Understanding Your Skin

Do you know what the largest organ in your body is?

That's right, it's your skin.  Your skin is actually one large, living organ that serves many different functions in your body's overall health and protection.

While skin can be absolutely beautiful to look at - imagine someone glistening in the sun or the innocent radiance of a baby's rosy cheeks - the skin can also have problems all of its own.  Some of these problems are minor irritants, such as a few patches of dry skin here and there or calluses on the bottom of one's feet.  But sometimes skin can have other problems that are more than minor irritations; they can be painful, dangerous, and downright unsightly.

One of those common problems when it comes to skin is acne.  While we typically think of acne as being a teenager's concern, it's true that acne can strike anyone at any time, and can be the result of factors other than those dreaded teenaged hormones.

But before we start discussing acne, its cause, and its treatment options, let's take a closer look at the skin itself and find out more about this amazing organ.  Once we do that we can be in a better position to understand the root causes of acne and the options one has to address it.

Functions of the Skin

The skin has many more functions than to just look good and to hold our clothes in place; as a matter of fact, without skin we couldn't exist.  Let's take a look at the many different functions of our skin to get a better understanding of why it's important to take care of it and how problems with it can arise.

Keeping stuff where it belongs. 

The most obvious function of the skin is to keep all of our innards where they belong.  Without skin we'd need to use rolls of duct tape or plastic bags to keep all our intestines and other organs inside!  The human body is one self-contained functioning machine and the skin is imperative for that process of containment.  Just like a car needs its outer shell to keep the engine, transmission, and other parts of it in place, the body needs the skin to keep everything in one place as well.

This isn't to say that all of our internal organs and other elements inside of us are just resting in the skin the way garbage rests inside of a plastic bag.  Muscles, tendons, and ligaments are attached to bone and of course all of the intestines are attached to one another and folded up neatly to stay tucked in.  Everything else is attached to something, but in truth, the skin keeps everything in place and upright.  It acts as one final safety feature to keep all those organs and everything else right where they're supposed to be.

Insulation. 

Imagine going outside in the freezing cold without a jacket, or keeping your house windows open in the cold weather.  You need that insulation of a jacket to keep your body heat in and keep you warm, and you need to close your windows to keep your home's heat right where it belongs.  Your skin is much like that jacket; your body produces its own heat and warmth the same way a furnace produces heat for your home, but without your skin your body heat would just quickly escape the way your home's heat would escape if your windows were open.

Realizing that the skin acts as insulation for your body heat should give you a first clue as to how thick your skin really is.  While it can get cut or gashed somewhat easily, it's not just a thin wafer resting on your bones.  The skin has several layers to it and these layers on top of one another are thick enough to keep body heat in on a regular basis and even in the coldest of weather.

Protection. 

Do you know why cars have windshields?  The answer is somewhat obvious; to keep bugs from getting into your teeth and dirt into your eyes and face.  That windshield is a protection for the driver and passengers in the car from all those outside elements.

In much the same way the skin acts as a protection against all those outside elements that could easily bombard us every day.  It keeps out not just bugs but dirt, dust, germs, and bacteria.  Our skin is designed in such a way that it also acts as something of a bumper against things.  Your car has bumpers so that when it hits something else, the bumper absorbs a lot of that impact and your car's vital components, including the engine, transmission, and even the passengers, are protected.  Your skin is like that bumper in that it can come into contact with things and protect the vital organs from being hit and damaged.  Your muscles and bones are protected against tearing, rupturing, bruising, and breaking because of your skin and its protection.

The skin also protects internal organs and other elements from the sun, wind, and rain.  The skin is designed to absorb or be impervious to these things; the sun on your face or arms is relatively harmless for small amounts of time, as is wind and rain.  But if your heart or lungs were to come into contact with sunlight or wind, they would no doubt be irreparably damaged!

Traction and movement. 

Have you ever had grease or lotion on your hands and then tried to pick up something?  It probably slipped right through your fingers.  Or maybe you tried to open a jar and couldn't get a firm enough grip. 

The skin acts as "grippers" for not just picking up and holding things but for all sorts of movement.  If we didn't have those indentions on our hands and feet that we call "prints" we would slide around in our shoes and be unable to lift a glass or anything else for that matter.  While the skin in most parts of our body is somewhat smooth, it still provides some form of traction inside our clothes and against other materials.  It keeps up from slipping out of chairs and allows us to move freely, hold things, sit in a seat, and so on.

Composition of the Skin

So maybe you're convinced by now that the skin isn't just some wafer resting over our bones and innards but is much more complicated than that.

If you're interested in how to fix problems that arise in the skin including acne, blackheads, and so on, then it's good to know what the skin is made of.  By understanding its composition you have a better idea of what can go wrong with it and how to fix those problems; you might liken this to getting a basic understanding of how your car works so that you can better understand those minor problems that go wrong with it.

You don't need to be a dermatologist to understand basic problems with your skin any more than you need to actually be an auto mechanic to understand how to take care of your car.  Just a few basic facts can go a long way to realizing how to take good care of your skin.

Layers of the skin. 

Are you familiar with the Greek dessert baklava?  It's made with what's called filo or phyllo dough, which is a paper-thin type of dough that is stretched almost to the breaking point and then folded and folded over and over again.  Because it's folded into layers it becomes very thick even though each individual layer is incredibly thin.

The skin is something like this; although it's not exactly folded, it has many different layers to it that make it as thick as it is.  Each layer is incredibly thin but when stacked on top of each other it's much thicker overall.

Understanding the layers of the skin is important in understanding why we get certain flaws and imperfections in our skin, since many of these imperfections originate in different layers.  If we can understand why there are different layers and what each one accomplishes then we can better address those imperfections and flaws at their source.

There are three primary layers of the skin:  the epidermis, which is the outermost layer of the skin; the dermis, and the hypodermis.

The epidermis or outer layer of the skin is very unique in that it contains no blood vessels but is nourished by capillaries underneath it.  This layer of the skin keeps water in the body, constantly acts as a barrier from chemicals and harmful elements in the atmosphere and protects the body from infection.

Underneath the epidermis is what is called the reticular region, in which is located the roots of the hair, sweat glands, nail beds, and blood vessels.  Many skin problems including acne originate in this particular region of the skin.

This may have been far too much about your skin than you ever wanted to know but these things are important to understand for the care and health of your skin overall, and to avoid not just acne but other problems as well.  For example, stretch marks on a person that is overweight or pregnant usually originate in the reticular region because of the pressure put on blood vessels when skin is stretched past the area that it's supposed to be.  These blood vessels close up and this results in scarring of the skin.

It's also important to understand how thick the skin is and where certain imperfections and problems occur because often we wonder why creams, ointments, and other topical medications just aren't doing the job we expected them to do.  This is often because these topical treatments just don't reach far enough into the layers of the skin to do any good the way they're supposed to.  By learning how thick the skin really is we have a better understanding of what works and what doesn't when it comes to all blemishes, including acne.