Your complexion is like a color palette. Don’t ignore the health signals your body sends you!

In traditional Peking Opera, different characters are distinguished by facial colors, such as Guan Gong has a red face, Zhang Fei has a black face, Dou Erdun has a blue face...

Even people who are watching a play for the first time can roughly judge whether a character is good or bad by looking at their different "expressions".

In real life, people's facial expressions will change in various ways: red, green, pale, dark, purple... What are the reasons for these?

Different facial expressions have different meanings, and may even be warning signs of a red light on your body! Without further ado, let's take a look at the little secrets hidden in your facial expressions with me today~

1

Red face

A normal person's healthy complexion is rosy and lustrous. The red face we often talk about is due to the fact that under certain circumstances, the human body's sympathetic nerves are excited, the secretion of catecholamines such as norepinephrine increases, which causes the heart rate to accelerate and capillaries to dilate .

A person's face may turn red due to physiological or pathological reasons.

Physiological reasons include people's naturally thin skin that easily turns red, redness caused by long-term exposure to the sun, redness after exercise, drinking, emotional excitement, etc., which cause the face to turn red. Most of these reasons can be recovered through proper rest and adjustment.

Normal skin color

Source: Baidu

As for pathological reasons, we should be alert to diseases that cause redness in the face, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, fever, allergies, hyperthyroidism, etc. During the onset of the disease, the blood vessels in the head and face dilate and become congested, which leads to redness in the face.

If the cheekbones on both sides are abnormally dark red, you should be more alert to the possibility of rheumatic heart disease .

2

Pale face

The color of a person's blood determines the color of their skin to a large extent. Some people have fair skin with a rosy complexion, which is a sign of health, while some people have low melanin content in their skin, which also makes their skin color pale.

Turning pale for a short period of time usually happens when we are in a dangerous or stressful environment. The body's sympathetic nerves are excited, blood vessels constrict, heart rate and blood pressure decrease, and cardiac output is insufficient, causing the face to turn pale.

Pathological whitening

Source: Baidu

However, if your face is pale and bloodless for a long time, it is generally a sign of insufficient Qi and blood, and weakness .

In the case of insufficient Qi and blood, anemia or shock, the hemoglobin in the blood decreases, the blood supply to the skin decreases, and the face turns pale. This phenomenon is especially likely to occur during clinical surgery.

Another type of whitening is caused by a decrease in the function of melanin production , such as congenital albinism or vitiligo.

Vitiligo is a common pigmented skin disease, the main feature of which is local or generalized depigmentation, forming white spots. The cause is unknown, and there are many factors, such as genetic factors, mental factors, chemical factors, infectious factors, traumatic factors, etc. There is currently no cure.

3

Yellow face

For the yellow race, most people have a yellowish complexion to some extent. The obvious "yellow complexion" has the following reasons:

Eating too many yellow fruits and vegetables and taking medicines in a short period of time

Illness or malnutrition

In the first case, representative common yellow foods such as oranges and carrots , common drugs such as reserpine**, furans and other drugs, are rich in carotene**. Carotene is orange-yellow, and if it is taken in large quantities in a short period of time, the human body cannot completely metabolize it, so it will accumulate and deposit, which will lead to a yellow face.

Abnormal yellowing color

Source: Baidu

The second type of disease that causes "yellow face" is mainly related to abnormal liver function and abnormal bilirubin metabolism . The most common disease is jaundice.

Jaundice , commonly known as yellow disease, is a liver and gallbladder disease. Due to impaired liver and gallbladder function, bilirubin metabolism in the body is impaired. When the serum bilirubin level is higher than 2-3 mg/dL (34-51 umol/L), the corresponding parts will appear yellow, which can be seen by the naked eye, such as the skin, mucous membranes and sclera (white part of the eyeball).

Many newborns are also prone to yellow skin within a week after birth, which is medically known as neonatal jaundice.

4

Dark complexion

Generally speaking, when we talk about a "dark face", apart from the darkening caused by short-term exposure to the sun, it is mainly related to hormone abnormalities and melanin deposition caused by abnormal body metabolism.

For example, acanthosis nigricans , in which the skin of the affected area appears gray-brown or black, and the cortex becomes thickened and rough, is caused by long-term abnormal male hormone levels and abnormal blood sugar levels.

Patients with damaged liver function often have a dark complexion. This is due to damaged liver function, metabolic disorders, and the deposition of colored substances such as bilirubin.

Endocrine abnormalities leading to pigmentation

Source: Baidu

The two Wuhan doctors who were trending on the Internet at the beginning of the epidemic had black faces after recovering from COVID-19. This was also because they had taken a large amount of certain drugs in the early stage, coupled with their own endocrine dysfunction, which led to abnormal hormone levels and melanin deposition.

5

Purple face

This complexion has different colors depending on the skin color and degree of the person, and is mainly due to lack of oxygen;

For example, suffocation or poisoning causes respiratory depression, the body is lacking oxygen, and the excess of purple-blue deoxyhemoglobin causes the face to turn "purple".

Or some heart or lung diseases, such as congenital heart disease, pulmonary artery obstruction, pulmonary hypertension, etc., lead to heart and lung failure and decreased oxygen saturation in the blood, thus causing the face to turn purple.

6

Green face

A green face is usually related to cold and abnormal liver function.

When the weather is cold, the qi and blood stagnate, which can easily lead to what we often call "frozen face turning blue";

Frost-frozen face

Source: Baidu

If your face turns green for a long time , it is likely that there is a problem with your liver. Staying up late and drinking too much can easily damage the liver, and decreased liver function can cause the face to turn green or dark.

After reading these tips on "face expression changes", do you feel enlightened? It turns out that there is so much knowledge in face expression~

Next time you meet your friends or family, you can help them pay more attention to changes in their facial expressions.

In short, whether your face turns pale, black or yellow, if there is a major change and it does not return to normal for a period of time, remember to seek medical attention in time! This may be a key signal of physical abnormality~

Audit expert: Wu Xinsheng

Deputy Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, PLA 371 Hospital

Source: Digital Beijing Science Center