Your skin plays many different roles in the maintenance of life, but it is particularly crucial for defending your body against dangerous pathogens and controlling body temperature.
Your skin makes up about 15% of your body weight and serves as more than just an elastic, sealed barrier between your internal organs and the outside world. It also acts as a source of immunity, releases sweat, produces melanin, synthesizes vitamin D, and allows us to distinguish between different textures and temperatures through touch.
In terms of disease and health, our skin is exceptional in many ways and requires more care than we realize. It’s much more than what we see every day in the mirror.
Let’s break the skin down
What exactly does our skin do?
Our skin is a member of a team that cooperates to keep us safe from physical harm, chemical injury, and water loss. Through immune system components that leave through our skin, it helps protect us against pests, allergens, and toxins. It regulates body temperature by causing perspiration and using the skin’s erect hairs as insulation. By producing melanin, it shields us from UV radiation. It also produces vitamin D, which helps fight off many illnesses like cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease, obesity, and neurological disorders. Through interactions with our physical surroundings, our skin gives us a sense of touch, has the ability to heal wounds, and improves the appearance of our skin, which influences how we perceive our health.
We must take care of our skin from the inside out.
It’s important to care for your skin internally. Our skin should receive antioxidants, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, as well as pre- and probiotics.
Why are these so important?
Antioxidants are essential for preventing environmental damage and free radicals. Our skin’s collagen is destroyed by free radicals, which results in blemishes, wrinkles, dark spots, and loose, saggy skin.
Pro- and prebiotics help strengthen the skin’s barrier and restores the balance of healthy microbes, which can lessen dry skin, acne, and eczema.
Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats support a stronger lipid barrier in the skin. They have been shown to help reduce the risk of wrinkle formation, premature aging brought on by exposure to UV light, and dry, thin skin in old age.
Let’s not forget the outside
The best way to protect our skin from the outside is by using a good cleanser, moisturizer, and most importantly, a broad-spectrum sunscreen. Caring for our bodies from the inside out is just as important as caring for our bodies from the outside in.
Both exercise and sleep are good for the support of the skin as exercise increases blood flow to all organs while sleep promotes skin regeneration.
In the end, our skin puts in a lot of extra effort to support our bodies and keep them functioning properly, so we need to take care of it and give back to it through a healthy diet, antioxidants, exercise, and stress reduction.
To the happiness and health of our skin.
