The Mind-Skin Connection: How Stress Affects Your Skin’s Health

In 2024, 43 percent of Americans reported being more anxious and stressed than the previous year. Have you ever considered the profound effects of stress on your skin? When you experience acute and chronic stress, it can manifest as acne, eczema, psoriasis, and even hair loss.

Understanding this skin-stress connection is crucial. It empowers you to find ways to manage your anxiety and preserve your health. It also opens the door to medical spa treatments that can effectively address stress-related damage to your skin.

How Stress Affects the Skin

Do you know how you sometimes sweat or become flushed when you get really nervous? That’s a manifestation of acute stress, a temporary response. However, when this happens to you frequently, you end up experiencing more than just a slight flushing. The stress can go from acute to chronic and have profound effects on your mental and physical health. That includes your complexion.

Mental stress can interfere with the capacity of the skin’s top layer to hold in moisture, protect the body from harmful bacteria, and facilitate healing. When this happens, you can end up with skin irritation, acne, wounds, and conditions like eczema and psoriasis.

When you become stressed due to any psychological, environmental, or situational factors, your body ramps up its production of cortisol, a stress hormone. Your skin can detect increased cortisol levels, and the reaction can be any of the following changes in your skin:

• Production of more oils and sebum, an oily substance that lubricates the skin
• Decreased ability to fight infection
• Increased inflammation
• Diminished wound healing

In addition to stress-induced changes in the body, our behaviors in response to feeling anxious can also create problems. For example, do you touch your face more when you’re nervous? If so, you could increase the likelihood of pimples or make them proliferate. Another behavioral effect of stress is neglecting self-care routines, such as getting enough sleep, washing our faces, or eating healthy foods. When we don’t care for ourselves because of stress, it shows on our skin.

Mitigating the Effects of Stress

Some stress in life is inevitable, and it pays to have coping mechanisms handy when life gets overwhelming. The key is to pick the strategy that works for you, whether meditation or prayer, positive visualization, deep breathing, journaling, or talking with someone you trust.

Some individuals seek help from doctors who can prescribe medication for chronic stress that’s difficult to manage. Others find that positive lifestyle choices can help keep the body’s stress hormones in check, keeping the skin healthy and radiant.

Medical Spa Treatments for Stressed-Out Skin

When stress starts to show on your skin as redness, breakouts, dryness, or premature aging, remember that there is hope. Everglow Medical Spa offers the perfect remedy for these effects. Our rejuvenating treatments address the physical symptoms and provide a calming experience that can reduce stress levels.

Depending on the extent of the damage caused by stress, our specialists can discuss your situation and recommend a comprehensive treatment plan, giving you a reason to be optimistic about your skin’s future.

If you notice more acne breakouts or oiliness on your face, you might benefit from a custom facial treatment, such as a deep-cleansing facial from your local aesthetic clinic, which can be budget-friendly. At Everglow Medical Spa, you can schedule a HydroFacial that targets excess oil and dirt with diamond-tipped microdermabrasion and radiofrequency and/or ultrasound. This intense facial treatment will reduce blemishes, lock in moisture, and add extra glow to your complexion.

If you notice fine lines and wrinkles that tell stories of stress, you can turn back the clock with a locally based derma rolling session. Also known as microneedling, this treatment stimulates collagen with tiny, sterilized needles to smooth your skin’s texture and reduce the appearance of lines. You can also diminish wrinkles and smooth out your skin’s texture with laser resurfacing, dermaplaning, and Neurotox injections.

Tailored Treatments to Combat Skin Stress

At Everglow Medical Spa, addressing skin concerns goes beyond improving appearance. It also means preserving internal and external health and well-being. When you come to our facility in West Chester, you have affordable options in personalized skincare. In addition to our advanced treatments, we can also recommend our quality line of Circadia skincare products to help maintain your skin’s natural beauty.