Blocking stress hormones may improve your skin...at least if you are a mouse

In a new study:

"[S]cientists subjected hairless mice to stress while either blocking the production of glucocorticoids or blocking the action of the hormone. Some mice weren't treated at all. The stress was created by placing the mice in small cages in constant light with a radio playing for 48 hours.

The two groups of mice treated with a type of glucocorticoid-blocker showed much better skin function compared with untreated and stressed mice."

The scientists hope that "approaches that either reduce [glucocorticoid] production or action might benefit cutaneous disorders that are provoked or exacerbated by [psychological] stress."

In the meantime, we recommend that those of you with psoriasis avoid small cages and constant radio playing.

(In all seriousness, this is encouraging research and we are grateful it is being conducted. But we try to avoid over-hyping basic research findings, especially in mouse models.)