Stress may be getting to your skin, but it ’s not a one-way street
Are you stressed out? Your skin can show it. Studies show that both acute and chronic stress can exert negative effects on overall skin wellness, as well as exacerbate a number of skin conditions, including psoriasis, eczema, acne, and hair loss.
But it’s not just a one-way street. Research has also shown that skin and hair follicles contain complex mechanisms to produce their own stress-inducing signals, which can travel to the brain and perpetuate the stress response.
Stress and the two-way street between your brain and skin
You may already have experienced the connection between the brain and skin. Have you ever gotte...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 14, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Neera Nathan, MD, MSHS Tags: Skin and Hair Care Stress Source Type: blogs
Platelet-rich plasma: Does the cure for hair loss lie within our blood?
Platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, is derived from the bloodstream and has been used for years to treat musculoskeletal conditions, and more recently, skin conditions. Colloquially termed “vampire” treatments, PRP injected into the skin or used after microneedling (a technique that uses small needles to create microscopic skin wounds) may help to improve skin texture and appearance. Recently, PRP has garnered attention as a promising solution for one of the most challenging problems in dermatology: hair loss.
Platelets and hair growth: What’s the connection?
Platelets are one of four primary components of blood (the other...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 11, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Neera Nathan, MD, MSHS Tags: Health Skin and Hair Care Source Type: blogs
My life with telogen effluvium*
Every morning when I get up, after I brush my teeth, I brush my hair. For months from last summer through this winter, every morning I would find more hair in my brush. Because I was losing hair. Which filled me with grief and embarrassment and, for some reason, shame. I have a very nearly bald spot on the crown of my head, not visible to anyone who does not tower over me. But I know it is there and I cringe inwardly about it every day when I see or remember it..I have always loved my hair. Never wished it were some other color. My hair and my eyes let me feel almost pretty, to make up somehow for being fat. My beautiful a...
Source: Jung At Heart - April 13, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Small Hairs Make Big Cuts (and Consequences)
The hair or thread tourniquet syndrome is a relatively rare condition that has evaded me in the emergency department for several decades, until past year when three cases showed up over six months. This condition has been around for as long as there has been hair or thread and body appendages. In fact, this condition may have first been described in the 1600s. (J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol 2005;18[3]:155.)The etiology of this condition seems almost unbelievable. How in the world does a hair get wrapped repeatedly and tightly around an appendage of the body? Some authors expressed the need to consider nonaccidental etio...
Source: M2E Too! Mellick's Multimedia EduBlog - April 30, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Why does hair turn gray?
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If you look at photos of President Obama taken before he ran for president and since he left office, you’ll notice a distinct difference: where there used to be only dark brown hair, there is now far more gray than brown. It seems that the stress of running a country would turn any person’s hair gray. But is stress really to blame? And why does hair turn gray, even for those of us who don’t have jobs quite as stressful as President of the United States?
Stress doesn’t actually turn hair gray. In fact, hair doesn’t actually “turn” gray. Once a hair follicle produces hair, the...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 18, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Healthy Aging Skin and Hair Care Source Type: blogs
Hair Tourniquet Syndrome.
We recently had a young girl present after her parents could not settle her. During a thorough assessment by one of our nurses, the cause of the girls unhappiness was identified.
A single human hair had wrapped itself tightly around her toe.
The photo above shows the girls foot after a liberal application of hair removal cream which successfully dissolved the hair after 2 applications (over about 30 minutes).
Hair Tourniquet syndrome:
Hair Tourniquet syndrome is a relatively (although often unreported) common occurrence in the hospital setting.
It requires high vigilance as it can quickly lead to ischaemia a...
Source: impactEDnurse - July 22, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: clinical skills Source Type: blogs
