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American Morning

Study Finds Stress Can Effect Way You Look

Aired May 14, 2002 - 08:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for our daily house call. More bad news about stress. It wasn't enough to cause you all kinds of health problems. Now there's a new study that finds stress can also effect the way you look.

CNN medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland is joining us now from Atlanta with that study.

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Paula.

ZAHN: You look like you've been living in a relatively stress- free environment, Rhonda.

Good morning.

ROWLAND: It's all an act. Good morning.

We're talking about our hair and skin, two very important areas. It seems once we leave adolescence, we think we shouldn't have to develop acne any more. When it happens, we think, was it the chocolate I ate, or was is it all the stress I'm under? And actually, a lot of us has believed that stress influenced us, but there hasn't been any scientific proof until now.

So some German researchers set out to study what they thought was a really crazy hypothesis, and that is, what happened to our central nervous system, could this actually affect our skin? We have a graphic to show you what actually happens to the skin and what they looked at, And Under the skin surface, we actually have what's called the sebactious gland. This is where the oil forms that actually plugs our pores that causes the acne. And the question is, what actually causes the oil to form in the first place. And they found a stress hormone called corti cotropin releasing hormone forms in this layer.

So what they say is as our stress increases, it releases the stress hormone, which causes the oil to be produced which leads to the acne. So they don't know if this mechanism actually causes acne, or actually exacerbates it. But, Paula, it looks like we now have an actual mechanism that shows a link.

ZAHN: So what else are dermatologists warning us about these findings?

ROWLAND: Well, what they're also saying is it may actually cause male pattern baldness. They say this is a little bit more complicated, but the same particular hormone they looked at, the stress hormone, may actually cause the hair to fall out. And in addition to that, besides the oily skin, the baldness, it may actually cause dry skin. But the bottom line here, Paula, is that stress can affect our skin in a number of different ways.

So what we should do is obviously find ways to reduce our stress in order to protect our skin.

ZAHN: More easily said than done, I might add. Don't you even remember Princess Caroline of Monaco at one point lost all her hair during a particularly stressful time in life. I guess there is a point at which you can turn this around, besides modifying your environment.

Now, move on to more of the warnings about acne, and what you can do to reverse stress in that kind of situation.

ROWLAND: Obviously, trying to get our stress under control. As you just mentioned, when we have stressful life events, you want to take steps to make sure we get enough rest, we get our exercise, we eat right. And also when we talk about acne, there are certainly some hereditary components that sets the stage for this, which we have no control over. But it could be things like stress, our diet. Those sorts of things can help exacerbate it. So these are all things that we want to try to control, and also some good news just in all of this research, even though it could be kind of distressing, is that once we know a mechanism, maybe we can come up with some better treatment, some better therapies.

So there is some hope down the road.

And also, Paula, while we have bad stress, there's also such a thing as good stress, and perhaps if we have a little bit more of that in our lives, maybe that will help us have better looking skin and fuller heads of hair.

ZAHN: Let's go for the good stress in our lives. And I guess in the meantime, we have to give up potato chips?

ROWLAND: Well, not necessarily, but there are a lot of good reasons to try to modify our intake of that, and that also is another controversial area. One of the dermatologist I talked said that there are plenty of dermatologists that don't think that diet has anything to do with it, but he thinks it does. So again, I think the message here, Paula, everything in moderation.

ZAHN: Except for broccoli, which we're supposed to o.d. on.

ROWLAND: Yes, plenty of that.

ZAHN: Rhonda Rowland, reporting from Atlanta this morning.

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