We know what you’re thinking—what is cortisol exactly? Cortisol is a hormone that helps the body when you’re severely stressed. But cortisol, when produced in excess by the body, can be detrimental to your skin, causing acne and other inflammatory problems. Here is How Stress Hormone Cortisol Damage Your Skin Layer.
Our body naturally responds to periods of stress in many ways, which may cause some serious negative effects.
You may observe that you have increased pimples, dryness, irritation, or redness during periods of high stress.
These symptoms stem from the release of varied hormones once the physical body encounters stress, particularly the cortisol stress hormone.
How Cortisol Affects Your Skin
Cortisol can change into an enemy of your skin if it remains excessively over an extended time frame.
Those who are susceptible to high stress over long durations shall sustain high degrees of cortisol, that may negatively affect your skin in a variety of ways:
1. Acne
You might observe that during periods of high stress, you have more pimples. High cortisol levels prompt the skin’s sebaceous glands to create more sebum (oil).
The excess oil clogs the pores resulting in the development of bacteria and inflammation resulting in acne.
2. Skin Conditions
Beyond acne, stress can magnify other skin disorders such as example eczema also, rosacea or psoriasis.
Many people who have chronic skin disorders tend to observe that their symptoms flare up when their stress levels are elevated.
3. Aging
Cortisol can accelerate the aging process as it breaks down elastin and collagen. Moreover, when you’re stressed, you also make certain facial expressions that can cause wrinkles, especially on the forehead.
When you keep doing this, the skin cannot bounce back, leading to permanent wrinkles.
Cortisol also offers the energy to accelerate your skin’s growing older, enhancing common unwanted aging signs like lines and wrinkles rapidly, age spots, and skin dullness.
4. Redness
Your blood flow increases when you are overly worried. This can lead to expanded capillaries—something that can cause your face to turn red and puffy.
For those with a skin concern like rosacea should try to keep their cortisol levels in check.
5. Dryness
When your body starts producing excess cortisol, it loses its ability to retain water.
This is what leads to dehydrated skin, where your skin lacks moisture, in the absence of which your skin starts to turn flaky.
Worse, dry skin often accelerates the appearance of dark spots and wrinkles.
Keeping Stress in Order
Stress is definitely likely to be an inescapable section of living. However, there are several simple and effective methods to help the body (and skin) better cope with stress:
- Work to get rid of unnecessary stress-inducers from your own life.
- Eat a lot of well-balanced meals and drink plenty of water.
- Exercise regularly
- Incorporate a time into your entire day
- Try stress relief techniques such as example yoga, breathing exercises, and meditation.
- Get a lot of sleep every night.
- Create a sound support system
How Exactly To Fight
Beyond practicing stress coping techniques, many great cosmetic treatments help your skin cope with stress and reverse any unwanted effects. Great stress-fighting treatments include:
1. Chemical Peels
Topically applied formulas revitalize your skin surface by creating a straight and controlled shedding of your skin cells.
Chemical peels develop a fresh appearance and a smoother skin surface while removing skin surface damage.
2. Micro-Needling
A forward-thinking skin rejuvenation treatment spurs the production of new collagen and elastin fibers that thicken your skin and decrease the appearance of wrinkles, acne scars, sun damage, and stretch marks.
Find out more about micro-needling.
3. Facials
You can expect several different forms of facials to leave your skin feeling refreshed and renewed. Facials can be carried out to cleanse, exfoliate, and rehydrate your skin.
4. Laser Light Treatments
Non-invasive treatments utilize light, ultrasound, or radiofrequency to tighten or resurface your skin.
Laser light treatments like Thermage and Ultherapy can stimulate the production of new collagen while resurfacing.
Lasers like Fraxel can enhance the appearance of aging or sun-damaged skin, fine wrinkles and lines, acne scars, stretch marks, or uneven pigmentation.
The Bottom Line
Everyone has high cortisol from time to time. It’s part of your body’s natural response to threats of harm or danger. But having high cortisol over a longer period of time can have lasting effects on your health.
If you have high cortisol symptoms, it’s best to start with a blood test to see how high your cortisol level is.
Based on your results, a doctor can narrow down the underlying cause and help you get your cortisol level back to a safe level. How Stress Hormone Cortisol Damage Your Skin Layer.
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