Rosacea and Exercise

How Your Work Out is Affecting Your Rosacea (Hint: it's not about stopping exercise)

Rosacea is a skin ailments marked by facial redness and broken capillaries. But its not just a topical issue, it is aggravated by inflammation in our internal body.

This is influenced by many of our personal habits. One important factor in rosacea is our exercise regime.

Because rosacea is a cardio and blood issue, it is often triggered when our vessels dilate and when our blood rate and pressure is elevated.

When we put ourselves past our physical limits and find we end our workouts red in the face and inflamed, this can aggravate and worsen rosacea.

Anti-redness Workouts

But regular exercise is part of overall wellness.  It's not bad.  It's important!  It's just that those with rosacea are prone to inflammation and over-heating.

Pressure on our blood vessels from intense cardio and teeth gritting weight lifting aggravates this condition so, if you suffer from rosacea or red skin, consider rethinking your exercise regime to integrate more calming practices.

Opt for taking in a yoga or class or gentle strengthening pilates session over signing up for training for that marathon.  Interestingly, in Ayurveda it is people with high Pitta who are prone to inflammatory skin issues.  These people are high in "fire".  And this is said to give them more fiery personalities.  Goal-oriented, high functioning, sometimes easily agitated personalities.  These are often the people who LOVE training for marathons.  Opting for a goal-free yoga class is a great practice for them.

However, hot yoga should be avoided for these skin conditions.  If you must indulge your love of warm asanas, do it only in cooling wintertime and slather yourself with anti-inflammatory coconut oil beforehand.

With this, also look at making breathing exercises part of your work out routine.

The increase in fresh oxygen nourishes your body and so many pranayam calm the mind.

Below is a classic Pranayam (breathing exercise) that is known for its cooling effects.

Anti-inflammatory Pranayam

Sheetali is a cooling pranayam that is also said to help heat in the digestive system.

Its aim is also to cool the mind and help with inflamed, aggravated emotions and irritability.

Here is how to do it.  In a sitting position, you roll your tongue making a tube out of it (yes, like we used to do in school).

This tube acts like a straw of which you breathe through.

Inhale through the mouth and exhale through the nose.

We think we can actually feel the cold breath entering our body and excess heat being released.  If anything, it's a calming, reassuring thought.

 

Image by Logan Weaver via unsplash

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