Stress and Skin Problems

Stress can affect the human body in a great many ways. For some people, stress will cause a headache. For other people, it might cause a stomach ache. For still others, it might make their hands sweat. In some unfortunate cases, stress can lead to heart problems, problems with blood pressure and even death. Let's face it, stress just isn't any good for the human body.

Did you know that stress can even cause skin problems? In fact, some experts believe that as many as a third of patients who have skin issues may also have an underlying psychological condition, such as stress, that aggravates their skin issues.

Why is this? As it turns out, there is an underlying connection between your mind and your skin. Some experts have started to refer to this connection as "psychodermatology." Psychodermatology is the study of the way that a person's emotional state impacts that person's skin. While this field may sound far-fetched, there are leading researchers at the University of Miami who are studying this area, and psychodermatology is growing by leaps and bounds.

Here is an example of the link between stress and skin problems that psychodermatologists have discovered: when you are stressed, your body releases a number of stress-related hormones. One of these is known as "cortisol." Cortisol can cause the production of oil on your skin to increase. This, in turn, can lead to pimples.

One theory says that people react to stress in different ways, and that some peoples' bodies will target a specific organ when they are stressed. For example, some people will have heart palpitations when they are stressed; other people will have a reaction on another organ: the skin. This can lead to breakouts of acne, as mentioned, or even to a rash. If you have eczema, stress may actually aggravate your eczema, as well.

Sometimes, stress causes behaviors that aggravate skin problems. It may be that, when you are stressed, you are more likely to pick at your pimples or scratch your eczema. This can, of course, lead to scarring and spreading of the problem.

Source: Web MD feature at http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/acne/features/effects-of-stress-on-your-skin.