Skin covers an area of between 1.3 and square meters and accounts for approximately 12% of our total body weight. it mounds to and moves with our body, creating a boundary that separates our inside from the outside world. Constantly in contact with its surroundings, the skin has to be tough enough to withstand both physical and chemical assault yet sensitive enough to subtle change in the internal and external environment.
The skin is working all the time, event when we are asleep to protect and regulate body processes which keep us health. Health skin provides some protection from:
* Physical injury
* Chemical damage
* Damage by infra-red (heat) rays and ultra-violet
* invasion by bacteria and micro-organisms
* Sudden temperature changes
* Excessive water loss
* Penetration by foreign bodies
* Allergens.
Problem occur if the skin’s natural protective function break down. The skin provides a home for many different types of organisms, including bacteria, which co-exist quiet happily. They actually help the skin to stay healthy by taking up which might otherwise be invaded with more harmful organisms thrive indifferent conditions.
Those that survive on the greasy center panel of the face would not be found on the much drier skin of the forearm. Everyone has their own collection of the bacteria and other organisms which are as distinct to a microbiologist as fingerprint are to a detective. Bacteria occupy most of the skin’s surface. The are acquired at birth, at birth, multiply rapidly and remain for life.
By Queenie Diva