Monday, December 11, 2006

Stress Does Affect Eczema

 Stress can cause to skin reactions. Recent research indicates that by blocking the hormone, glucocorticoid—which increases in stressful times—skin reactions became less of a problem and the appearance of the skin actually improved.
Understanding how glucocorticoids work will permit researchers to develop  new methods of preventing human skin problems triggered by psychological stress, said lead researcher Kenneth Feingold of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco and the University of California at San Francisco.
Research showed that psychological stress decreases cell growth and inhibits differentiation into skin cells.  The outermost layer of your skin, the epidermis, is composed of dead skin cells, which form a permeability barrier to prevent water loss. Every day tens of thousands of these dead cells slough off as tiny flakes. Typically, cells at the bottom of the epidermis grow, move to the surface and differentiate into skin cells to replace the lost flakes.