Fascinating Facts About Your Skin

Skin is the human body’s largest organ. The average skin, when stretched out, is 2 square meters and accounts for 15% of our body weight.

Skin is the ultimate barrier and protector against harm the outside world can do to our body, protecting us from sun, bacteria, and infection.

Skin allows us to feel, to experience touch, heat, cold, and pain.

Skin helps us secrete sweat to cool off and keeps our body temperature stable.

Our skin has three layers: epidermis ~ dead and waterproof; dermis ~ hair and sweat glands; subcutis ~ fat and blood vessels.

Every inch of our skin has an exact stretchiness and strength for its location. For example, the skin on our knuckles is very different then the skin on our bellies. The thinnest skin is found on our eyelids. The thickest is found on our feet.

Every 28 days our skin renews itself. Every minute, our skin sheds over 30,000 dead cells. Over 50% of the dust in our home is actually dead skin!

Lipids are natural fats that keep the outer skin layer moist and healthy.

Our skin has it’s own bacteria microbiome of over 1,000 species and around 1,000,000,000,000 individual bacteria.

Skin color is the result of a protein called melanin. It takes up to 6 months for babies to develop their permanent skin tone.

For healthy skin we need vitamin A: treats sun damage and cellulite; vitamin C: provides sun protection; vitamin D: reduces spots and growths; vitamin E: protects against sun damage and aging.

At Massage Therapy Center Palo Alto, we provide overall nourishment and healing attentionto the largest breathing organ of your body—the skin—and all the tissues and organs contained therein, every time you come to get a bodywork session!