress results in changes in the temperature, blood volume, and other reactions in your skin cells that they "report" to your brain. It's quite fascinating, really! As well, your skin cells contain all sorts of receptors including many that are involved with the production of cortisol. Cortisol is good in small bursts once in a while, but as you know, this fight or flight hormone wreaks havoc when its release becomes commonplace. Something else that's interesting: your skin cells have their own clock genes! So your skin engages in a circadian rhythm-cortisol dance, their chemistry letting off all kids of fireworks.
I'm not finished yet! I’ve mentioned many times, how maintaining your skin’s moisture levels is likely the number one preventative action you can take to keep your skin at its healthiest and prettiest. When you’re ineffectively dealing with your stress, your skin becomes drier and your skin lipid levels decrease, too.
What dose this mean for you?
Your skin gets drier and drier. And, of course, dry skin exacerbates any existing skin conditions. In turn, the eruption of your long-term skin problems makes your skin more dry. Around and around it all goes, your skin problems getting worse and worse.
Then there's the fact that when you're stressed and feeling down, you often furrow your eyebrows more often. Your frown without knowing it. You don't hold the posture of your face upright. What's the result? You form the types of lines that make you look cranky and unhappy. Add in the increase in cortisol, which makes your skin drier, and you form wrinkles far more easily 😝 And the feedback loop keeps going.
It's not fair! As if the feelings of stress on their own aren't bad enough!
If you're experiencing ongoing stress that sometimes overwhelms you, I’m sincerely sorry. I wish I could give you a hug. I congratulate you, too, on how well you’re trying to take care of yourself! It's important. You know, not everyone does.
Here is how your skin shows your stress
Want to know how successful your self-care efforts are? I suggest taking a look in the mirror. Do you see: 📏 Dry skin
📏 Dull skin
📏 Red or itchy patches
📏 Sudden increase in lines and wrinkles, especially between your eyebrows and the marionette lines at the corners of your mouth (I really can’t stand that name!)
📏 Unexpected thinning of your skin
📏 Flareups of skin issues such as eczema and rosacea
If your answer is "no", keep up the good stress-busting work. I am SO happy for you!
Caring for your skin will help you deal with stress
You answered "yes"? All is not lost. Check out the self-care list above. Add in anything you can manage. Here are some other new efforts that will help, too. They might sound crazy, but I swear by the following:
🛀🏻 Dry brush your face and body
🛀🏻 Massage your face and body
🛀🏻 Apply pure skin care products that nourish your skin
How do these help? well, if you nurture and heal your skin cells on the outside, they’ll send a message through your nervous system, letting your brain know your skin cells aren’t so stressed after all. Your endocrine system - it controls your hormones - will understand it can lay off on the cortisol. And then...this means moisture levels in your skin can return to normal. You know what that means! Your skin can recover.
This time when you look in the mirror, you'll see:
📏 No dry skin
📏 No dull skin
📏 No red or itchy patches
📏 No sudden increase in lines and wrinkles, especially between your eyebrows and the marionette lines at the corners of your mouth (still don't like the name!)
📏 No flareups of skin issues such as eczema and rosacea
You’ll rest more easy, knowing you’re giving yourself the care you need to stave off the bigger monsters that sneak in with stress.
Your skin health and general health work together
Every system, every cell, in your body is interconnected. If it’s good for your skin, it’s good for your overall health. If it’s good for your overall health, it’s good for your mind. If it’s good for your mind, it’s good for your skin. This is a truth I'll never get tired of ❤️
Wishing you all the best,
Chwynyn