Skin
All Of Us Have Skin, But, What Do You Understand
About Skin?
Apparently, skin is the biggest organ in our body. When people
think of organs, most of the time we will relate them to our
heart, lungs and brain come to mind but it is seldom our skin.
Like these and other organs inside the body, our skin is made
up of different types of tissues and these tissues are made
up of cells.
Works like the roof on a house, our skin plays an important
role to protect our body from the harms. The skin keeps bodily
fluids inside while at the same time carefully controlling
the release of waste product. It will also helps to keep our
internal body parts safe from the potentially harmful effects
of the environment including the sun, light and bacteria and
also from injury.
Our skin is made up of several different layers. But, due
to the fact that the underlying layers are not visible, we
seldom think of them. We tend to spend much of our lives worrying
about acne and wrinkles but we fail to realize that these
types of skin issues have a lot to do with the workings of
the layers below.
If you were to look at a cross-section of skin, you will
notice that our skin has 3 different layers: the epidermis,
the dermis and the hypodermis or subcutis layer. Now, let's
take a closer look at each.
#1: Epidermis
This is the outermost layer of our skin, which is the one
that we see. It covers our whole body, from our head down
to the feet. The epidermis itself consists of 3 layers and
is made up of tightly-woven connective tissues of varying
thickness. For instance, the skin covering your feet is much
thicker than the skin around our eyes. The epidermis acts
like a barrier, keeping the good in and the bad out.
The top most layer of the epidermis is constantly being shed.
It's the layer that acts as the barrier keeping fluids in
and dangers out. Although not always visible, most of this
layer is covered with thousands of tiny pores and hair shafts.
New skin is constantly being generated by the bottom layer
to replace the skin that has been shed. The epidermis also
contains melanin, which are the cells responsible for skin
pigmentation and protect our skin from the damaging sun rays.
#2: Dermis
This layer of connective tissue is tucked in between the
innermost and outermost layers. The dermis is home to all
the blood vessels, lymph vessels, nerve tissue, hair follicles,
bundles of collagen and sweat glands. There are plenty of
activities going on in the middle layer. Blood vessels supply
nutrients. Nerve tissues will give skin the capability to
feel. And the muscle tissues in this layer when they are activated
are the cause of a person to develop goose bumps in response
to cold or fear. This layer also has the ability to trap bacteria
which has penetrated through the epidermis.
#3: Hypodermis
This is the innermost layer of our skin which helps to regulate
our body temperature. It is here that insulating fat and collagen
can be found which is why this layer will help keep us warm.
This layer also acts as a cushion or shock absorber, that
protects our body from injury. The connective tissue that
makes up this important layer is also known as adipose tissue.
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