Ah! I just washed my hands. They're clean and ready to eat my lunch. Or are they? Have you ever thought about your hands; how they look, how they feel, and what is still on my hands after I've washed my hands?
Skin is our body's largest organ. In fact if it were to be laid out flat it would cover about 2 square meters of space. Even though this seams so large, the epidermis - or the top layer of skin - is only 2 millimeters thick. Now don't go thinking that your skin isn't a good barrier. It's a great one. If you don't have any cuts your skin is water proof, and bacteria proof. Your skin is your body's number 1 protection unit.
Your skin protects you from evil bacteria and viruses that want to enter your body. Muhaha! Millions of bacteria live on your skin right now. In fact there are 10 times more bacteria cells on your body than there are skin cells. Now don't go scrub your skin off. Almost all bacteria on your skin are good for you. Some bacteria can even control your skin; and the bacteria that are bad for you are usually just on the wrong host - or object .
Your body can do just fine without human removal of bacteria. Your body's skin is not a great place for bacteria anyways. For one your skin is dry, salty (bacteria don't like salt), and acidic. For two the main source of nutrients is dead skin cells. Yuk. The few bacteria that have adapted to your skin are harmless. The bacteria that are bad for you live inside your body and come in via cut, food, or inhaling. I hope now you won't want to scrub your skin off. Bacteria aren't the only thing that can hurt your skin.
Many other things can definitely hurt your skin. Things like sun-tanning for instance. Even though your skin will have a darker color, sun-tanning actually damages your skin by causing death to the skin cells prematurely. The death of skin cells prematurely causes wrinkles and other causes of aging. You can tell if your skin is older than your age. Hold a covered piece of skin (arm or leg) up to your face and rub you're your arm or leg up to your face. If your appendage feels rougher then your face your skin is older then you. It's amazing that the natural sun dose so much damage to our skin.
We get an unwanted visitor on our face sometimes. It's a bacteria that's like the aunt or uncle that you don't like. Except these visitors don't sleep in your bed; they sleep in your pours - small openings in your skin - and invite all there friends over and eventually clog your pours. This causes something we call ACNE.
ACNE is responsible for pimples, blackheads, whiteheads and other unattractive face lumps. ACNE is caused when lots of bacteria get clogged into your pours, not letting oil or hair out. The oil or hair keep trying to come out; but because the pours are being clogged by the bacteria they form a bump. The reason we get a red and white bump is because your white blood cells come to fight the bacteria.
The white blood cells eventfully die and create a white sticky substance we call pus. Yuk! Scientists have no clue how the bacteria get there or how they clog the pours. For now we just need to hope and pray we don't get a disgusting zit on our face.
Our skin is a large and vital organ. It houses millions of tiny bacteria eating clogging and contorting the environment of our skin. Millions of bacteria live on our hands alone, even after we've washed them. How are you going to look at your skin now?
