Researchers recently discovered a mechanism of how stress can trigger acne breakouts.
The skin is your first line of defense against harmful bacteria and other pathogens. It’s not only a physical barrier, but also houses a large number of white blood cells. White blood cells are a part of the immune system and attack harmful bacteria and other things that do not belong to your body.
As with any immune system actions, white blood cells create inflammation when they attack harmful bacteria. And as you know acne is an inflammatory skin disease. A red pimple is nothing but an inflamed skin pore.
It’s easy to see that the more intense ‘fighting’ in your skin, the more likely you are to breakout (this applies not only to acne, but to other inflammatory skin diseases also).
November issue of The American Journal of Pathology reported about a research showing that stress increases the number of white blood cells in the skin.
This is quite logical since stress is our response to a perceived external threat. It’s a form of fear. Today we rarely fear for our physical safety, but thousands of years ago the most likely source of stress was being attacked by a wild animal or a member of a hostile tribe.
So the body moves more white blood cells to the skin to prevent infections and harmful bacteria from entering the body through cuts and wounds.
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