Stress Awareness Month: Skin Expert Reveals How To Defend Skin Against Top Skin Stressors

April marks Stress Awareness Month. Stress doesn’t only affect our mental health, but our physical health too, even causing damage to our skin. Skin experts at Evolve Medical have revealed the damaging effects stress can have on our skin and how to prevent it.

Rachel Green, Nursing Director at Evolve Medical said, “There is a direct connection between your mind and your skin, which means that any emotions you feel can have an impact on your skin. Stress in particular can cause a dramatic response from your skin as it triggers your nervous system to release stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. This can make your skin oily and more sensitive, which can lead to breakouts and make it more difficult for existing skin conditions to heal.”

Stress on your skin can be caused by many other factors as well as mental stress and emotion. In fact, there are things you will encounter everyday that can act as stressors to your skin. Without even realising it, your daily habits could be causing damage to your skin, even if you’re not actually feeling stressed.

Top 3 Daily Skin Stressors That Affect Your Skin

Blue Light
Blue light is something you’ll likely encounter every day, and it can actually damage your skin. Blue light, which is emitted by laptops and smartphones, can cause your cells to change, shrink and even die as a result of exposure.

Air Pollution
Another stressor which can inflame your skin and accelerate ageing is air pollution. This includes fumes from traffic, dust and tobacco smoke. This type of skin stressor can be difficult to avoid exposure to, especially if you live in a city or work outside.

Rachel added, “Your natural skin barrier will defend against outside intruders such as air pollution, UV rays and pathogens. It’s important to keep your skin barrier intact by doing simple things such as moisturising your skin daily, using antioxidant products such as Vitamin C and drinking plenty of fluids.”

Extreme Temperatures
We all know that the sun is extremely damaging to our skin but very cold temperatures can also do damage to our skin. When it gets cold outside, the vessels that supply blood to the skin constrict or narrow to preserve a normal internal temperature. This, combined with low humidity levels, results in moisture being drawn away from the skin. During extreme weather, it’s absolutely essential to protect our skin barrier with a face serum that contains Hyaluronic Acid followed by a good quality moisturiser and drinking plenty of fluids.

Skin Experts Reveal How To Defend Against Common Skin Stressors

One of the easiest ways to take control of protecting our skin is by breaking down our daily routine and focusing on key areas, such as what we eat and how much exercise we get. The skin experts at Evolve Medical reveal small changes we can make to protect our skin from day to day stressors.

Diet
Having a healthy and balanced diet is important not just for our skin but our overall health too. Foods which are rich in vitamin C, citrus fruit and vegetables are all great for your skin, along with oily fish. Green veg also contains a lot of antioxidants which can help with skin hydration. Each of these food types contains compounds which help your skin stay healthy and repair itself.

Rachel Green, Nursing Director at Evolve Medical said, “Eating antioxidant rich foods also help hydrate the skin. Fruit and vegetables provide essential vitamins to keep our skin healthy and glowing, not forgetting to drink plenty of water.”

Just as it’s important to choose what you eat, it’s important to be conscious of what you don’t eat too. This means avoiding eating too many foods which are high in sugar and fats as they can actually break down the collagen in your skin, affecting its elasticity and accelerating visible signs of ageing. Other habits of consumption such as smoking and alcohol can also negatively impact your skin.

Active Lifestyle
Alongside your diet you can also make active changes to your lifestyle to help improve your overall health. Taking part in any form of exercise on a daily basis promotes good oxygen flow and lymphatic drainage which contribute to healthy skin.

This is important throughout all stages of your life. However, as you begin to age, your skin can change more quickly, which means you should have an even stronger focus on staying healthy to look your best.

Skincare
Maintaining a good skincare routine is equally as important as your diet in maintaining great skin and defending against daily stressors. Make sure that you moisturise and exfoliate regularly with non abrasive products. Look out for skincare products that contain parabens, perfume, aluminium, phthalates and formaldehyde and avoid these ingredients as they can add stress to your skin.

Mental Health
Physical and emotional stress can both show in our skin. Studies show that both acute and chronic stress can exert negative effects on overall skin wellness, as well as exacerbate a number of skin conditions, including psoriasis, eczema, acne, and hair loss.*

If your skin suffers as a result of stress and other factors, treatments such as Hydrafacial can be a great step to repairing irritated and damaged skin.

Rachel said “Treat our skin according to our age and change skincare accordingly. Remember prevention is better than cure so it’s best to start taking precautions when it comes to your skin care as soon as possible.”