Interesting facts about the skin of the face. The structure of human skin: everything about this organ for children. largest organ

The skin covers the human body from head to toe and plays a huge role in its life. This is the largest organ in the human body - with a skin thickness of 0.5 - 4 mm, its area can reach up to 2 square meters. meters. The skin has the greatest thickness on the back, hips, palms and feet, the smallest - the skin of the eyelids.

Before talking about the most important functions of the skin, consider its structure. Three layers can be distinguished in the skin: the upper one - the epidermis, the dermis and the hypodermis (subcutaneous fat). The epidermis is made up of dead, scaly, constantly renewing cells and is the outermost layer of the skin. The cells of the epidermis are filled with keratin, a protein that does not allow water to pass through. They also produce the pigment responsible for skin color - melanin. Complete renewal of epidermal cells occurs on average in 20 days. Scientists have calculated that a person loses on average up to 18 kg of dead skin cells during his life. They are replaced by living cells from the lower layer - the dermis. It is almost four times thicker than the outer epidermis and is literally permeated with blood vessels, elastic fibers that give the skin elasticity, sweat and sebaceous glands, hair follicles and nerve fibers and endings. Subcutaneous fat is essentially fatty accumulations and connective tissues, which, like the dermis, are densely permeated with capillaries and nerve endings.

The role of the skin in human life is difficult to overestimate, its functions are important and diverse. The skin is a natural barrier between the external environment and the internal organs of a person, primarily performing a protective function. The epidermis, connective tissues of the dermis and subcutaneous tissue protect our body from mechanical damage, chemical burns. And the stratum corneum of the epidermis can withstand small discharges of electric current.

Thanks to melanin and sebaceous glands, the skin is waterproof. Sebum makes the skin elastic and makes it difficult for moisture to evaporate from the surface of the skin, takes part in the water balance of the body. In addition, in combination with sweat, an acidic environment is formed that prevents the development of pyogenic bacteria.

The skin helps maintain a constant body temperature of about 37 degrees. This is due to the sweat glands, which produce sweat that cools the body. Thermoregulation also occurs due to the ability of the skin to dilate and constrict the blood vessels of the skin for a variety of reasons. The composition of sweat includes water (98%) and chemical compounds that are formed as a result of human activity - urea, sodium chloride, potassium, uric acid. Therefore, we can safely say that another function of the skin is to participate in metabolism, as a result of which a large amount of harmful substances are excreted from the body.

The skin contains T-lymphocytes that recognize antigens, which are subsequently delivered to the lymph nodes and neutralized. This is the immune function of the skin.

The skin helps us to feel the objects around us, because it contains numerous nerve endings that send information to the brain.

The skin, thanks to the same melanin, prevents the penetration of harmful ultraviolet radiation into the body.

The skin has the ability to absorb certain substances, so many creams and ointments add medicinal substances, hormones and vitamins.

The condition of the skin reflects the problems that exist in the body. Excessive sweating, the appearance of a rash, peeling, increased greasiness of the skin indicate difficulties in metabolism and, in general, the state of human health.

If disorders occur in some organ, they find their reflection on the skin, and often even before the diagnosis of the underlying disease.

For example, hepatitis is accompanied by a sharp yellowing of the skin.

The skin on the cheeks can tell about problems with the respiratory system. It is necessary to pay attention to this in case of destruction of capillaries and unhealthy red spots.

The skin around the eyes can tell how well the urinary system is working, black circles under the eyes, swelling indicate that the body is probably not getting rid of toxins well.

It is necessary to think in advance about the health of your skin and, as a result, the health of the whole organism. Bad habits, wrong regimen, erratic diet and lack of physical activity, lack of fresh air - all this leads the human body into a stressful state, which is immediately reflected in the unhealthy appearance of the skin.

