HEALTHY NEWS
Stressed out skin? Stress is one of the main causes of acne. Calming yoga poses can combats stress and promote circulation to the face!
We all know that yoga can help with a host of ailments, from promoting weight loss to alleviating depression. But what about acne? Can you stretch your way to smooth, blemish-free skin?
Like most health conditions, acne has more than one cause. Gary Kraftsow, founder of the American Viniyoga Institute and author of Yoga for Wellness, says that while yoga can’t address all of acne’s causes, such as a genetic predisposition to breakouts, a targeted yoga practice can help with others by combating stress and promoting circulation to the face.
One of the main causes of acne is stress, says Kraftsow. Or, more specifically, an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system (the system that controls breathing, heart rate, digestion and sexual arousal). Stress — whether physical, emotional or even dietary — creates this imbalance by stimulating the sympathetic subsystem, often referred to as the “fight or flight” response. The sympathetic response makes your heart beat faster, floods the body with hormones (including adrenalin) and diverts blood away from the digestive system and the skin. This can trigger acne outbreaks.
But what if “stressed out” is your status quo? That’s where yoga comes in.
“There are many calming postures that encourage the parasympathetic or ‘rest and repose’ response instead,” says Liz Lark, a yoga teacher and co-author of Healing Yoga.
