Is your face turning red? Let's find out the reason and fix the problem! Causes of facial redness

When pressure deviates from the norm, a person often develops spots on the face or turns red. Such symptoms also appear during sports, when there is additional stress and blood rushes to the face. Short-term redness of the face occurs in stressful situations, but does not last more than 5 minutes. All these cases are not signs of hypertension. This disease has 3 stages of development and without prevention is dangerous to health.

Why does the face turn red when blood pressure is high?

Obese people are more susceptible to attacks of hypertension, accompanied by redness of the facial skin.

The red face is a clear sign high blood pressure. The main reason for such surges is hypertension. People prone to this disease, when the pressure rises, feel their face burning, body heat, lack of air and heaviness. At this moment, the blood vessels dilate due to tension, and the capillaries located close to the skin cause redness. Such symptoms appear in men aged 30 to 50 years and women after menopause.

Other symptoms of high blood pressure

If a patient has stage 1 hypertension, then the pressure surges will be small: from 140 to 160 on average. When the temperature rises, the headache intensifies. Stage 3 hypertension is characterized by large pressure surges: up to . Symptoms develop gradually, so it is important to pay attention the slightest signs diseases. The main features include:

Nosebleeds may be a sign of a hypertensive condition.

• headache (severe squeezing sensation in the back of the head);
• red spots;
• weakness;
• feeling slight nausea or vomiting;
• numbness of the limbs;
• excessive sweating;
• blood from the nose;
• drowsiness;
• dyspnea;
• visual or hearing impairment.

Low pressure

More often than not, low blood pressure is accompanied by pale skin. But in in rare cases capillaries, on the contrary, dilate, which is a discoordination of vascular functioning. Restoration of a person’s normal state occurs only after the pressure returns to normal. Hypotension is bad for human health. Low blood pressure can cause ischemic stroke, development cardiovascular pathologies, and sometimes even loss of hearing and vision. Older people and those who do not follow a healthy lifestyle are at risk. Such surges are especially dangerous for pregnant women, as this provokes a disruption in delivery nutrients to kid. This affects the functioning of his brain, heart and other organs.

How to treat the problem?

Traditional treatment

It is very important to follow a strict diet and give up alcohol and smoking.

Ramipril may be prescribed by a doctor to lower blood pressure.

• High blood pressure, like low blood pressure, cannot be ignored, so you should immediately seek help at the first signs of illness. First of all, you should consult a doctor to make a correct diagnosis. To do this, a thorough diagnosis is carried out. Only after this is treatment prescribed. Doctors advise getting rid of all bad habits, reduce the amount of salt in your daily diet, play sports, avoid stress and get proper rest. In addition, vitamins and antioxidants are attributed. Medicines are prescribed to reduce tension, normalize vascular tone, have a calming effect. Often attributed:
• "Lisinopril";
• "Captopril";
• "Enalapril";

Illustration copyright Thinkstock

It is generally accepted that people who are red-faced, overweight, and prone to sweating have high blood pressure. But is everything as simple as it seems to us? The correspondent found out what science knows about this, and whether we can rely on this knowledge.

You've probably seen more than once some excited stranger scurrying down the street - puffy, sweaty and with a red face. This sight inevitably makes you think that the unfortunate person probably suffers from high blood pressure. Maybe, looking at it, you will even promise yourself to show up at the gym more often.

If we're talking about about your friend or colleague who, in addition, begins to complain of headaches and nosebleeds, then you may worry that these symptoms are harbingers of a heart attack or stroke. But can you really recognize the signs of high blood pressure just by looking at a person?

A person turns red when blood vessels close to the skin dilate to allow more blood. Sometimes blush appears on the face suddenly, and the person suddenly becomes hot - for example, from shame or embarrassment. And sometimes the face turns red gradually - this process takes up to 20 minutes, and its cause can also be embarrassment or heat, cold and great physical activity. In all these cases, a person's blood pressure temporarily increases, but blush caused by cycling uphill, walking in frosty weather, or an unexpected meeting with a former life partner is by no means a sign of persistent hypertension.

If facial redness persists, it may be a sign of rosacea, a skin condition associated with chronic inflammation small blood vessels. High blood pressure can complicate the disease, but people with rosacea are not always hypertensive.

