Did you know your skin is the largest organ in {or should that be on?} your body? Did you know that it’s not just there to hold all the other ‘stuff’ in?
Your skin has 7 very important functions that no other body part can do. Your skin is pretty busy stuff…
- Your skin protects the rest of you. It’s your armor. It’s your body’s frontline against damaging UV rays, against dehydration, against microorganisms and bacteria and against physical injury. Without your skin you’d potentially be a walking war zone.
- Sensation. The good and the bad ~ your skin feels it. Heat and cold, pressure and pain. Whatever you touch or feel your skin tells your brain about to further protect you or to release your happy hormones.
- Your skin flexes and stretches {and springs back, if required} to allow for movement and for growth. It can heal itself in the case of injury so that it can continue to move and grow with you.
- Sweat… kind of icky, but for a good cause. Sweating is so important to the health of your body. Your skin excretes sweat through sudiferous glands to rid your body of toxins and cellular waste. This adds to your body’s health and reduces water retention and toxic build up.
- In conjunction with the sun, your skin produces Vitamin D. Vitamin D helps your bones and teeth absorb calcium so they’re strong and supportive, reduces depression, boosts your immune system and has even been seen to improve healthy weightloss results.
- Your skin is your immune system’s first line of defense against germs, disease and illness. Specialized cells in your skin seek and destroy potential threats to your health.
- Your skin regulates the temperature of your body either through sweating {Hey! It’s pretty handy stuff!} to cool you or by triggering the muscle attached to your hair follicle (goose bumps) to puff up your hair and create heat and insulation {which worked much better for our hairier ancestors…} Your skin also controls circulation of blood to certain areas of the body {close to organs first} to provide warmth.
So, your skin is a very valuable asset. One that should be nurtured and protected. And even though it actually has it’s very own protective function {called the Acid Mantle}, some of the things we do to our skin can break down those defenses depleting it’s health, vitality and capabilities.
In the next post, I’ll explain how the Acid Mantle works and how to avoid disrupting it.