Thursday, May 23, 2013

Functions of the Skin and Other Fun Facts

Functions:

  1.  Protection - Your skin covers 15 to 20 feet of surface area, weighs between 6-10 lbs. and protects your entire being from the outside environment.
  2.  Thermoregulation - Skin helps maintain a consistent internal temperature through sweat, blood vessel dilation and constriction and body fat layer insulation
  3.  Absorption - limited through your cells, follicles and pores (water, oxygen)
  4.  Sensation - touch, pain, cold, heat, pressure
  5.  Excretion - excretes sweat through the sudoriferous glands
  6.  Secretion - sebaceous glands secrete sebum/oil which lubricates skin/hair. It also keeps the skin soft and protected from outside elements.
Your skin is the largest organ in the body. The skin on the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet is the thickest. Skin is thinnest on your eyelids.

In one square inch of skin there are 65 hairs, 12 feet of nerves, 15 feet of blood vessels, 9 1/2 million cells, 1,300 nerve endings (pressure, heat, touch, cold), 155 pressure receptors, 12 cold and heat receptors, 650 sudoriferous (sweat) glands, 100 sebacous (oil) glands. Wow!

A pore is an opening in the skin's surface that contains a tiny hair. Beneath the pore is an oil gland which lubricates the skin. The tiny hair brings oil to the skin's surface, helping to maintain moisture. Pore size is determined by heredity and can only be temporarily reduced.
XOXO,

No comments:

Post a Comment