Eccrine sweat glands especially large quantities are found on the face, as well as on the palms, soles and armpits. Their work is regulated by the sympathetic nervous system, which is also responsible for the body's reaction to detected danger and for our decision about whether to fight or run away. Excessive sweating, or hyperhidrosis, may be hereditary or indicate a number of other diseases - but not hypertension.

Illustration copyright Thinkstock Image caption Excessive sweating may be a sign of other diseases, not hypertension...

The body reacts in a certain way even in cases where the stressful situation does not imply a threat to life. If you are in a hurry to get home and miss the bus, or if you have a disagreement with one of your friends, this can also cause palpitations and increased blood pressure. However, once you get home and make peace with your friend, these symptoms quickly disappear.

The relationship between stress and increased blood pressure is very complex, and if under the influence stressful situations A person’s blood pressure often fluctuates, this can contribute to the development of hypertension. But if a person gets angry from time to time, this does not at all indicate that he is hypertensive.

And the head?

What about pressure-related headaches then? Formerly doctors thought that they arise due to hypertension, but recent data indicate reverse effect. When measuring pressure, two indicators are always taken into account. The top one is systolic pressure - this is the pressure in the arteries when the heart muscle contracts. According to the results scientific research It was found that people with high systolic pressure are susceptible to headaches much less, and those who have a difference between the upper and lower indicators ( pulse pressure) higher, are also less likely to suffer from headaches. And Brazilian scientists have found that people with high blood pressure have a lower risk of developing migraines.

In 90% of cases the exact cause of hypertension is unknown

Interestingly, drugs that help lower blood pressure are often used effectively to treat migraines. According to one version, pain in this case decreases not due to a decrease in pressure, but due to side effect drug.

By the way, this applies not only to headaches and migraines. Recently, a study was conducted in Norway involving more than 17,000 people - over several years, scientists observed which of them would develop back pain. A third of the participants experienced this problem, but it was observed that the higher their systolic and pulse pressures, the lower their risk of pain.

This decreased sensitivity to pain results from high pressure called hypalgesia caused by hypertension. This phenomenon also helps explain why some women have later migraines stop during pregnancy - during this period their blood pressure naturally rises. No one knows for sure the mechanism for the development of hypalgesia in hypertension, but according to one version, thickening of the walls of blood vessels due to increased pressure interferes with normal activity nerve endings, and the pain dulls.

This doesn't mean that hypertension is healthy, but it does appear that some symptoms, including headaches, are a sign of normal rather than high blood pressure.

If a headache is not an indicator of high blood pressure, then what about nosebleeds? Research results on this subject appear contradictory. Thus, Austrian scientists found that patients admitted to the department emergency care Vienna hospital with complaints about ongoing nose bleed, the pressure was indeed higher than that of the others. However, studies conducted in Brazil have not established any connection between these phenomena.

Illustration copyright Thinkstock Image caption Headaches quite often have nothing to do with your blood pressure.

However, these studies were aimed exclusively at people who suffered from nosebleeds. But in order to find out whether this problem really indicates high blood pressure, you need to understand how common it is among hypertensive patients. In Greece, a study was conducted among patients admitted to hospital in acute condition caused by high blood pressure. It turned out that constant nosebleeds are observed in only 17% of them. It appears that in some patients bleeding may be a sign of high blood pressure, but in most people there is no such connection.

The simplest answer to all these questions is that hypertension can often be asymptomatic - with one important caveat. If the pressure rises sharply to dangerous level, a person usually experiences severe anxiety, acute headache and dizziness, he suddenly lacks air. These symptoms may indicate a serious health problem and should not be ignored.

However, this rarely happens. In 90% of cases, the exact cause of hypertension is unknown. The only way to diagnose persistent hypertension is to measure your blood pressure regularly. So if the sight of red-faced, sweaty, and anxious friends or strangers makes you feel proud of the state of your own blood vessels, remember: it’s not for nothing that high blood pressure is called the “silent killer.”

Legal information. This article only contains general information and should not be construed as a substitute for the advice of a physician or other health care professional. The BBC is not responsible for any diagnosis made by a reader based on material on the site. The BBC is not responsible for the content of other sites linked to this page and does not endorse commercial products or services mentioned on those sites. If you are concerned about your health, consult your doctor.

