8 Intriguing Facts about Your Skin ...

The first skin fact that I wanted to share with you was the amount of dead skin cells we lose on a daily basis. We use exfoliators, scrubs and so many other potions and contraptions to shed our dead skin cells when we actually lose 50,000 skin cells a minute! According to Discovery Magazine, we lose thousands of skin cells per minute and dead skin cells account for much of the dust in the atmosphere! Um, gross!

Dermalogica has some facts about skin for us and they say that bulk of our skin’s signs of aging is due to the environment and not hereditary as we might suspect. This is fantastic news because this means that we can take action and prevent damage and lines from forming! If you want to prevent damage you know the drill: wear sunscreen, don’t smoke, drink in moderation and try to control stress!

Sweat isn’t exactly the most pleasant topic to discuss but this next skin fact is sure to get your attention. On a hot day we think we sweat buckets and we could actually be right! We have been known to sweat up to three gallons of sweat on a hot day with only our eardrums, the margins of our lips and nail beds exempt from sweating. Yikes, that leaves a whole lot of other areas that are secreting sweat!

Another noteworthy thing to know about your skin is that it’s the body’s largest organ weighing in at around nine pounds and measuring 21 square feet. Now I know why I go through so much lotion! All kidding aside, our skin covers nerves and glands and also serves to protect us from the environment. So our skin is not only defending us from the effects of our environment, it’s also helps us to experience it as well!

An important skin fact from Dermalogica is how exfoliation can both help and hamper your skin. Exfoliating can help clear your skin of precancerous cells before they become malignant but doing so also puts your skin at risk to additional sun damage. This doesn’t mean you should avoid exfoliating or do it all the time, just be sure to apply sunscreen and protect your freshly scrubbed skin from prolonged exposure to the sun!

Our fingerprints don’t get much attention but I had to give them a shout out and include them in these facts about skin. When we think of fingerprints we usually associate them for identifying criminals and making our phone screens look gross but there are actual uses for them! Fingerprints are unique to each of us but also help us to grip and hold things, increase friction and possibly increase our sense of touch.

Facts about skin have to include some facts about acne! As we all know, acne is pretty darn frustrating and complicated. As many as 40% of adults age 20-60 experience adult acne and breakouts with most people having to deal with acne for around 7 years while women sometimes have to cope with it for over 20 years-so not fair! Another thing to keep in mind about pimples is that they take time to form so don’t automatically associate tomorrow’s zit with today’s chocolate spree!

An interesting and important thing to know about skin is that sugar is the enemy! Sugar isn’t exactly good for us anyway so cutting out excessive sugar from your diet will serve your skin well. Sugars in your bloodstream attach themselves to proteins to form harmful molecules called advanced glycation end products (or aptly called AGE). According to famed dermatologist Dr. Brandt, the more sugar you eat, the more AGEs you develop so limit your intake of the sugary stuff to look youthful and healthy!

Were you surprised by any of these facts about skin? I wasn’t aware of many of these skin facts and the last fact about sugar sure was a wake up call! That was just further proof that what we eat and drink has a direct effect on how we look and feel so we have to be careful. I hope these skin care facts provided you with some useful info!