Stress and Your Skin

Do you need to relax more? A quick peek in the mirror holds the answer. As it turns out, recent research shows that stress can hurt your skin. "We know that stress can have a dramatic effect on the immune system," says Joshua Fox, MD, founder of Advanced Dermatology and a spokesman for the American Academy of Dermatology. "And quite often, that can create immune- related responses in the skin." Read: the more stress you're under, the more you're prone to breakouts, flare-ups with chronic conditions like psoriasis and eczema, and even wrinkles. Dr. Fox's de-stress suggestions: try meditation, hypnosis or biofeedback. Personally, I'm using this as evidence that I deserve a massage!

Soak Away Stress

If you do one nice thing for yourself this week, take a bath. After several especially stressful days, I took one mid-week last week ... and loved it so much that I took another two days later. I wanted the whole spa experience, so before I filled the tub, I lit a few candles, poured myself a tiny bit of wine and grabbed a stack of magazines. For my first bath, I added a homemade herbal mix (lots of lavender and rosemary--mmm) that a friend had given me; for my second, I wanted bubbles, and I used some California Baby Calming Aromatherapy Bubble Bath (which a friend bought for my daughter--but as it turns out, it's brilliant for adults, too). After a quick soak, I was feeling 100 times more relaxed. When's the last time you took a bath?