Human skin is the same organ as the heart or liver, but only the largest in the human body. It has its own closed immune system. The thinnest skin is on the eyelids (0.05 mm), and the thickest is on the feet and palms of the hands (almost 3 mm). Sensitivity depends little on the thickness of the skin. For example, on the fingers and palms, the cover is thick, but very sensitive. The palm and fingers can feel pressure of 20 milligrams, that's how much a fly weighs. This is due to the fact that there are a lot of nerve endings on the fingers.

Interesting Facts:

One teaspoon of fat (20 grams) per day is secreted by the sebaceous glands of the skin. Mixed with sweat, it forms a special film to protect against fungal and bacterial infections.
On one square centimeter of skin there are 200 sweat glands, 30 to 50 sebaceous glands, 6,000,000 cells, 2 meters of small blood vessels, and about 20 hairs.
Women's skin is much thinner than men's, so wrinkles appear earlier in the fair sex.
One hair can grow from 2 to 6 years.
During the day, with moderate physical activity and average ambient temperature, a person releases 1 liter of sweat.

The outer layer, the epidermis, allows the skin to be waterproof. Its cells are very tightly adjacent to each other, moreover, they are covered with a layer of fat on top. With a long stay in the water, this fat is washed out, its layer becomes thin, the water gets close to the skin cells. Why do they swell. This phenomenon is known to everyone by the characteristic folds on the fingertips during prolonged bathing.

Functions

The main purpose is to protect the body from adverse external influences, mechanical damage, injury, infection. But there are interesting facts about human skin that tell about other functions.

Turns out:

The skin helps the lungs supply the body with oxygen.
It is through the skin that the necessary substances are exchanged, that is, participation in the metabolism takes place.
The skin is home to many beneficial microorganisms. They help fight pathogenic bacteria, so complete sterility is harmful, it will weaken the defense.
There is a control of the volume of water in the body through the function of sweating.
The presence of receptors in the skin allows a person to have a sense of touch.
Sun exposure produces vitamin D in the skin.
Due to the skin, the habitual appearance of a person is formed, his mimic muscles, which allows him to convey emotions, visually distinguish people from each other.
There is an opinion that hair protects the human body from the cold. But the northern peoples - the Eskimos - practically do not have such hair.

The versatility of the skin makes it an important organ that is still constantly updated.

Update process

In humans, the skin is constantly updated. This is an imperceptible process, but in numbers it turns out to be very impressive.

Interesting Facts:

In newborn babies, the skin is updated every 3 days;
In adults, the skin is renewed every 30–50 days, depending on age;
Every minute our skin sheds 30,000 dead cells;
Almost 1000 times a person renews the skin in a lifetime.

Those skin flakes that a person loses during renewal turn into dust. And this is a few kilograms per year. The scientist found that house dust consists of 70% dead particles of human skin.

Possible defects

The skin is not immune from the appearance of some defects, such as acne - acne.

Interesting Facts:

Acne (a special inflammatory process on the skin that looks like acne) is considered to be an increased division of cells that line the sweat glands.
Some newborn babies develop acne in the first weeks of life. The reasons have not yet been clarified. Such defects go away on their own without additional treatment.
Every person has at least one mole on their body.
People who have more moles look younger, according to statistics, live longer.
Moles can be located anywhere, even on the head and tongue.
Damage heals quickly, because the top layer is a living tissue. The blood from the cut forms a crust that holds the edges of the wound together.

The skin is an important organ for a person that performs a lot of inconspicuous, useful work for the body. But it is also an ornament that must be protected.

Human skin plays an important role in the structure of the body, so it is useful for everyone to know interesting facts about human skin. Covering our entire body, the skin performs vital functions to ensure the normal functioning of the human body. The average person does not even know about some of the amazing properties of the skin.

