Is Your Skin Stressed Out?

Posted Thursday, October 26, 2006

 E-mail this page    Printer-friendly page

When your life is a pressure cooker, your skin pays the price. Stress throws off the skin’s ability to recover, so scratches or scrapes stick around longer. And your skin may be more easily inflamed by scratchy wool sweaters, adhesive bandages, cold weather, or dry, itchy skin conditions like psoriasis or eczema. What unknots you on the inside helps calm your skin side too -- a quiet walk, a little yoga, soothing music. But if that’s not doing the trick, take this psoriasis assessment and get personalized advice on red, itchy, flaky skin.

Stress appears to interfere with the normal barrier function of skin, making it more susceptible to skin disorders. This response was noted in a study on skin irritation, in which sticky tape was applied and then removed from the forearms of participants. The skin of people who were highly stressed took longer to recover than the skin of people who were not tense. That's a good reason to find a mind/body relaxation method that works for you -- whether it's meditation, knitting, or rhythmic running.

Discuss this story in our forum...


Please also visit: