34 interesting facts about skin

The skin is a strong organ of all the animals for the external protection of the body, which keeps the body temperature balanced. It also protects the muscles and bones against bacteria and parasites, as well as maintains the balance of water content in the body. Similarly, the skin protects the body in many ways. In this post we are going to discuss many interesting and informative facts about skin:

• The scientific name of skin is Cutaneous Membrane.

• There are mainly three layers of skin. It is comprised of three layers, the first layer - the waterproof upper layer - the epidermis, the second layer - the middle layer of the skin consisting of tissues, hair follicles and sweat glands called the dermis. and the inner layer – the hypodermis - which consists mainly of fat, the connecting tissue that gives shape to the skin and is attached to the muscles.

• Skin is the largest organ of the body. The total area of skin covering our muscles and bones is 18.5 square feet. The skin plays an important role in regulating our body temperature. Our skin acts as the thermostat of our body. When the body temperature rises, the sweat glands are activated to cool the body. Sweating is a physiological function that helps in regulating our body temperature.

• When the body temperature is low, the blood vessels in the skin tighten and limit the amount of warm blood reaching the skin, minimizing heat loss. When exposed to cold temperatures, the skin pores get shrunken to retain heat.
  

Skin layers (pic source: wikimedia)

• The color of the skin is due to a pigment called melanin. The color of the skin can range from pale to very dark i.e. black, depending on how much melanin is present in the body. All cells located in the outer layer of the skin called the epidermis produce the same amount of melanin but not every person produces the same amount of melanin. The more melanin your body produces, the darker your skin will be.

• It's a bit hard to believe but skin is 16 percent of our body weight.

• The outer layer of our skin is the epidermis, it is found on the palms of our hands and the soles of our feet (about 1.5 mm). The thickest skin on the human body is 1.4 mm which is found on the feet while the thinnest skin at 0.02 mm is found on the eyelids. Rhinoceros skin is the thickest of all animals, which can be 1.5 cm to 5 cm thick.

• A huge amount of dust in our house is actually dead skin.

• Although the fur of polar bears is white or transparent, their skin is actually black.

• The skin found in amphibians like frogs is very unique. Instead of drinking water, frogs actually absorb it through their skin into their bodies. They also use their skin to absorb nearly half the amount of air they need.

• Body odour does not come from normal sweating. It comes from another type of fatty sweat that is produced by apocrine sweat glands and is mostly found in the armpits, genitals, and around the anus. Actually the smell comes due to the fatty sweat being eaten and digested by the bacteria on the skin.

• The breast is a modified form of the apocrine sweat gland.

• In hot weather, the skin releases up to 11 litres of sweat in a single day. There are about 630 sweat glands in one square inch (6.5 sq cm) of skin. The areas that do not sweat are the nails, lips, the tip of the penis of men and the eardrum.

• Various marine creatures like sea lice and barnacle attach themselves to the skin of the whale and make its skin their home.

• The skin of snakes is very smooth and dry.

• Every hair we see located on the skin, there is a small muscle attached to each hair, which is called pilus (pili). Whenever we feel emotion like cold, fear or happiness, the pili shrink and erect the hair next to it. We call this condition goose bumps.

• More than 30 million bacteria live on one square inch (6.5 sq cm) of our skin. On an oily surface like the face, this number can be up to 500 million. Fortunately, most of these are not harmful. There are more bacteria found on our skin than there are people in the world.

• There are more than 1000 types of bacteria, viruses and parasites living on our skin all the time which cannot be seen with the naked eye. 

• Our skin has the ability to renew by itself. The entire skin of the human body becomes new in 28 -30 days. The skin first removes the dead cells located in the skin to renew itself. It does this at a rate of 30,000 to 40,000 dead cells per minute.

• Fingerprints or fingerprints help to have a better grip on objects. These fine ridges of the fingerprint help in increasing the friction and thus helps in having a better grip on the objects.

• Some people never develop fingerprints (fine lines on the skin of our fingers). It is actually a result of two rare types of genetic defects known as dermatopathia pigmentosa reticularis and Naegeli syndrome.

• Fingerprints begin to develop in the fetus after 3 months of conception. When babies are born, their skin color becomes known after 6 months.

• The tactile receptors of the skin (also known as the Meissner corpuscles) are very sensitive. But they are most sensitive on the tongue, lips, palms, fingers, vagina, penis and nipples. Tactile receptors in these areas respond very quickly, even the slightest pressure exerted by only 20 mg. That is, even a small fly sitting in these places, we get to know immediately.

• If the production of cells in the sweat glands starts to exceed the requirement, then acne forms at that place. It mostly occurs in places like the face.

• After the age of 25, wrinkles start appearing in the skin. Gravity also plays a big role in this.

• The question must have come in your mind that if our skin cells die every month, then how do tattoos remain on the skin? Actually this is due to our immune system, when the tattoo needle is pierced into the skin, the dermis (the middle layer of the skin) swells. In response to reducing that inflammation, white blood cell macrophages are sent to the site to repair the damage. These macrophages consume the tattoo dye and die. When they die, they pass the dye on to other macrophages, so the dye is transferred from one cell to another. The remaining dye is then absorbed by fibroblasts, which are long-lasting skin cells that often do not regenerate. Dye designed for tattoo removal can be removed with a laser, the laser breaks down the dye into its components by killing macrophages and fibroblasts.
  

Tattoo on skin (Pic source: wallpaper flair )

• In ancient Egypt, people used to coat their wounds with salt or other food items. In fact, due to injury, the layers of the skin, the dermis and the epidermis, are torn and the tissues and muscles located below it become visible. So the attack of germs becomes easy on this visible part. To prevent infection, they used salt, fresh meat, moldy bread, and onions to prevent germs from reaching the muscles, fat under the skin.

• Our feet can be the driest and dirtiest part of our body. If you live in a tropical region, you might have noticed that the skin on your lower legs tends to dry out in winter and there is a reason for this dryness. There are fewer oil glands on our feet than any other part of our body. There are about 20 types of fungus on our feet.

• The gut and the skin never come into direct contact with each other, yet research has shown that the gut has a profound effect on the skin. When the good bacteria in the gut start to die or decrease, the skin becomes very unhealthy.

• How blind people identify other people by hearing sound and touching with their hands, In fact, whenever blind people touch an object, they receive a kind of sensitivity to the brain visual cortex through touch and sound, so that they image the object in the brain itself

• 50000 years ago only black skin people lived on earth, white skin people appeared just 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. The reason for this is that about 50000 years ago black humans migrated to cold places, due to which their body's melanin gradually started decreasing and their color became white.

• The skin of every part of the body has its own flexibility and strength which is specially designed for that area. The skin you see on your belly is much more powerful and flexible than the skin on your fingers.