Skin is the largest human organ. Its mass can reach 4 kg, and the area is approximately two m2.
Indoor dust is 66% dead skin cells. Interestingly, our body gets rid of 30,000 dead cells in one minute. In a lifetime, the human body produces about 18 kg. skin, and the process of complete renewal occurs approximately a thousand times.
White skin color appeared relatively recently, about 30-50 thousand years ago.. This happened due to the loss of part of the melanin pigment by people who went to the North. There are people who do not have this pigment. This phenomenon is called albinism, and is extremely rare - in 1 person in 110 thousand people.
Each person on the body has from 30 to 100 moles.. There are cases when this number reaches 400. There is a hypothesis that the owners of a large number of moles are less likely to suffer from age-related diseases.
Women's skin is thinner than men's. This explains why the appearance of wrinkles in women occurs earlier.
5
Surprisingly, the legs are most often the object of insect bites.. In addition, scientists have found that a person who has just eaten a banana is more likely to be bitten by a mosquito. In addition, they love to bite fair-haired ones.
Can't tickle yourself, because the cerebellum knows that a person touches himself with his own hands and simply ignores these actions.
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Sweat glands regulate body temperature. There are two or three million of them. Most of the sweat glands are found on the palms, feet and forehead. The common myth that sweat smells bad is not true. In fact, this smell is formed by microorganisms that live on the human body. These bacteria are most common under the armpits. There, their number per cm2 is 80 thousand, compared with 2 thousand on a clean surface.
Human skin contains a special pigment called melanin.. The content in the body determines its color. If melanin is contained in a small amount, the skin of a person is light, and if there is enough pigment in the body, it becomes darker.
Freckles appear in adolescence, and by the age of 30 they almost completely disappear.. Their presence indicates a lack of melanin in the body.
The smoothness of the skin is determined by the state of collagen. In youth, the cells of this protein are twisted, which allows the surface of the skin to look smooth and toned. As we age, collagen cells receive less nutrients and become clogged with heavy metals. This leads to their straightening, which lowers skin tone. Collagen is 70% dry dermis. Its productivity decreases annually by 1%.
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The outer layer of the epidermis makes the skin waterproof. The cells of the epidermis are interconnected very tightly, and there is a layer of fat on the surface. This layer becomes thinner if the body is exposed to water for a long period. As a result, water penetrates the skin cells and it wrinkles.
12
On the feet, the thickness of the skin reaches up to half a centimeter - this is the area of \u200b\u200bthe roughest skin. And the skin on the eyelids is very thin.
13
The sebaceous glands produce about 20 grams of sebum in 24 hours.. It combines with sweat and creates a special protective skin film that prevents bacterial damage. Different parts of the body have different numbers of sebaceous glands. So, on the back of the hand there are almost none, and on the forehead, chin, nose, under the hair, on the chest, their number is 400-900 per 1 square centimeter. Pimples and blackheads often form in these areas. The latter indicate clogged pores.
If there is not enough vitamin D in the human body, vascular networks or asterisks form on the body.. This disease develops in 90% of people, so for a healthy body, follow a good diet.

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Health

1. Skin - largest organ in the human body

2. If you stretch the skin of an average person, it will cover an area of 2 square meters

3. Skin is about 15 percent of your body weight.

4. There are two types of skin: hairy and hairless

5. Your skin has three layers:

Epidermis - water repellent and dead layer

Dermis - hair and sweat glands

Subcutaneous fat - fat and large blood vessels

6. Every inch of your skin has a certain elasticity and strength, depending on the location. So the skin on the knuckles is different from the skin on the stomach.

7. Scar tissue lacks hair and sweat glands

8. The thinnest skin on your eyelids - about 0.2 mm

9. The thickest skin on your feet - about 1.4 mm

10. In humans an average of 100,000 head hairs. Blonde hair has about 140,000 hairs, dark hair has 110,000, and redheads have about 90,000.

11. Each hair has a small muscle that lifts the hair in cold and various emotional states.

12. Body hair grow 2 to 6 years

13. We lose 20 to 100 hairs per day

14. Keratin forms the outer dead layer of the skin and nails.

15. More 50 percent of the dust in the house is made up of dead skin

16. Every 28 days your skin is renewed.

17. Lipids are natural fats that keep the outer layer of skin hydrated and healthy. Detergents and alcohol destroy lipids.

