How Your Lifestyle Impacts Your Skin Health?

We kick started the healthy skin series with a diet and nutrition article. That to me is the foundation of healthy skin and today we’re going to continue. We’re gonna talk about lifestyle and how it has an impact on your skin health. Anyway let’s talk about the lifestyle.

1. Reduce Stress

The first tip is to reduce stress. Stress has such an impact on skin and I find that to be the case. When I’m stressed out I have more breakouts, more redness or irritation. So how exactly is it that stress causes breakouts? So when you’re stressed you’re producing a lot more of this hormone known as cortisol. Which is also called the stress hormone and we produce normal amounts of it. But when we’re stressed we produce a lot more of it

Cortisol can cause inflammation. And it can also increase the amount of oil your oil glands are producing. And that can lead to breakouts. Other than breakouts, stress can also make a lot of skin conditions worse. Things like eczema, rosacea, psoriasis. So it is a good idea to reduce your stress.

So what can you do?

Now you can’t eliminate stress completely – that would mean you need to stop living! Stress is a normal part of life. It’s going to be there but we can change the way we react to stress. And how we manage our stress on a day-to-day basis.

Meditation

Personally for me the biggest game-changer is meditation. So meditation is one thing and I do recognize it’s not for everybody. So you can try other things like self care.

Self-Care

So what else can you do to help manage your stress? I would suggest self-care. I think activities that you enjoy doing. Things that make you feel like you’re caring for yourself. They do make a big difference. Personally I like going a walk, reading a book, taking a warm bath, cuddling with my cats. All of these things do reduce my stress.

2. Exercise to Improve Skin Health

Number two is exercise more often. Now exercise is not something all of us love but you know what there are so many benefits. And they’re also skin benefits too. So remember how I talked about cortisol and how it impacts your skin in tip 1? So exercise can help reduce your cortisol. And by reducing your cortisol it can help you reduce the chances of breakouts. Not only that when you’re exercising you’re boosting your blood circulation your blood flow. And that can help your skin cells to get more oxygen and more nutrients. So exercise definitely does makes a big difference when it comes to healthy skin.

Start Small

Now we don’t all love exercise so what can you do to make it more of a habit? I would suggest starting really small. Don’t feel like you have to exercise every single day if that’s not something that fits into your lifestyle. Try to do small steps to make it a habit and then you can start to increase it. I have a written articles on exercise and physical activity and how you can make them a part of your routine. Make sure you read that those too.

3. Sun Protection

Protect your skin from the sun. This one a really big one. If you think you go out in the Sun that much so don’t have to worry so much about sunscreen unless it’s a really hot day. Well let me tell you that’s not true. Sun damage can happen on a cloudy day. It can happen when you’re sitting indoors next to a window. Sun damage can happen even if you have dark skin.

No one is immune from sun damage. Sun can cause premature aging and also skin cancer. So it is important to protect yourself from the Sun on a daily basis. So what can you do to protect yourself in the Sun wear a sunscreen every single day. Whenever you’re exposed to the Sun. Even if you’re indoors next to a window, even if it’s cloudy it is important to use a sun screen to protect your skin health.

4. Exposure To Bacteria

Number four is to limit exposure to bacteria that could potentially cause breakouts. It’s the phone it’s the pillowcases, these things if you don’t keep them clean you’ll end up with minor breakouts around the chin. So let’s tackle the phone first. So what is it about the phone that can cause breakouts? When we’re talking on the phone and you’re resting that phone right next to a cheek. It can cause a little bit of that pressure friction and heat. And all that combined can lead to something known as acne and meccanica.

So avoid putting the phone right next your cheek. Keep it at a little bit of a distance while talking on it. Now the other thing is pillowcases. If pillowcases are not clean you may end up with minor breakouts and minor irritation.

5. Sleep is Important for Skin Health

The next tip is to get enough sleep. If you’re not getting enough sleep that can lead to premature aging and all in some cases breakouts. So how exactly does a lack of sleep cause skin issues well when we’re not getting enough sleep let’s say one night we’re not getting enough sleep the next night the next evening our cortisol levels are going to be higher than they should be and again we’ve talked about cortisol before and how it leads to inflammation and irritation and that sort of thing so it is important to get enough sleep.

One tip is to use a humidifier if your air is dry. Now this tip does not apply to someone living in the tropics because the ear is never dry. But it does apply to someone living in the country like Canada. Because half the year this air is quite dry and that can lead to skin that’s a little irritated a little dry. And it is important to use a humidifier if you have any issues like eczema rosacea or skin sensitivity.

This is it for healthy skin series. I hope you learned new things. So, don’t stay back and try these tips to improve your skin health.