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[music] Hello, I’m Dr. Neal Schultz
[pause]
and welcome to DermTV.
Exercise is certainly great for your heart, for your head, and even for
your body, but a lot of people find that during their workout or even a
little-bit after their workout, their face becomes a little-bit pink, or
even red. It can last a couple of minutes, or it can actually go on for
more than an hour. But let me reassure you, it’s of absolutely no harm, no
danger, nothing bad will happen, and it’s just your body’s way of trying to
regulate your body temperature so that you don’t overheat. You see, during
your workout, your muscles use lots and lots of energy, and that energy
becomes heat, and the heat builds up in your body. Your normal body
temperature is about 99˚F, 37˚C, but if you accumulate enough heat from the
energy from the muscles, the body temperature is going to go up. That’s not
good for you, so your body tries to regulate it, and dissipate or get rid
of that heat. And, the way it does it is by expanding the blood vessels in
your face. You see, those blood vessels carry a lot of blood, and by
expanding and making them bigger, for example, like taking something from
the size of a garden hose to the size of a fire hose. As the vessels get
bigger, and there’s more blood, you can actually see the redness. That’s
why your face appears red as soon as your body has gotten rid of enough of
that extra heat, because it’s bringing that 99˚ blood from the inside to
your skin, which is about 90˚, so you can lose that heat. As soon as you’ve
lost enough of the heat, the blood vessels return to their normal size, and
the redness goes away. Again, there are no ill-effects, and nothing that
lasts. People say, “Why does it happen just in my face?” It doesn’t, it
happens everywhere, but because there’s such a rich network of blood
vessels in your face, that’s why you see it there so much more, and it’s
that same network of blood vessels that makes your facial skin heal so very
well, anytime there’s an injury.