A blush on the cheeks is not always a sign of good health. Sometimes redness on the face may indicate the presence of skin diseases or be caused by other factors. We will talk about why the face turns red and what to do about it in this article.

Causes

There are many reasons why your face may turn red. In this case, a rush of blood to the cheeks is usually felt. Only a doctor after an appropriate examination will help you determine the cause. But you shouldn’t delay your visit, because redness can indicate either a harmless allergic reaction or the presence of serious illnesses. The causes of facial redness can be psychological and physiological.

Psychological ones include:

• Emotional tension, stress.
• Great excitement.
• Psychological barriers.
• Shyness, low self-esteem.

Redness occurs due to dilation of blood vessels and increased blood flow to the facial skin. Why due to psychological factors blood rushes to the face, it’s hard to say, because the possibilities human brain have not been fully studied. There is even such a disease as erythrophobia - the fear of involuntarily blushing. People exposed to it are constantly under stress and lack self-confidence. Frequent redness due to the influence of psychological factors is called blushing syndrome. Listed below physiological reasons which may cause facial flushing.

Drug blushing syndrome

The face turns red after long-term use certain drugs.

After receiving certain groups medicines There is redness of the face with a feeling of blood rushing to the cheeks. This effect is usually achieved by drugs prescribed to treat diabetes mellitus, breast cancer, ischemic heart disease, osteoporosis, bone pathology, ischemic and hypertension diseases. The redness goes away after stopping the medications.

Carcinoid syndrome

Redness of the face is accompanied by a feeling of blood rushing to the cheeks. This cause is the most dangerous because it is caused by serotonin-producing tumors. Usually these are tumors gastrointestinal tract and bronchi. The face turns red due to the periodic release of serotonin and serotonin-like compounds into the blood, which have a pronounced vasodilating effect. If, along with redness, you have low blood pressure and diarrhea, be examined by an oncologist.

This is a disease in which the vessels on the face sharply dilate and spasm occurs. In this case, the appearance and redness of the forehead, cheeks, and nose are observed. The eyes are often affected. Rosacea occurs mainly in mature women, and if it affects men (mainly owners light skin), then is accompanied by serious complications.

The nature of the disease is not fully understood. It is known that heredity plays an important role, failures in immune system, gastrointestinal and endocrine diseases, often the occurrence of the disease is due to the presence subcutaneous mite. It is not infectious and occurs in chronic form. You can get rid of the symptoms of rosacea by applying medications to the skin and taking antibiotics.

Hypertension

Increased blood pressure can also cause facial flushing. At the same time, the vessels of the whole body, including the face, experience tension and stress. This, in turn, leads to redness of the skin. After the pressure normalizes, the redness goes away.

Systemic lupus erythematosus

The disease is accompanied by redness of the face, usually the cheeks. Externally, the spots look like butterfly wings. In this case, the red border of the lips and the oral mucosa are also affected. Women aged 20-40 years are usually susceptible to the disease, and the etiology of lupus is not completely clear. Currently, the disease is classified as autoimmune and rheumatic.

Lupus erythematosus can occur due to a genetic predisposition, after exposure to ultraviolet radiation, due to taking certain medications, as well as due to disorders endocrine system, chronic diseases. The disease provokes inflammation of the muscles and joints; in addition to redness, victims may experience a rise in body temperature. Systemic lupus erythematosus affects the joints, heart, kidneys and other organs. The mucous membrane of the palate, gums and cheeks is covered with edematous spots. It is treated exclusively with medication.

Influence of external factors

The body may respond to changes by redness of the skin external conditions. Wind, sun, temperature changes, physical activity and other similar factors provoke dilation of blood vessels and a rush of blood to the skin. In this way, the body regulates heat exchange for normal functioning. In this case, the redness goes away as the body returns to its usual environment.

Allergy

Due to external or internal contact with the irritant, red spots may appear on the skin. Allergies often manifest as redness on the cheeks. Usually the symptom goes away after stopping contact with the allergen. In this case, the irritant can be anything to which your body is sensitive - feathers, fluff, food, household chemicals, other substances.

Alcohol and smoking

Blood vessels dilate when consumed bad food– hot, salty, spicy. A similar effect is also observed when drinking strong drinks. But when smoking, the amount of oxygen in the blood decreases; in other words, your skin begins to suffocate, which leads to redness of the skin. In the future, this can lead to development - red spider veins on the face. It is worth noting that it is completely impossible to get rid of rosacea.

