A few hours after giving birth, Somaya Gefuri was holding her newborn baby when she suddenly felt a burning sensation in her body and rose to her skin, sweating and her face darkening.
Worried, the supermarket worker from Birmingham The midwives asked why they were so ‘crazy hot’.
Somaya’s temperature was slightly elevated and the staff were worried about her. CesisIn which the immune system reacts dangerously to the infection. So they decided to give her antibiotics and mother and baby stayed in the hospital for a week.
In fact, the dehydration and heat are the first symptoms of Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that took more than a year to diagnose, in which the body produces too much of the hormone thyroxine.
‘I went to the GP about three times in 12 months because I was always hot, fluid and sweaty,’ said Somaya, 37.
‘My heart was racing and I was tired. But as a new mum, the doctor always puts this down.’
Finally, in 2021, a blood test revealed that Somaya had an overactive thyroid — a butterfly-shaped gland that produces hormones that regulate metabolism.
According to the British Thyroid Foundation, an overactive thyroid can be caused by a combination of genes and other factors, including stress. For example, hormonal fluctuations triggered by childbirth increase the risk for women.
Somaya believes that her condition was caused by a stressful pregnancy: she had pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure) and a difficult birth. She is pictured with her daughter Elise, who is now four
Four out of five people with an overactive thyroid have Graves’ disease. Here, the body begins to produce antibodies (usually ‘invaders’ such as bacteria) that bind to the thyroid gland, stimulating the production of thyroxine.
This speeds up the metabolism, making the body work faster and causing a faster heart rate, weight loss and fatigue.
Her body can generate too much heat, causing victims to sweat and feel hot – and in Somaya’s case, it causes deep discharge on her cheeks, nose and forehead.
Somaya believes that her condition was caused by a stressful pregnancy: she had pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure) and a difficult birth.
Although she is now taking medication to reduce her thyroxine levels, Somaya is hotter than others. If she finds herself on a till near the heaters at work, she can stay in the water all day.
The sensation of a red, warm liquid dripping down your face is familiar to many of us.
It is caused by nerve stimulation in the brain, chemical messengers – cytokines – cause the small blood vessels near the skin to dilate. When filled with blood, it shows as red skin.
Emma Wedgeworth, a London-based dermatologist and spokeswoman for the British Skin Foundation, says the effect is more pronounced on the face because the blood vessels are larger.
Somaya Gefuri was diagnosed with Graves’ disease – a disease in which the body’s immune system produces too much of the hormone thyroxine.
There may also be an unpleasant feeling of a stuffed face, burning and burning. “Since nerves and blood vessels tend to run together, the discharge activates the nerve fibers, causing irritation,” explains Dr. Wedgeworth.
‘Face washing can make some people very anxious. It can make them cancel social plans, or affect work if they’re worried they’ll wake up during a presentation.’
Facial flushing can simply be a reaction to heat or exercise. The body needs to maintain a constant temperature because it is optimal for enzymes (proteins that support various important functions, including digestion) to work.
But when we exercise, our muscles generate a lot of heat, and dilating the blood vessels closest to the skin is one way our bodies release this heat, says Dr. Wedgeworth.
There are other triggers as well. For example, blushing due to embarrassment or stress is triggered by the body’s ‘fight or flight’ response. The adrenaline it produces raises our heart rate, which also plays a role in dilating blood vessels.
There may be another motivation for evolution. In the year A 2009 study in the Netherlands found that after a bad incident, images of faces with a frown were judged more kindly, compared to those that were less fearful and more protective.
More straightforward causes of facial redness include certain foods, such as chili. These contain capsaicin, a compound that causes blood vessels to dilate.
For many people, alcohol is a trigger. This is because the liver converts alcohol into a toxic substance called acetaldehyde, which causes the blood vessels in the face to dilate.
In general, acetaldehyde is quickly broken down by enzymes and excreted from the body. But some people produce the amount of this enzyme, so wash well after drinking moderate amounts of alcohol.
Certain skin conditions can cause facial flushing, especially rosacea, which is more common in women in their 30s.
An inflammatory disease that causes reddening of the skin, rosacea is thought to be the result of a weakened immune system or a tiny mite that lives on everyone’s skin.
The redness starts with coming and going, usually for minutes at a time, but over time the skin can be red for a long time.
Morag Jarvis, 46, a GP and mother-of-three from Coventry, had severe acne as a child, and in her 20s realized it was caused by rosacea. She also created a characteristic of broken blood vessels on her face.
By her late 30s, she was experiencing facial shaving almost every day. They began as a fluttering blush at the tip of her nose, then spread upward between her nose, cheeks, and eyebrows.
‘My skin would tingle, look swollen and be very uncomfortable,’ she says. ‘It was always worse at night.’ Heat, spicy foods and alcohol were among her triggers.
Morag’s transformation came one morning when she took a selfie with her children and noticed that her skin was already red and irritated, earlier in the day.
She has been prescribed antibiotics in the past, but with little effect. Now she wanted a personal treatment and called azelaic acid cream.
This, she says, calmed the redhead down ‘almost instantly’.
Morag also underwent laser treatment to break down the artery walls. This relieves the elbow veins and causes a few blood vessels to dilate and create fluid. ‘Now I find that I don’t wear liquid very often and I don’t need to wear foundation anymore,’ she says.
Many women wash their face before menopause. Declining estrogen levels are thought to disrupt the hypothalamus.
Certain medications can also cause it, including the breast cancer treatment tamoxifen, which lowers estrogen levels. Old-fashioned antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and certain blood pressure medications such as calcium channel blockers (eg, amlodipine) that relax blood vessels can also cause symptoms.
Anyone suffering from drug-induced flushing should consult their physician about different dosages or alternative medications.
Intolerance to histamine, a naturally occurring chemical including cheese, chocolate, red wine, and canned fish, can cause secretions in people who are deficient in the enzyme that breaks down histamine.
There are treatment options for severe face wash. Botox jabs can disrupt nerve messages that tell blood vessels to dilate. Medicines called beta blockers reduce flushing by constricting blood vessels in the skin.
A more serious option is the same operation used for severe sweating – endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy. This involves cutting the nerves that transmit messages to the face.
The procedure comes with serious surgical risks, and can cause unwanted symptoms, including heavy sweating on other parts of the body.
David Greenstein, a vascular surgeon and consultant at London North West University Health Care NHS Trust, said: ‘Some people’s lives are lost by bleeding, and I’ve seen people set free with this procedure.’
It says that the operation should be attempted only after other options have failed.
Although Somaya’s face washing has reduced to almost a few times a week, it is still a concern. ‘My clients often comment that I’m red,’ she says. ‘That embarrasses me, so I nurse more.’
