Can stress cause your face to swell up like a 'moon'?

Does stress really make your face bulge and round like the Moon? - Photo: CNN

“Your face looks like the moon, maybe very round,” one woman claimed on TikTok about the effects of stress. “Your face can look swollen and inflamed.”

Can stress affect your face?

“My face puffs up like a balloon,” another woman shared in a post. “It’s due to high cortisol levels, aka high stress. When I was going through the COVID-19 pandemic, my face looked like this too.”

In today's busy society, where people are rushing around, cramming more and more things into their daily to-do lists, constant stress can become a scary reality. But is stress really making your face bulge out?

“While chronic stress can lead to increased cortisol levels in the body, those levels typically don’t rise high enough to cause a ‘moon face’ phenomenon,” says dermatologist Rajani Katta, MD, assistant clinical professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

“Fluid retention can be caused by many things, from diet to medical conditions like kidney disease. Some prescription medications can also lead to fluid retention,” says Katta.

The "moon face" is actually a consequence of Cushing's syndrome, a condition in which the body has extremely high levels of cortisol, Katta says, often due to prolonged use of prescription medications like the steroid prednisone or, more rarely, cases of overactive adrenal glands.

In addition to a round face, Cushing's syndrome can also cause excess fat around the neck, a fatty hump between the shoulders, and obesity in the upper body, according to the Johns Hopkins Hospital website.

“For medical causes of water retention, treating the underlying cause will help. Your doctor may also prescribe a diuretic to help your body get rid of excess water,” says Katta.

Bad habits that can stress your skin

While elevated cortisol levels from everyday stress may not be the cause of “moon face,” the hormone can harm your skin in other ways.

Stress hormones like cortisol can cause acne, dull skin, speed up the aging process, and aggravate skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis, says dermatologist Whitney Bowe, MD, assistant clinical professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.

"Continuously high levels of cortisol have been shown to inhibit the production of collagen, hyaluronic acid, and healthy lipids like ceramides," Bowe told CNN in a previous interview.

“Collagen is like the skin’s framework, preventing wrinkles,” says Bowe. “Hyaluronic acid keeps skin plump, and ceramides are healthy fats that form a barrier to prevent permeability, helping to lock in moisture.”

People often reach for salty snacks when they're stressed, which could explain puffy eyes and faces, as well as swollen legs and feet, experts say. "If your face is puffy, one of the first questions I'd ask is about your sodium intake.

High sodium intake can lead to water retention throughout the body, says Katta, author of "Glow: A Dermatologist's Guide to a Whole Foods Diet for Younger Skin." "If it's just from eating too much salt over the weekend, returning to your normal diet should fix the problem within a few days," she adds.

Another cause is eating too much sugar and processed carbohydrates, which "can unfortunately damage the skin's collagen over time, through a process called glycation," says Katta.

“Foods rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties can help provide an extra layer of protection for your skin and help boost your skin's defense and repair systems,” she suggests.

Stress Relief Tips

There are many ways to reduce stress that are good for your skin, experts say. Exercise increases blood flow to the face and helps release endorphins, hormones that make the body feel happy.

Exercise also pushes oxygen-rich blood to all parts of the body, including the skin, which helps promote skin barrier repair, experts say. Additionally, yoga, meditation, and deep breathing are all known to help reduce cortisol production and stress levels.

Quality sleep is also a way to improve skin and reduce stress, according to sleep physician Raj Dasgupta, MD, associate clinical professor of sleep medicine and pulmonary care at Huntington Hospital in California.

"It's called beauty sleep because sleep regenerates your skin at night," Dasgupta told CNN earlier. "There's a hormone called growth hormone that's released during the deep stages of sleep, which stimulates new skin cell growth."

Adults over the age of 18 need at least seven hours of uninterrupted sleep each night to stay healthy, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sleep deprivation, along with irregular sleep patterns, is not only linked to stressed skin, but also an increased risk of obesity, heart disease, dementia, and mood disorders like anxiety and depression.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/cang-thang-co-the-lam-guong-mat-sung-len-nhu-mat-trang-20241023110724661.htm