If the redness is accompanied by peeling and itching, other unpleasant symptoms, consult a dermatologist. You may be developing a skin disease, such as eczema or demodicosis. In this case, it will be necessary not only to find the irritant that provoked the symptoms, but also to exclude internal diseases, as well as undergo a course of drug treatment.

Wrong cosmetics

Often the cause of facial redness is the use of cosmetics that are not suitable for a specific skin type. And since cosmetical tools come into direct contact with the skin, there is a risk of developing allergic reactions very high. Failure to follow the rules of skin care and the body as a whole also affects its condition. The result is early wrinkles, sagging, redness.

Menopause

During menopause (menopause), so-called hot flashes are observed. During a hot flash, a woman feels intense heat in the upper body, including the face, redness of the skin, difficulty breathing, increased heart rate, dizziness, nausea and weakness. increased sweating. Tides occur due to sudden changes hormonal levels, in case of violation of the body's thermoregulation.

Such processes last from a few seconds to a couple of minutes and can occur either about 8 times a day or more than 20. Moreover, they are accompanied by dilation and constriction of blood vessels, which leads to redness of the skin. You can minimize the frequency of hot flashes by following healthy image life, taking sedatives and hormone replacement drugs, using traditional medicine recipes.

In addition to the above reasons, facial redness can occur due to other factors: long-term use of antibiotics, minor injuries skin or blood vessels, thermal procedures, pregnancy,. For an accurate diagnosis, consult a specialist. At the same time, try to adhere to the right image life, sleep at least 8 hours a day, avoid stress and physical overload.

It is unlikely that anyone will go to complain to the doctor if their face often turns red. Red-haired people and those with very pale skin. People say that if your face suddenly turns red and your skin burns, it means someone is remembering something in bad words.

Most people believe that it is impossible to get rid of this feature and try to adapt to it.

Meanwhile, unpleasant condition When your face is burning, the reasons are completely medical, and if you eliminate them - or weaken them - you will feel more free.

The face turns red and burns - reasons

The causes of redness can be divided into household and medical.

To everyday reasons why cheeks "flare up" bright flame include:

What medical reasons Can you explain why your face turns red?

1. Arterial hypertension. As soon as the pressure rises, the vessels dilate sharply.
2. Poor blood supply, heart problems.
3. Diseases of various etiologies– both infectious and non-infectious.
4. Violation metabolic processes. Additional symptom– decreased urine output and constipation.
5. Vitamin deficiency and hypervitaminosis.
6. The causes of red cheeks can be allergies and intoxication. The body thus signals that the condition is deteriorating.
7. Hormonal changes - menopause or pregnancy, impaired estrogen production, increased testosterone production.
8. Burns or frostbite. During burns, dermal cells are deformed and release signal RNAs that penetrate into the healthy cells and force the production of specific protein bodies that cause irritation and increase the sensitivity of the dermis.

When frostbite occurs, the blood in the vessels freezes - many microthrombi form in it - it coagulates, so temporary redness occurs. Then the blood stops flowing, and the affected area turns pale. During recovery, the same thing happens as with burns. The blood warms up, but since the dermis has been damaged at the cellular level, specific protein bodies are produced.

The body becomes red and inflamed again.

1. Cuperosis is a constant expansion of blood vessels under the influence of internal and external factors.
2. Rosacea – non-communicable disease facial skin, the etiology of which has not yet been established. It is caused by angioneurotic disorders. The second name for rosacea is rosacea.

One of the reasons that most strongly influences possible redness skin, is emotional condition. Excitation of the nervous system causes vasodilation, the face begins to "burn".

There are other reasons that explain why the face burns and turns red. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to install them.

Elimination of facial redness - official medicine

Official medicine offers the following methods to eliminate severe redness of the skin.

If persistent redness is caused by increased blood pressure, it needs to be stabilized. To do this, you should constantly take pills that normalize this indicator.

Currently, there are enough drugs that help lower blood pressure and normalize blood circulation. It is better to coordinate the choice of drugs in this group with a neurologist or therapist. In some cases, a dosage regimen is prescribed, sometimes symptomatic treatment is sufficient.

