Psychodermatology – Stress Impact on Skin Treatment

We’ve talked about stress and your skin before, but did you know there is actually an arm in medicine referred to as psychodermatology?

Stress Impact on Skin

Your skin reacts to stress in obvious ways and now we realize that stress also affects how your medications work – or won’t work! Stress can cause your acne and psoriasis to flare and even cause your hair to fall out. You’ve heard people say (maybe you too)  “I feel like pulling my hair out!” when situations are high stress.  That’s a mind-body connection that literally has some people losing hair.

Stress Impact on Your Body

There are people who get foot problems when they “can’t stand” what their circumstances are.  And back problems when they feel their responsibilities are too heavy. And headaches when someone close to them has them thinking “what a headache”!  There’s a book titled “Your Body Believes Every Word You Say” that is pretty fascinating reading. (Author Barbara Levine)

Stress Impact on Medications

Stress and depression (the grand-daddy of all stress) can actually hamper the ability of prescriptions to work as they should under normal circumstances.

“Emotional stressors can keep the best skin medicine in the world from working,” said Dr. Ted Grossbart, a Harvard assistant psychology professor and author of Skin Deep: A New Mind/Body Program for Healthy Skin.

It’s frustrating and stressful enough to have skin conditions that require medication – but to discover that there is some vicious cycle in play calls for some action.

Stress Reduction

Studies have shown that practices like hypnosis, relaxation tapes, therapy, antidepressants and biofeedback have reversed skin flare-ups and even grown back hair in alopecia patients. (Source NewBeauty.com)

Here’s a fascinating blog from Psychology Today Four Myths That Can Keep Your Skin From Getting Better