The skin care experts will tell you that your skin can be your biggest asset since it offers up your first impression upon the immediate environment that surrounds you, be it at work or play. Skin is the thing that lets you feel, seduce, sense, and express, while at the same time, playing one of the most critical roles in your overall health and well-being.
It’s also why it’s important to seek out anti-aging solutions for your skin, since it’s the primary part of your overall physical makeup that can reflect obvious negative influences such as emotion, stress, exhaustion, and even something as serious as cancer.
That said, how has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your skin? According to a new report, as the pandemic progressed over the past two years and still progresses with its many variants, it’s no surprise that COVID-19 has had an adverse effect on multiple parts and organs contained in the human body, including the lungs and the heart. But it has also negatively affected the skin.
The experts say the symptoms can range from “COVID toes” to several types of rashes, and even hair loss. Luckily, many of these symptoms are said to get better over time. At present, researchers are said to be attempting to find out what causes the adverse skin conditions, if it’s the result of the body’s natural immune response to a viral infection and if hormones might be involved.
That said, here are some of the symptoms that have been occurring from the COVID-19 virus along with its many variants. These symptoms are presented from the most common to the least common.
1. Tiny Red Bumps
If you’ve had COVID and are noticing the widespread appearance of small or even tiny red bump-like growths and even flat red dry patches, don’t be alarmed. Most people who get the virus experience this rash-like symptom.
However, these “so-called maculopapular eruptions” are said to be directly associated with a more severe strain of the disease that might cause you to become bedridden for a certain length of time.
2. Pink Eye
Pink eye is actually the reddening of the whites of your eyes. In medical terms, it’s referred to as conjunctivitis. It also happens to be one of the most contagious viruses around, just like the omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus.
3. COVID Toes
COVID toes is a new term to describe a condition that mimics chilblain-like symptoms. COVID toes aren’t just limited to the toes, however. It is said to affect the toes, the feet, the hands, or all three simultaneously.
This isn’t a pleasant or pretty disease. It is characterized by red/purple discolored skin. Like chilblains, it is both itchy and painful. The condition is often accompanied by little pustules and smallish blisters that can pop and leak. Chilblain-like lesions are said to often appear later on in the disease, on top of other not very pleasant rash-like symptoms. It affects children more often than adults.
4. Hives
Urticaria or what’s commonly known as hives is a red or pink itchy, rash-like condition that can suddenly appear as raised red lumps/wheals and/or blotches. Believe it or not, they can range from the size of a pinhead all the way up to a dinner plate.
The swellings related to hives appear and disappear within minutes, or they can last for hours in a single spot. In general, they can come and go. The hives that tend to come with COVID can last up to ten days, or so state the experts.
They will occur along with the usual viral symptoms like shortness of breath, violent fits of coughing, and high fever. All age groups seem to be affected by hives and their appearance is said to signal severity in the COVID-19 virus.
5. Water Blisters
Vesicular eruptions or what is known in lay terms as water blisters are characterized by smallish, fluid-filled micro-blisters that can appear early on as the virus takes hold of the human body. But they can also appear at any time and most often on the hands.
A middle-aged person who contracts COVID is said to suffer more often from water blisters. Unfortunately, they can last for up to a full ten days or more. They are said to be associated with a COVID-19 that’s of medium severity.
Not a lot is known about why COVID-19 affects the skin the way it does. It’s important to note that you need to keep your skin clean and moisturized during the duration of the virus. You also need to drink plenty of fluids, especially clean, spring water that will flush out any and all impurities.