18. Skin sheds over 30,000 dead cells every minute.

19. As we age, we begin to shed less skin. In children, old cells are shed faster. This is why babies have such a pink fresh complexion

20. The skin produces about 500 ml of sweat per day.

21. Sweat itself is odorless, and it is thanks to bacteria that body odor is produced.

22. Your skin is a microcosm in which more than 1000 species of bacteria live and about 1 billion individual bacteria.

23. The glands that produce earwax are special sweat glands.

24. On average, you live between your toes about 14 types of fungus.

Melanin pigment and human skin color

25. Skin color is the result of a protein called melanin. Huge skin cells in the form of tentacles - melanocytes, produce and distribute the pigment melanin.

26. People have the same number of melanin cells. Different skin color is the result of their activity, not quantity.

27. Human skin varies greatly in different parts of the world. According to the well-known classification - the Lushan scale, there is 36 basic types of human skin color.

28. 1 in 110,000 people is albino that is, it does not have melanin cells.

29. Melanin is also responsible for eye color, and itself the skin covering the eye is transparent and very sensitive.

30. Permanent skin color in a child is formed within about 6 months.

Acne and skin treatment

31. The cause of acne or pimples is the overproduction of cells that line the sweat glands.

32. Even babies suffer from acne. Some newborns develop acne in the first few weeks of life. The cause of acne in newborns is not fully known, but it does not require treatment and goes away on its own.

33. About 80 percent or 4 out of 5 teenagers experience acne.

34. But this is not only a problem of adolescence. One in 20 women and one in 100 men suffers from acne in adulthood

35. The appearance of a boil is associated with a staphylococcal bacterium. It penetrates into tiny cuts in the skin, getting into the hair follicles.

Appearance of human skin

36. Type and texture of the skin talking about your health. With illness, the skin turns pale, and with fatigue, bags under the eyes appear.

37. Smoking negatively affects the condition of the skin, depriving it of oxygen and nutrients, slowing down blood flow, and also contributing to the appearance of wrinkles.

38. Skin heals very quickly. Since the top layer of the skin is a living tissue, the body begins to heal the wound immediately. Blood from a cut forms a scab and seals the wound.

39. Most moles are genetically predetermined even before we were born.

40. People who have more moles on their bodies live longer and look younger those who have fewer moles.

41. Almost every person has at least one mole.

42. Moles can appear anywhere including genitals, scalp and tongue.

43. Freckles most often appear in people with fair skin color.

44. Freckles fade in winter since melanin is not produced in large quantities during the winter months.

45. Freckles can be red, yellow, light brown and dark brown.

46. Unlike moles, freckles do not appear at birth, they appear after a person has been exposed to sunlight.

47. Vitamin A heals skin from sun damage and cellulite

48. Vitamin D- reduces rashes and neoplasms

49. Vitamin C– antioxidant, restores vitamin E and protects from the sun

50. Vitamin E- Antioxidant, protects against sun damage and aging.

The skin protects the body of humans and animals, is a barrier between the body and the external environment. It has a complex structure and performs various functions. It forms a separate organ with its own blood supply, innervation, inherent. The skin area of an adult is about 2 square meters and depends primarily on height and body weight.

The weight of the skin is equal to 15% of the mass of the human body.

On different parts of the body, the thickness of the skin varies. The skin can have a thickness of 0.5 to 5 mm. On its surface there is a specific pattern of triangles and rhombuses forming a grid. It is especially visible on the fingers, palms, soles.

Human skin is only 70% water, it is denser than many other organs. In this article we will tell you how the human skin is arranged, what are its functions.

How is the skin

The skin has a layered structure. It includes:

epidermis;
the skin itself, or the dermis;
hypodermis (fatty tissue).

The epidermis is the topmost layer, it is represented by several layers of epithelial cells. The cells of the lower layer of the epidermis are constantly dividing, providing rapid recovery and skin renewal. The closer the cells are to the surface, the less they multiply and the more keratin and other dense proteins they contain. On the surface of the epidermis are keratinized cells, which are constantly. So there is a constant renewal of the skin.

