The Unexpected Side Effect of Daily Breathwork: Clearer, Calmer Skin

Getty/Mili PatelIn hindsight, I should have known that stress was the ultimate cause of my acne when my skin was the absolute worst it’s ever been during the pandemic. I had just moved to Boston from New York City to close the gap in my long-distance relationship with my now-husband, and I was absolutely miserable. The combo of moving and pandemic isolation started making me depressed and unbelievably anxious, and it manifested on my chin in the form of chronically inflamed and painful cystic acne. My skin was at its all-time worst.I’ve always been acne-prone. I’ve struggled with hormonal acne for the last 20 years, and I’ve tried nearly everything short of Accutane to get rid of the painful, persistent cysts that would take up residence on my chin. Over the years, some things helped, but most things didn’t.Birth control cleared my skin until I decided I didn’t want to be on it anymore. Spironolactone was a genuine game changer until the side effects made it not worth it. I thought that eliminating dairy and gluten from my diet would fix the issue, but all it did was make me hungry. The most surprising breakthrough, though, came from somewhere I never thought to look: my anxiety medication. Specifically, Lexapro.I decided to try out Lexapro while planning my 250-guest wedding in 2023. The whole planning process was incredibly stressful for me, and after a few mental breakdowns, I knew I was gonna need some backup. Not only did the Lexapro help calm my anxiety throughout the process, but I couldn’t believe how much it also had calmed my skin. But post-wedding, I decided to wean off my SSRI because I felt like I didn’t need to be on it anymore, and my acne came back again. This is when it dawned on me: Was my acne being caused by the uncontrolled stress in my life?When I asked dermatologist and psychiatrist Amy Wechsler, MD, if she’s noticed SSRIs reducing acne in her patients, she said that she doesn’t think there is a direct correlation between SSRIs and breakouts. “In fact, some patients have complained that they think SSRIs have caused them to break out,” she explains.While Dr. Wechsler notes that my use of SSRIs and reduction in acne might be correlated, there are no scientific studies that state SSRIs can reduce acne. “I think anything that indirectly lowers your stress level—if you’re depressed or anxious and you take Lexapro, and your anxiety or your depression gets better—your circulating cortisol is probably lower,” she notes.Before I dive into what ultimately helped me lower my stress levels, it’s helpful to understand how stress starts and circulates in the body. Cortisol is the fight-or-flight stress response molecule that, evolutionarily, was meant to increase quickly to get us out of danger. It increases your heart rate and makes you very alert. And when you’re out of danger, it’s supposed to come back down and your body should return to a calm state. “Unfortunately, because we are so stressed out in our current lives, our cortisol levels don’t always come down,” explains Dr. Wechsler.“Cortisol pumped up for a while does a lot of bad things—it might cause an ulcer, a headache, or even clenching of the jaw. But if you’re genetically susceptible to skin issues, cortisol can cause several things, including psoriasis, eczema, or acne flare-ups,” explains Dr. WechslerAs it turns out, cortisol loves to break me out, and I needed to find a way to lower my stress levels for both my skin and my overall health, too. A friend had recommended Benshen, a Kundalini yoga program by Desirée Pais that combines daily breathwork, meditation, mantras, and movement to help regulate the nervous system and cortisol, so I went for it.I started doing the 30-minute virtual sessions every morning in May 2025, and almost immediately noticed I felt calmer, more grounded, and mentally clearer. My Oura Ring even showed my stress levels dropping from “stressed” to “relaxed” after each practice. After about a month, I noticed my acne looked less inflamed, and my skin seemed calmer overall. Three months in, my hormonal breakouts had all but disappeared.This skin-clearing effect wasn’t a coincidence. According to dermatologist Keira Barr, MD, breathwork is a very helpful practice when it comes to reducing the stress-related signals in your body that are wreaking havoc on your skin. “When we slow the breath and lengthen the exhale, we help signal safety to the autonomic nervous system, which can slow the heart rate, support heart rate variability, and ‘turn down the volume’ on the stress response,” explains Dr. Barr. “Breathing practices that include nasal breathing or humming may also increase nitric oxide in the nasal passages, which supports healthy blood vessel function and oxygen delivery, both of which are part of the body’s repair system,” she adds.Add Cosmopolitan as a preferred source in your Google search results.Use your Google account to add this to your settings.Breathwork is a very helpful practice for reducing the stress-related signals in your body that are wreaking havoc on your skin.For acne, that is important because chronic stress can influence cortisol, inflammatory signaling, sympathetic activation, sebum production, barrier function, and how quickly the skin repairs, explains Dr. Barr. “So breathwork isn’t ‘treating’ acne directly; it’s helping change the internal conditions that can make cystic acne more inflamed, reactive, and slow to recover.”Repetition of a breathwork practice is important, too. The nervous system learns through repetition, and the bigger change comes from consistency of the practice because it’s how new neural pathways are created and support lasting change. “When you practice daily, you are teaching your body, over and over again, ‘I know how to come back no matter how many times I feel off center,’” says Dr. Barr. “The body starts to recognize the pathway—it gives it an ‘off-ramp’ from its default response. It becomes easier to move from activated to grounded, from panicked to present, or from shut down to gently mobilized.”While I believe that practicing breathwork daily has helped decrease my cortisol levels and, therefore, helped clear my skin, both Dr. Wechsler and Dr. Barr state that nervous system work is a complement to dermatologic care, not a replacement. So if your dermatologist recommends taking a medication or a topical prescription for your acne, don’t skip it.Another thing to remember? Having acne isn’t your fault, according to both dermatologists I spoke with. “I never want someone to read about a strategy or protocol that may not have worked for them and interpret it as, ‘Your acne is your fault,’” explains Dr. Barr. “To say ‘breathwork cured her acne’ would be too simplistic and not fully accurate. Breathwork may have helped reduce one of the meaningful drivers keeping the skin inflamed and reactive, which is a very different message.”When I think back to that miserable, isolated version of myself in Boston, I wish I could give her a really big hug and tell her that her skin wasn’t actually betraying her. It was just telling the truth about a body and mind that was totally overwhelmed, scared, and depressed.I can’t say that breathwork will work for every cause of hormonal acne, but I do think it’s worth trying if you’ve exhausted every other acne-fighting solution to no avail. I know that the version of me sitting alone in that Boston apartment needed someone to say what Dr. Wechsler eventually did: Noticing the pattern in my own body and taking it seriously was the most important work of all. Breathwork just happened to be the tool that got my nervous system to actually listen.Meet the experts:Amy Wechsler, MD, is a double-board-certified dermatologist and psychiatrist in New York, NY. She is the founder of Dr. Amy Wechsler Dermatology and cofounder of Spotless, an acne clinic in NYC.Keira Barr, MD, is a double-board-certified dermatologist and founder of the Center for Mind Skin Medicine in Gig Harbor, WA.Why trust Cosmopolitan?Daley Quinn is a beauty and wellness journalist, blogger, and content strategist living in New York City. She is a former beauty editor at a national magazine, and her work has appeared in over 50 digital publications including Allure, Goop, Elle, The Cut, WWD, InStyle, and many more. You can see more of her work on her website, daleyquinn.com, and her blog, TheDaleyDose.com.Daley Quinn is a beauty and wellness journalist, blogger, and content strategist living in New York City. She is a former beauty editor at a national magazine, and her work has appeared in over 50 digital publications, including Allure, Goop, Elle, The Cut, WWD, InStyle, and many more. You can see more of her work on her website, daleyquinn.com, and her blog, TheDaleyDose.com.