What You Didn’t Know about Your Skin

Once skin becomes blemished and your primary interest is in finding acne solutions that really work, it is easy to forget just how amazing the human skin really is. The skin is a complex and sometimes problematic part of every area of your outer body. If you think you know what your skin is really all about, here are some facts that may surprise you:




• The skin is the body’s largest organ, defined as having one or more specific functions.


• The skin releases up to three gallons of sweat daily during the hottest weather.


• An adult has approximately 21 square feet of skin that weighs in at about nine pounds. Within that area, there are over 11 miles of blood vessels.


• Fetuses develop fingerprints at about 3 months’ gestation, and some people never develop them during their entire lifetime. This is the result of one of two rare genetic defects, Naegeli syndrome or dermatopathia pigmentosa reticularis.


• There are approximately a billion tons of dead skin in the atmosphere. No wonder, since the average person sheds about 50,000 cells per minute.


• Thanks to the rewiring of the brain’s visual cortex that allows it to respond to stimuli through touch and hearing, blind people are able to “see” through touch and sound.


• White skin has only been around for 20,000 to 50,000 years, the result of the migration of darker complexioned humans to the colder climates that cause a reduction in their melanin pigment.