It’s hard to realize that skin is an organ. In fact it’s the largest organ of the human body called the integumentary system.
It protects the internal organs, as well as muscles bones and ligaments. Our skin forms a protective barrier against the environment.
It blocks our internal bodies for us against germs and other organisms from getting inside.
It is the skin that helps keep our body temperature regulated.
An average adult has 18 to 20 square feet of skin covering their bodies. It weights approximately 6 pounds.
One square centimeter of skin is made up of 6 million cells.
Skin on the human body has 5,000 sensory points. It consists of 100 sweat glands located throughout the skin system and 15 sebaceous glands. Human skin is about 0.07 inches or approximately 2mm thick.
Skin is composed of 3 primary layers with multiple sublayers.
The outer most layer is the Epidermis, the middle layer is the Dermis which also includes connective tissue and the Subcutaneous or Hypo-Dermis is the bottom layer.
The Epidermis is a tough protective layer that contains the melanin. It is melanin that gives us out color and helps protect us against the damaging sun rays.
The second layer found under the Epidermis is the Dermis which contains nerve endings, sweat and oil glands and hair follicles.
The Hypo Dermis is the layer that is comprised of adipose (fat) tissue as well as the blood vessels.
Human skin constantly regenerates itself. To start the process of regeneration; a cell is generated in the dermis of the skin first.
The same cell migrates up towards the Epidermis over a two week traveling period. At the end of the two weeks it will reach the bottom layer of the Epidermis.
This cell continues moving until upward until it reaches the surface of the Epidermis. It spends two more weeks in the Epidermis flattening out where it eventually dies and sheds.
The process of cellular migration from the Dermis to the Epidermis repeats over and over again. It is a continuous process that occurs our whole lives. We shed two to three billion skin cells on a daily basis.
The human body goes all out to replace cells as they shed on a monthly basis.
This is because the skin is the first line of defense against dehydration, infection, injury and extremes of temperature.
The skin is an unbroken surface that protects things from entering the body or penetrating and going throughout our systems.
Skin cells detoxify harmful substances that try to enter our bodies much in the same way the liver does.
They both filter and help our bodies remove the toxins so the toxins can be eliminated as waste.
Skin can also absorb and utilize nutrients that are topically applied to it. Lets look at each layer now independently.
