There are 2 main things to consider when addressing the causes of eczema and psoriasis rather than just the symptoms - these are the amount of stress you are exposed to and your gut health.
We are affected by our physical and emotional stress since the womb.
Everyone who has or is suffering with autoimmune skin problems feels the link between stress and skin symptoms - in fact, up to 80% of people with autoimmune disease reported uncommon emotional stress before disease onset.
But what is stress and can it cause skin problems?
The term “stress” means anything that causes a physical change in your bodies function - stress is anything that moves your body function up or down from normal. Normal function is called homeostasis, or your goldilocks position - not too much, not too little, everything is just right.
The trouble with us humans is that our brains are extra advanced emotionally, and because of this, we are very good at causing our body physical “stress” through our emotions.
Stress can be good - that’s called stimulation or a thrill, like going for a run, weight training, or watching a scary movie), this is called EUSTRESS… but of course stress can be bad - this is called DISTRESS - and distress is anything that causes a negative or degenerative physical consequence.
The problem is, that the exact same event or level of stress can also cause one person to be in EUSTRESS and the other to be in DISTRESS.
Through traumas, high work loads, or just plain old putting your body through hell, you can become more susceptible to distress, just like some people are more susceptible to the hormone insulin, and diabetics, are not.
Think about public speaking - some people are distressed by even the thought of it, and some people are stimulated by that same thought.
Stress presents itself physically as adrenaline and cortisol - these are stress hormones, that have been part of human wiring since before we were human.
They help us obtain quick energy to run away from predators, but when secreted all the time, cortisol and adrenaline slowly melt away muscles, organs, and skin, trigger inflammatory bowel disease flareups and reduce immune function.
Lately, us humans also secrete these stress hormones for all kinds of emotional reasons, like when reading negative comments about your post on social media, being yelled at, when you’re thinking about your taxes or considering how much work you have on tomorrow.
Stress hormones like cortisol also impair your digestion and gut function.
Impaired gut function results in everything from problems with the quality of your gut bacteria, too constipation, diarrhoea, and other irritable bowel symptoms.
Emotional stress makes the negative effects of physical stress more powerful. Physical stress can come from too much exercise, low calorie dieting, poor sleep, and infection.
Physical stress can also come from the environment and technology. Refined seed oils and sugars, plant chemicals, household chemicals, radiation, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and pesticides can all cause physical stress and harm our gut health.
These stressors are assaulting our bodies all the time, mostly without us even realising it.
For example, on average humans consume 1 credit card worth of plastic each week! And chemicals present in plastic have been shown to cause autoimmune disease.
Stress is complex, things like social rank, personality, and your emotional history matter. These all effect how sensitive you are to stress hormones, and emotional and physical stressors.
Imagine you have a fresh graze on one knee. What if I squeezed lemon juice on each knee?
There will be 2 different reactions to the same action.
Healing your body by reducing emotional and physical stress, improving your gut health, and making quality nutrition and lifestyle choices matters greatly to your ability to mitigate autoimmune problems or flare ups if you already have a condition.
So many people’s autoimmune skin problems begin during highly stressful periods in their life.
These heightened emotional states states can lead to a cascade of physical consequences that can heighten your susceptibility to autoimmune problems.