The epidermis of an adult is completely renewed in two months, an infant - in three days.

The upper, stratum corneum of the epidermis protects the skin from damage. It is thickest on the soles and palms. The thinnest epidermis is located on the eyelids and the skin of the male external genitalia.

The epidermis does not allow cosmetic products based on collagen and elastin to pass through it due to the too large size of these molecules.

The dermis is the middle layer of the skin, made up of connective tissue. It includes thin bundles of elastic tissue, collagen, muscle fibers. Nerve endings are located in the dermis. In the same layer there is a large number of arteries, veins and lymphatic capillaries that feed not only this layer itself, but also the epidermis, devoid of blood vessels.

Vessels of the skin are able to accommodate a third of the entire blood of the body.

The hypodermis is represented by a network of fibers, between which there are fat cells. It helps protect the organs under the skin from damage. The thickness of adipose tissue is different: on the scalp it is 2 mm, and, for example, on the buttocks it reaches 10 cm. There are many vessels and nerves in adipose tissue. The sweat glands and hair follicles are also located here. The ducts of the sebaceous glands open at the mouth of the hair follicles.

Skin, nails and hair are almost completely formed by the 7th month of fetal development.

Skin functions

Protective

The skin protects the underlying tissues from bruises, pressure, stretching. The epidermis does not give tissues.

In addition, it prevents various chemicals from the external environment from entering the body. contained in the skin absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Skin has antimicrobial properties. The epidermis is impenetrable to many pathogens. Sweat and sebum create an acidic environment in which many microbes die.

Beneficial microbes also exist on the surface of the skin, protecting it from pathogenic bacteria, so the absolute sterility of the skin is harmful.

Thermoregulating

The skin is actively involved in heat transfer. If the external environment has a high temperature, the vessels of the skin expand, enhancing heat transfer. At the same time, heat is lost through sweat. At a low temperature of the environment, the vessels of the skin spasm, preventing heat loss. Thermoreceptors are involved in the regulation of this process - sensitive "temperature sensors" located in the skin.

During the day, under normal conditions, a person loses up to a liter of sweat, in the heat this amount can reach 5-10 liters.

excretory

With sweat, excess salts, some toxins, as well as medicinal substances come out through the skin.
Urea, uric acid, acetone, bile pigments and other metabolic products pass through the skin. These processes are especially noticeable in diseases of the kidneys and liver, which normally remove these toxins with urine and bile. At the same time, an unpleasant odor begins to emanate from the patient's skin, which helps doctors in diagnosing.

Receptor

The epidermis contains tactile cells. Their superficial location causes high tactile sensitivity. Special nerve formations provide sensitivity to cold, heat, position in space, pressure and vibration. Pain, burning and perceive free nerve endings located in the upper layer of the skin.

Thermoreceptors perceive temperature in the range of +20 - +50˚С, at lower and higher temperatures, the impact is most often perceived as pain. A person feels cold much better than warm.

Regulatory

The skin carries out the synthesis and accumulation of vitamin D and some hormones.

Vitamin D can only form on the surface of the skin, from which the layer of sebum has not been washed away, and it should not be tanned.

immune

Langerhans cells (tissue macrophages) penetrate into the epidermis from the bone marrow, capable of mobilizing immune cells (T-lymphocytes) to fight external damage (antigen). The cells of the surface layer of the skin are actively involved in the reactions of humoral immunity, contributing to the production of antibodies. All of these mechanisms contribute to strong skin immunity.

The skin is one of the immune organs along with the lymph nodes, bone marrow and thymus gland.

Secretory

The skin glands secrete 20 grams of sebum per day. It ensures the elasticity of the epidermis, and together with sweat creates a protective environment on the surface layer of the skin.

Most of the sebaceous glands are on the skin of the face, scalp, between the shoulder blades, in the center of the chest, and also in the perineum. It is these parts that most often suffer from acne and.

So, human skin is an amazing organ that shelters and protects it from an aggressive external environment. Skin care will help not only prolong its beauty, but also maintain the health of the whole organism.