If interruptions in blood supply and rushes of blood to the upper body are caused by heart problems, you should consult a cardiologist.

It is clear why the face turns red when the temperature rises. During intoxication, blood supply accelerates, the body begins to produce interferon, the body tries to remove waste products and toxins pathogens. After recovery, the skin will not burn.

What to do if the cause of facial redness is pregnancy or menopause? There is no need for treatment during pregnancy - after childbirth the blood supply will return to normal. Sedatives and hormonal drugs- Prescriptions must be made by a doctor.

During menopause, you can purchase the following products on your own: "Klimonorm", "Klimadinorm", "Remens" and others.

Treatment of rosacea - external preparations and folk remedies. Spider veins eliminates heparin ointment, more strong manifestations diseases - ointment "Rozamet", ointment "Cooperosis A+", cream "Bark" and the like.

• Although studies have not confirmed bacterial etiology Rosacea, antibiotics are used to treat the disease - orally. Can be assigned "Trichopolus".
• Products for external use for rosacea – "Skinoren" gel, cream "Ovante", "Metrogil" gel, hormonal ointments.
• Medical theorists have not figured out why they help, but the effectiveness of their use has been noted.
• Traditional medicine offers cranberry juice (diluted), chamomile tincture, string, and calendula as external remedies.

IN severe cases– if the face is constantly red and the skin thickens, to relieve the condition, surgery. The vessels are sclerosed using electrocoagulation or cauterized with directed laser radiation.

To relieve persistent skin redness official medicine uses antihistamines and sedatives, beta blockers, ascorutin to strengthen blood vessels, physiotherapy.

In some cases, surgery is prescribed - sympathectomy. During it, the nerves in the symptomatic canal of the spine are blocked. The operation is prescribed if the brightness of the skin of the cheeks interferes with life and causes mental changes. (The success rate of the operation is 70%).

Treatment is prescribed taking into account the disease that caused the problem.

The face is red and burning - what to do?

To stabilize the blood vessels, you need to do the following.

Homemade masks have a calming effect:

• mixture egg yolk and rice flour;
• a mixture of cucumber and zucchini puree;
• mask made from fatty cottage cheese diluted with carrot juice.

If your facial skin is constantly red, then you need to visit a doctor to find out the reason for this, and at the same time start making soothing masks.

The result will be noticeable by the end of the month - changes on delicate skin will be less pronounced, and during this time it is usually possible to identify the problem that caused the redness of the face and begin appropriate treatment.

High pressure. Many people believe that if a person has a red face, excess weight and a tendency to sweat, this is high blood pressure. Is it so? Let's try to find out what science knows about this.

Surely you have seen some excited stranger scurrying down the street - flabby, disheveled and with a red face. The observation inevitably makes you think that the passerby probably suffers from high blood pressure. Looking at such passers-by, you intuitively compare them with yourself and once again promise yourself to change your life today and at least sign up for the gym.
If we are talking about your friend or colleague, who, moreover, begins to complain of headaches and nosebleeds, then you may worry that these symptoms are harbingers of a heart attack or stroke. But can you really recognize the signs of high blood pressure just by looking at a person?
A person's face turns red when blood vessels located close to the surface of the skin dilate and try to let more blood through. Sometimes redness appears suddenly and becomes hot, and sometimes gradually, in case of heat, cold or elevated physical activity. The face may turn red from unexpected meeting, from embarrassment, from walking uphill quickly, from walking in the cold or from riding a bike. All these cases do not prove that a person has high blood pressure, although in such cases the pressure does increase temporarily.

If facial redness persists, it may be a sign of rosacea.

