Hormones and Skin Health — how stress and happiness affect your skin

“I’m not waiting for the stars to align… just my hormones.”

In my teens, I was at my ugliest. For the most part, I suffered from acne, bad hair days, and was just skin and bones (dogs thought I was a treat). Eew! So glad to be over that phase. The culprit… hormones.

So, what are hormones? And what do they do in the body?

Hormones are chemical messengers of the body produced by several glands transmitting messages to organs to control and regulate most major bodily functions such as hunger, reproduction, and our emotions. Hormones affect our skin too and are a huge component of how our skin looks.

There are several types of hormones in the body with different functions. However, I find the major stress hormone — cortisol and the happy or love hormone — oxytocin most interesting as they definitely affect the way we look and feel. And stress, unfortunately, is a constant presence in our lives exacerbated by the pandemic and the events of the past year. While love and happiness is what we need more of.

Let’s take a closer look at these hormones and what they do…

Cortisol is the primary stress hormone. It increases sugar (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain function and increases the…