Understanding Your Skin

By: Ricardo de Silva

The skin care industry is an extremely lucrative one. That being said, some products are better than others. Understanding your skin is the key to determining which are best for you.

Understanding Your Skin

The skin on our body may seem like a fairly simple anatomical feature, but it is not. The skin plays a key role in both protecting us and facilitating energy exchange. Specifically, our skin regulates the temperature of our body through sweating, acts as a barrier to nasty little bacteria such as staph, and is one giant sensory input for our brain.

Taking care of your skin involves an understanding of what exactly it is. The skin is composed of three levels of tissue. The top layer that you see when you look at your body is known as the epidermis. The lay underneath the epidermis is known as the dermis and is made up of elastic fibers and collagen which form the structure of the skin. The third layer is subcutaneous area that connects our skin to the body and is made up of fat and larger blood vessels.

The epidermis is probably the most misunderstood layer of the skin. More than a few skin care products promise to make improvements to the epidermis. This is somewhat misleading for a fundamental reason. The layer of epidermis on our skin sheds completely off our body every two weeks or so. New material from dermis replaces this layer. Given this biological process, long-term skin care is best approached by treating the dermis. Temporary treatments of the epidermis can make temporary changes, but they will not last. In truth, most skin care products actually treat the dermis, but don’t state as much since most consumers will be confused.

When your skin begins to look aged or worn, the epidermis is not the problem. Instead, the dermis, the second layer of skin, is being damaged. The damage occurs when the collagen in the dermis begins to breakdown. When this occurs, the tightness and pigment of the skin begins to fluctuate as collage is replaced by elastic, ropey material.

As is often the case with the body, there are tried and true ways for improving the appearance of your skin. If you smoke, stop. If you are out in the sun a significant amount of time, make sure to use strong sun block. Looking to products, stick to those that address dermal issues. If all else fails, collagen injections can provide localized results.


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Ricardo de Silva is with PlasticSurgeonPractices.com - a directory of plastic surgeons.