And what if the best-kept beauty secret was to stay zen in all circumstances? The impact of stress is not limited to a person's emotional state but also affects their physical appearance. We will explain why stress makes you look ugly and how to remedy this often overlooked enemy of beauty.
People who suffer from eczema know it well: strong emotions such as anxiety or frustration often manifest at the skin level in the form of red patches and/or itching!
The brain and the skin are two intimately linked organs and this is the first reason why stress makes us look ugly, in addition to the fact that nervous tension is indeed visible on our face...
When we are stressed, our body undergoes a whole cascade of hormonal changes, with the secretion of cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and inflammatory molecules.
This emotional and hormonal storm impacts the quality of the skin by disrupting the functioning of the sebaceous glands. When the balance is disrupted, the skin becomes oily and pimples appear.
Even people with dry skin can experience the effects of this imbalance: their skin becomes even drier, itchy, and tight. As for people with dark circles under their eyes, they notice that their circles are even more visible when they are stressed.
If you feel like stress is making you look ugly, it's also because it affects the scalp and disrupts its functioning. Like the skin, the scalp becomes oilier and can sometimes be covered with persistent dandruff. In severe cases, stressed individuals develop seborrheic dermatitis and their scalp starts itching very unpleasantly.
Worse still, in case of strong emotions or prolonged periods of tension, your hair can enter a falling phase before completing its growth. In this case, you can lose up to a hundred hairs per day!
By affecting your appetite and intestines, stress can also make you uglier or at least fatter. It's no coincidence that we talk about stress-related weight gain, as it's common to put on weight when under pressure.
Not only do emotions that we can't manage lead to overeating, but cortisol secretion also accentuates water retention and can promote weight gain.
Even when your weight doesn't change on the scales, you can be literally "swollen with stress" due to water retention!
Finally, your intestine, which is nicknamed the second brain, contracts under the effect of strong emotions, to the point that you can suffer from bloating, abdominal cramps, and transit disorders...
The final reason why stress makes you look ugly is that this emotion causes abundant sweating. Under the influence of adrenaline and noradrenaline hormones, the body's thermoregulation is overwhelmed, which promotes excessive sweating. Sweating appears uncomfortably in the armpits, palms, or even on the face!
Faced with these cascading reactions, local solutions can be used:
• by adapting your beauty routine according to your skin type
• by taking a course of brewer's yeast or dietary supplements for the skin and hair
• by taking activated charcoal for bloating
• by adapting your diet to limit FODMAPs (foods that ferment and cause bloating)
• by limiting salt in your plate and drinking diuretic herbal teas to remedy water retention
• by making your own solid deodorant based on baking soda and palmarosa essential oil to fight bad odors.
But of course, the first thing to do when stress makes you look ugly is to tackle the problem at the root. All solutions are good to help you relax and avoid these unpleasant effects on your appearance.
You can try different anti-stress methods:
• relaxation
• medical hypnosis
• stretching
• yoga
• balanced diet
• heart coherence
• anti-stress essential oils
Author Audrey on 25 July 2022
Health and Beauty : Alternative Medicine
Author Audrey on 12 December 2022
Health and Beauty : Medicine