A Small Look At Our Skin
A Small Look At Our Skin
A Small Look At Our Skin
Skin is the oldest and most sensitive of our organs, our first medium of communication, and our most efficient protector.
The Skin may be regarded an exposed portion of the nervous system. It would, therefore, improve our understanding of these matters if we were to think and speak of the skin as the external nervous system, an organ system which its earliest differentiation remains in intimate association with the internal or central nervous system.
The Skin fabric is on continuous state of renewal by activity of the cells in its deep layers. Every four hours or so, the skin forms two new layers of cells. Skin and gut cells can apparently divide hundreds and thousands of times during the lifetime of a person. Skin cells shed at the rate of more than a million every hour.
On our skin, as on a screen, the gamut of life's experiences is projected; emotions surge, sorrows penetrate, and beauty finds its depth. Soft, smooth source of youth's vanity, skin later bears wrinkled witness to the toll of years. Radiant in healthy, it tingles to the affectionate touch.
The body's largest organ, the adult male has 19 square feet of skin, weighing about 8 pounds, containing some 5 millions sensory cells, the skin constitutes some 12 percent of the total body weight.
The Functions of the Skin
Base for sensory receptors, the most important of which is touch.
An organizer, information source and processor.
Mediator of sensation.
Barrier between organism and environment.
Immunologic source of hormones for protective cell differentiation.
Protector of underlying parts from mechanical and radiation injuries.
Barrier to toxic materials and foreign organism.
Major role player in regulating blood pressure and the flow of blood.
Regenerative repair organ.
Producer of keratin.
Absorptive organ of noxious and other substances excreted in the body's waste products.
Temperature Regulator.
Organ involved in the metabolism and storage of fat.
Water and salt metabolism by perspiration.
Reservoir of food and water.
Respiratory organ and facilitator of two-way passage of gases through it.
Synthesizer of a number of important compounds including the anti-rachitic vitamin D.
Acidic barrier that protects against many bacteria.
Sebum from the sebaceous glands lubricates the skin and hair, insulates the body against rain and cold and (probably) helps kill bacteria.
Self cleanser.
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