Your Skin and How It Functions

Skin is an amazing structure. The body’s largest organ, covering between 1.5 and 2 square meters (15 and 20), it measures a tent of a millimeter tick (one twentieth of an inch) and weight anything from 2.75 to 4 kilograms (to 9 pounds). This wonderful “waterproof” and washable coat serves as a temperature regulator, a major route for the elimination of waste and, given the right nutrients, has the incredible capacity to heal it self when injured and act as an efficient defence against trauma, infection and invasion.
Healthy skin is slightly acid and is protected by the “acid mantle”, a naturally lubricating mixture of sebum and sweat which provides additional protection against assault by harmful bacteria. The skin and its padding also cushion internal organs against impact.
Trough approximately two and half million sweat glands, the average adult human being loses around 850 milliliters (a pint and half) of sweats each day. In every squire inch there are hundreds of pain, heat and cold and touch sensors, 5 meters (15 feet) of blood vessels, 4 meters (12 feet) of nerves 100 sebaceous glands and over 1500 sensory receptors, totaling three million cells, all shedding constantly – at an amount equal to an entire layer every seven to ten weeks.
This perpetual “moulting” means that to maintain the status quo, new cells need to be formed at an equivalent rate.
The outer surface (the epidermis) is actually a layer of dead keratin cells which are continually being shed and replaced by new cells working their way up from the dermis bellow. When this exfoliation process becomes sluggish – as we grow older or when health is under par – cell renewal slows right down, elimination pathways can become blocked, skin less supple and so becomes more prone to injury and disease.
To remain in good condition and to work efficiently, your birthday suit needs to be fed and cleaned from the inside as well as the outside.

Here is a Four-point Protection Plan:
Diet and Nutrition: Healthy skin depends on a healthy diet brimful of healing and nurturing nutrients.
Detox: A regular one- or two-day detox diet, using cleansing skin foods and purifying fluids, improves your beauty routine from the inside out, helping to clean out internal sludge, encourage efficient elimination of wastes and reenergize your system.
Beauty on the outside: It’s just as important to take time to pamper your self and attend to the external care of your skin – deep cleansing, exfoliation, massage, toning and moisturizing.
Well-being: Stress, poor quality sleep, shallow breathing, inadequate exercise? They are all seriously bad for your skin and do nothing for your long term wellbeing.