Rosacea is a chronic skin disease, the main symptoms of which are redness of the skin and the formation of bumps, pustules and other rashes on the face. Accurate cause of rosacea still not installed. It is believed that the basis for the development of rosacea is increased sensitivity vessels of the face to various influences. High blood pressure can complicate the disease, but people with rosacea are not always hypertensive
Eccrine sweat glands are found in particularly large numbers on the face of the body, as well as on the palms, soles and armpits. Their work is regulated by the sympathetic nervous system, which is also responsible for the body's reaction to detected danger and for our decision about whether to fight or run away. Human skin contains sweat and sebaceous glands(mammary glands are a type of sweat gland). Surface glandular epithelium approximately 600 times the surface of the epidermis itself. Skin glands provide thermoregulation (about 20% of heat is given off by the body through the evaporation of sweat), protect the skin from damage (fatty lubricant protects the skin from drying out, as well as from maceration by water and humid air), ensure the removal of metabolic products from the body (urea, uric acid, ammonia, etc.). Excessive sweating, or hyperhidrosis, can be hereditary or indicate a number of other diseases - but not hypertension.
In almost many cases, the body reacts in a certain way when a stressful situation does not imply a threat to life. If you are in a hurry to visit, are late for the train, or if you have an argument with one of your friends, this can also cause palpitations and increased blood pressure. However, once you get home and make peace with your friend, these symptoms quickly disappear.
The relationship between stress and increased blood pressure is very complex, and if a person’s blood pressure often fluctuates under the influence of stressful situations, this can contribute to the development of hypertension. But if a person gets angry from time to time, this does not at all indicate that he is hypertensive.

What about headaches associated with high blood pressure?

It is widely believed that any increase in blood pressure can cause headaches. The first thing that is done to a patient who consults a doctor about a headache is to measure blood pressure. This opinion, at first glance, is confirmed by the fact that indeed patients with arterial hypertension often complain of headache. However, it has now been found that a constant mild to moderate increase in blood pressure does not lead to the development of cephalgic syndrome, that is, the detection of an increase in blood pressure is not enough to consider hypertension the cause of an acute headache. When measuring pressure, two indicators are always taken into account. The top one is systolic pressure - this is the pressure in the arteries when the heart muscle contracts. Based on the results of scientific research, it was found that people with high systolic pressure are susceptible to headaches much less, and those who have a higher difference between the upper and lower readings (pulse pressure) also suffer from headaches less often. And Brazilian scientists have found that people with high blood pressure have a lower risk of developing migraines. Blood pressure is considered elevated if systolic pressure at rest averages 140 mm Hg. Art. or more, diastolic at rest on average - 90 mm Hg. Art. or more or there is an increase in both values. With high blood pressure, both systolic and diastolic pressure are usually increased.

In 95% of cases the exact cause of hypertension is unknown
Decreased sensitivity to pain as a result of high blood pressure is called hypalgesia.

HYPALGESIA - abnormally low sensitivity to pain.

This circumstance also makes it possible to understand why migraines stop in many women in late pregnancy - during this period their blood pressure naturally rises. Scientists do not know the exact mechanism for the development of hypalgesia in hypertension, but according to one version, the thickening of the walls of blood vessels due to increased pressure prevents the normal activity of nerve endings, and the pain is dulled.

This doesn't mean that hypertension is healthy, but it does appear that some symptoms, including headaches, are a sign of normal rather than high blood pressure.
We found out that a headache is not an indicator of hypertension, but what about nosebleeds?
The immediate cause of nosebleeds is a violation of the integrity of the vessels of the nasal mucosa. Possible reasons Nosebleeds are usually divided into local and general. The results of research on this matter are very contradictory. Scientists from Austria found that many who came to them in the emergency room with a nosebleed had high blood pressure. Scientists from Brazil did not find any connection between these phenomena. And scientists from Greece conducted research among patients admitted to the hospital in an acute condition caused by high blood pressure. They found that constant nosebleeds were observed in only 17% of them.
The simplest answer to the question “What is hypertension?” is that hypertension can often be asymptomatic - with one important caveat. If the pressure suddenly rises to dangerous levels, the person usually experiences severe anxiety, severe headache and dizziness, and suddenly becomes short of breath. These symptoms may indicate a serious health problem and should not be ignored.
However, this is a very rare occurrence. In 95% of cases, the exact cause of the high blood pressure is unknown. The only way to diagnose persistent hypertension is to measure your blood pressure regularly. So if the sight of red-faced, sweaty and excited friends or strangers makes you.

How to treat high blood pressure?

First of all, it is necessary to maintain normal blood pressure. There is great benefit to the human body if you reduce the amount of salt when eating, quit smoking, increase physical activity, learn to rest and relax after everyday stress.

There is an opinion in medical circles that about 40% of the adult population suffers from high blood pressure - hypertension, the so-called “silent killer”. Usually a person may not be aware of his illness until the onset of the first hypertensive crisis, which is accompanied by impaired circulation in the heart and brain.