Truth In Aging Series – Toxic Emotions

Emotions and Aging

What can your skin say about your life? Quite a great deal as it turns out. Whether you spent most of your life content and satisfied, or upset and depressed, you can rest assured it will appear on your face sooner or later. The way you handle your emotions has a direct effect on your appearance, and while you may not see or notice these results at the moment, wait a few years and they will be there. Among all the tips and tricks on anti-aging, from topical applications, diet options, and masks, one thing that many beauty and health bloggers forget to mention is staying positive. Your emotions affect your skin and your hair – from the inside out. It makes our list of the make or breaks for your skincare regimen.

Negative emotions can increase the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, while altering the skin’s ability to heal itself for the worst. It also decreases your body’s ability to transfer nutrients to your epidermis. Plus, stress and negativity can also increase your likelihood of developing acneic blemishes, as it alters your hormones. We will take you through the ins and outs of how a negative attitude and emotions will directly affect your skin later on in life. Those who wish to start their anti-aging routine early – listen up! This especially applies to you. However, it can also help those already developing aging skin immensely. So, prepare to be positive, and read on to find out more on keeping your emotions in check to let youth rule you for years to come.

 

Anger

Rage, hostility, and a short temper all come from one root source – an inability to manage or handle feelings of anger properly. Anger directly affects numerous systems in your body, and alters your metabolism, digestion, and blood circulation for the worse. These kinds of alterations affect your skin as well, and will make the aging process happen much more quickly than if you can control your temper. Its effects on the digestive system are especially influential on your skin, as constant or chronic anger can cause ulcers or leaky gut, allowing toxins to leak into your body and preventing nutrients for absorbing properly. This can result in skin conditions that illicit allergic reactions from the released toxins, and prevents the skin from receiving the full flow of nutrients it could get.

How does anger look on your skin? It looks like deeper wrinkles, more dark spots, and a more difficult healing process. It influences your facial expressions and your facial muscles, and can cause veins to stand out on different parts of your body due to high blood pressure. Anger will put you on a fast track to earning the tell-tale signs of premature aging very quickly. This applies to your whole body as well as your skin, as it causes a continuous release of different stress hormones to flow through your body, degrading a number of different tissues from the outside in by damaging cell DNA with oxidative stress.

 

Anxiety

Chronic anxiety wreaks havoc on your skin by making the blood vessels beneath the surface of your skin function improperly and become weaker. The body produces more of the stress hormone, cortisol, which not only degrades the amount of collagen and elastin in the skin, but also makes the epidermal layer become thinner. Therefore, wrinkles come sooner and look deeper, and more fine lines will appear to map out the face. Cortisol also decreases muscle mass and functionality, which can lead to a more gaunt appearance and decrease facial plumpness as a result.

Additionally, high levels of anxiety can change sleeping patterns which paves the way for further skin destruction by altering the human growth hormone responsible for proper cell renewal. This prevents your body from produces new, young cells to carry on their normal functions, leaving all the work to the old cells. This creates a dull, lackluster complexion with uneven tone. Plus, the fluctuation in blood flow and stress put on the blood vessels can cause red patches to occur, making for a blotchy complexion that may be more prone to irritation and reaction.

 

Depression

Depression alters the biochemicals in your body, resulting in continuous inflammation and an inability to properly reproduce new cells. It slows down the epidermal healing process, making wounds turn into more noticeable scars. Plus, depression tends to cause you to make facial expressions that will increase the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles around your eyes, forehead, and mouth. It also degrades your body’s ability to create collagen and elastin, which can further the appearance of facial sagging through jowls and loosened neck skin.

Additionally, studies have found direct links between depression and the occurrence of acne and blemishes. Such skin developments can be the result of a weakened immune system, lack of proper nourishment, and other factors that often come as a result of chronic depression. This could cause acne scars, uneven tone, and premature aging as a result. Depression affects nearly every aspect of your life, from sleep patterns to diet habits, all of which will affect the rate at which your skin ages.

 

Embarrassment

Regular feelings of humiliation or embarrassment can cause any existing skin problems to become much worse. It makes conditions like acne or eczema become more reactive to outer stimuli. The moment we feel embarrassment or fear, our bodies illicit a fight-or-flight reaction, and the blood begins to rush. This puts excessive pressure on your blood vessels, making it more likely for them to appear as an aesthetic of aging. Such a response also creates the blushing effect we commonly associate with embarrassment.

As we respond to fear or humiliation, we naturally have a tendency to frown, which can later result in deepened wrinkles around the mouth area. This kind of makes the case for laughing in the face of danger, and having the ability to laugh at yourself. Additionally, fearful or embarrassed reactions can weaken cell structure and negatively influence enzymatic activity, making the regeneration process more difficult. This causes your skin to lose its firmness, elasticity, and connective strength, which can lead to more sagging.

