What Stress Does to Your Skin

Your thoughts and moods show up in your skin, particularly when it comes to stress. Expert nutritionist and skincare guru Ginger Hodulik Downey, MS, CNS, discusses how stress—and how we manage it—affects our skin, causing sagging skin on the cheeks and beneath the eyes. The reason: Cortisol, a stress hormone produced by the adrenal glands when we need a burst of energy in stressful situations. When we are stressed all the time and don’t deal with it in a healthy and timely fashion, the constant surge of cortisol breaks down collagen, which holds the skin together, resulting in sagging of the skin. The way to prevent this is to reduce and effectively manage stress in whatever way works best for you. This might be through deep breathing, mindfulness, exercise, relaxing or something else entirely.