Miracle of Skin- Let's Talk About One Square Inch

The following is a guest post written by Bea Kinnear, a USANA Associate and author of Your Skin & You. She is owner and moderator of the Yahoo! Sensé Help Site, where she works with Kathleen Rockney, Jacquie Malinowski, and Janet Bernstein to educate members about skin care.
The site is where a version of this and other articles in the “Let’s Talk” series originally appeared. Bea has agreed to share select articles with What’s Up, USANA? as a resource for readers to learn more about Sensé products. Read previous posts here.

In today’s information-rich society, the vast majority of us carry handheld mini-computers in our pocket or purse. It is truly amazing that technology has advanced so rapidly that we now rely on devices with screens that aren’t much more than two or three square inches.
One square inch of anything isn’t very much, but when we look at just one square inch of skin, it is a miracle of science and nature.
In just one square inch of skin we have:

• 650 sweat glands
• 65 hairs
• 234 feet of nerves
• 19 yards (17) meters) of blood vessels
• 19,500 sensory cells at the ends of nerve fibers
• 95-100 sebaceous (oil) glands
• 1,300 nerve ending to record pain
• 13 cold and 78 heat receptors plus Langerhans(immune) cells
• 78 yards of nerves

For the average adult human, the skin has a surface area of 1.5 to 2 square meters (about 60 to 78 inches). The following is structural information:

1. Protection: An anatomical barrier from pathogens and damage between the internal and external environment. Langerhans cells in the skin are part of the adaptive immune system. (Source: “The Skin an indispensable barrier:” Proksch, E. Brandner, JM; Jensen JM (2008), Experimental dermatology 17 (12)) Madison, KC (2003).
2. The nerve endings react to heat, cold, touch, pressure, vibration and tissue injury.
3. The skin contains a blood supply far greater than its requirements, which allows precise control of energy loss by radiation, convection and conduction. Dilated blood vessels increase perfusion and heat loss, while constricted vessels greatly reduce cutaneous blood flow and conserve heat.
4. Control of evaporation is provided by a relatively dry and semi-impermeable barrier to fluid loss. Loss of this function contributes to the massive fluid loss in burns.
5. The skin acts as a storage center for lipids and water, as well as a means of synthesis of Vitamin D by action of UV rays on certain parts of the skin.
6. Absorption: the cells comprising the outermost 0.25-0.40mm of the skin are “almost exclusively supplied by external oxygen,” although the “contribution to total respiration is negligible.” (Source: PDF Journal of Physiology 583(3): 985-994) In addition, medicine can be administered through a skin, by ointments or by means of adhesive patch.
7. The skin’s water resistance acts as a water barrier so essential nutrients aren’t washed out of the body.
8. Excretion through sweating helps temperature regulation.

Natural technology can be amazing; few, if any of us, seldom give thought to the incredibly complex way our skin functions to protect our health. That is why our skin is called our survival suit, and we would perish without it. For that very important reason we need to treat it and care for it properly on a daily basis. What better way than with USANA Nutritionals, and Sensé skin-care products.
This amazing natural technology never stops working, and all without the need of one computer chip or rechargeable battery.
For an application to join the Sensé Help Site, please contact Bea.
Tags: Bea Kinnear > Sensé > USANA