 

Sadness

Everyone goes through periods of grief over the loss of a loved one or other trauma in their life time. However, allowing that grief to take hold and root into your life can lead to depression, anxiety, and other mental problems. Sadness itself has a particular set of contributions it makes to your skin and aging process, regardless of how long it sticks around or how deep it penetrates your life. It acts almost as a miniature version of depression by altering your ability to sleep, changing the way your body releases hormones, and even influencing your dieting patterns as well.

When we experience sadness, we cry. Crying causes the eyes to become swollen, puffy, baggy, and red from the pressure buildup of the tear ducts and inflammation. This can make you look and feel tired and older almost immediately. Later down the road, it could contribute to crow’s feet at the corners of your eyes and droopy eyelids. Plus, your facial expressions when you cry contribute to deepened wrinkles later on from frowning and putting strain on your facial muscles.

 

Stress

Prolonged stress has long-lasting effects on your skin’s aging process, as one study discovered. Continuous exposure to stress, or allowing the little things to overtake you results in genetic damage within the epidermal cells. The study examined two groups of women: one group who cared for children with a serious, chronic condition such as autism, the other group cared for children with no abnormalities. Through examining the cell’s ability to reproduce, the researchers found that the group exposed to the constant strains and stresses of caring for children with chronic conditions had shorter DNA strands, resulting in shorter cell life and less ability to reproduce properly. These women experienced a faster aging process, with evidence of premature aging to their skin. The epidermis was exposed to more oxidative damage than that of the women who were not under such constant pressure.

Part of this is due to the stress hormone our bodies release called cortisol, which degrades collagen and elastin – the two connective proteins that help keep our skin firm and toned. As the collagen and elastin start to break down or obtain lower functionality, the skin begins to sag, droop, and form wrinkles from its inability to connect to the muscles and bone as well. This hormone may also influence the skin’s sebum secretions, resulting in oilier skin and a higher possibility of acne. Additionally, stress is directly related to other sensitizing skin conditions, such as eczema, psoriasis, and rosacea. Other studies found that individuals struggling with any of these conditions often saw them get worse with more stress in their lives. Thus, they way your mind and body process stressful situations can cause your to age more quickly, and have more obvious signs of aging.

 

Negativity and Its Lasting, Nasty Effects

In general, allowing negative emotions to rule our lives have the same end results on the aging process. They disrupt the endocrine system by causing the secretion of hormones, like cortisol, to go into overdrive, resulting in degradation of collagen and elastin, and slowing up the cell’s renewal process. They also cause the human growth hormone to become scarce, further intruding on the cell’s ability to regenerate and reproduce. Negativity directly influences diet patterns, sleeping habits, and the way we treat ourselves. It will all show up on our skin sooner or later if we allow these emotions to take control of our lives.

One important fact to remember: as we form in the womb, our skin cells develop from the same substance as our brain cells – proving that an intimate connection between the mind and appearance truly do exist. The thoughts you allow into your brain directly affect your skin, as research shows that self-esteem is connected with acneic conditions, and other skin-related developments including wrinkles, fine lines, dark spots, and other age-related features. Exchange your negative thoughts for positive ones, and day by day this practice will become a little easier. Eventually, you will make it a habit, and thinking positively about yourself and your life will become a natural way of handling stress.

 

Fuel Your Skin Love with Face Naturals

Everyone struggles with all of the above negative emotions at some point in their lives. However, the key to defeating them lies in keeping them from overtaking your thoughts and the way you treat yourself. Sticking with a healthy diet of raw, organic fruits and vegetables, getting plenty of sleep, and maintaining a positive attitude in most situations will help your mind and body handle stress in a better way. The more you nourish your body, the better you treat yourself. Your thought patterns, emotions, and reactions all directly effect your aging process, for better or worse. Start taking control over those emotions, and express them in healthy ways that do not destroy your body’s cells. Be sweet to yourself and others!

Do not forget that self-care is also of high importance in learning to manage stress better. Teach your body to manage stress in a more healthy manner, and your mind certainly follow. That is why we offer a line of toxin-free skincare products made from organic, botanical ingredients to nourish your skin from the outside in. With no endocrine disrupting chemicals, seeking out our skincare could be the first step you take toward getting your body back on track. Besides, a little self-pampering never hurt anyone, right? Start your skin-loving changes today by contacting us with information about which products interest you, your skin type, and what issues you wish to address with our products. We will point you in the right direction toward a healthy mission of your own.

 

References

• Study is First to Confirm That Stress Speeds Aging
• The Mind-Skin Connection
• Can Anger Age Your Skin?
• Anger Makes You Age More Quickly
• The Age of Obama
• How Acne and Depression Feed Each Other
• How Your Mental Health Affects Your Skin
• How Stress Affects Your Skin
• Skin and Your Emotions