This photo shows how your skin will look like if it peels, but, it is NOT my hand! It's just a photo I found online.

Sunburn is a burn to living tissue such as skin, produced by overexposure to ultraviolet radiation, commonly from the sun's rays. Exposure of the skin to lesser amounts of UV will often produce a suntan. Usual mild symptoms in humans and animals are red or reddish skin that is hot to the touch, general fatigue, and mild dizziness.

UV rays contain UV-A and UV-B rays.

UV-A rays penetrate into the deeper skin layers and damages the site where new skin cells are born, long term exposure to UV-A rays will result in wrinkles, age spots and sagging skin, whereas UV-B rays only affect the surface skin layer. The skin responds by releasing chemicals that dilate blood vessels. This causes fluid leakage and inflammation, which is better known as sunburn.

Suntan

UV-A rays radiate deep into the dermis layer, but has lower energy than UV-B rays. Both the epidermal and the dermal layers contain melanin cells which give us our skin tone, depending on their concentration level. UV rays cause a chemical reaction to the melanin cells, which then lead to rapid melanin cell multiplication. Because UV-A rays penetrate both layers of melanin cells the multiplication of melanin cells in two layers produces a dark tone very quickly.

Sunburn

UV-B rays do not penetrate as deep as the UV-A rays. They penetrate only up to the epidermal layer, and therefore will cause only the epidermal layer's melanin cells to multiply. So, the skin won't tan as fast as if exposed to the UV-A rays. However, UV-B rays have much higher energy than UV-A rays, and because of this, it burns. The energy of the UV-B rays do not deplete as fast as compared to the energy of UV-A rays, and will accumulate on the skin, so it will burn the skin for some time, for up to a few days after a few hours of exposure to the sun.

People who love suntanning do not get sunburned because they apply a suntanning cream, which contains anti-UV-B agents, blocking off the UV-B rays, only allowing UV-A rays to pass through the skin, resulting in a tan.

Funfact!
Sunburn is a condition that not only affects humans, even plants get sunburnt! The photo below shows a sunburnt treetrunk, the left side of the trunk has fallen off due to excessive sun damage.

- daphne (02)

Hey all!

Today, after I came out of the bathroom, my little brother was pulling me to look at his piece of drawing. However, when he held my hands, he let it off immediately! He was appalled to see my skin shriveling up like a prune. He exclaimed: “Hey! You’ve got wrinkles! You’re getting O-L-D after you bathe!!!” Oh no… I did not! However, this triggered my curiosity. In actual fact, I wondered about the wrinkling of fingers when I was even younger than him.

When I asked my mother why I get wrinkles after bath, I get the same weird answer: ”The water soaks the water out of your skin. Do not bathe too long next time!” That was a hint for me to save water…

After looking up on the internet and the library, I found out that the answer that I got from my mother every time is WRONG! They’re just misconceptions. Many think that we get wrinkly fingers as we are losing body fluids to the surroundings. However, instead, it is due to increased absorption or water that causes wrinkling of skin!




This question of "wrinkling of fingers" happens upon many!

I came upon an article about a group of 9-year-old girls wondering an answer to the wrinkling of their fingers!

click here to look at the article! ^^



Prune Fingers
The wrinkling of our skin after long exposure to water is known as prune fingers or water aging. This is a temporary skin condition that causes no harm to our bodies. But why will I have the wrinkles?

Our skin is made up of 3 layers: the Epidermis, the Dermis and the Subcutaneous. From the diagram, you can see the subcutaneous is the deepest layer. It contains fats and connective tissue along with large blood vessels. The dermis contains blood vessels, nerves, hair roots and sweat glands. The epidermis is the topmost layer. It helps to prevent evaporation of water from the body and protect the internal layers from harm.
The epidermis is made up of 4 layers, and the one that we can see and feel is called the stratum corneum. It is the layer of dead keratin cells. Keratin is a protein found in our hair, nails and the outermost layer of our skin.

Even though we cannot see it, our skin is covered with a special layer of oil called the sebum. Sebum moistens, lubricates and protects our skin. It also makes our skin a little waterproof. That is why water runs off when we wash our hands, and does not absorb the water like a sponge does!

When we are submerged in water for too long, the water washes away the sebum. This causes the dead keratin cells to absorb water. This absorption of water causes the swelling of our outermost layer of the skin. This may cause the detachment of the epidermis from the rest of the skin!


BUT! Our skin is TIGHTLY attached to the tissues underneath in certain places. Therefore, our skin wrinkles to accommodate the increased surface area. As water gets into the skin, it puffs up but only at places where it is not tied down to the tissues beneath.

If you notice, it is only our fingers and toes that wrinkles! W-H-Y?

These parts of our body have the thickest layer of dead keratin cells. These parts of our body are also more porous than other parts of the body, thus being better at absorbing water since dermis does not absorb as much water as the epidermis. That is why not the entire finger wrinkles too.

After being out of the water surroundings, the water in our skin will slowly evaporate, and restore to its original look. We will not look wrinkle anymore!

FOOD FOR THOUGHTS!
Why is the skin at our hands and feet thicker than the skin at the rest of our body?

No idea? I came upon this when I was looking up for prune fingers!
Our hands and feet are the parts of our body that is exposed to a lot of wear and tear. The thick skin is a form of protection towards the friction we are exposed to in our daily life. In a way, the grooves on our hands and feet help us in grips through friction. Also, our thick skin protects us from mechanical injuries that will affect the inner parts of our skin!

Imagine playing basketball with the skin on your hands ans thin as the parts on your back!
I bet it would not be as much fun! x)

Wrinkles do appear because of old age too! However, that is only what you experience at old age. Prune fingers every time when you immerse yourself in water for too long! So now, that is a sign for you to get out of water.

Mothers! This is a good sign for you to save up on your bills too! ;)

[felicia (3)]

Today is: Thursday, March 6, 2008

Terrible ACNE! Teens' Problem!

5:47 PM

adolescents suffer from having acne. Out of 10 teenagers, there are 8 teenagers will have the acne problem. Acne is the inflammation of the oil-glands of the skin. Acne lesions include comedones (whiteheads, blackheads), papules and pustules (small bumps), nodules and cysts. Usually acne will disappear itself slowly without any treatment. This is also the reason that many people think that it is a must process when a teenager is growing into an adult. Although acne is a normal physiologic occurrence, certain conditions may aggravate the condition. For instance, picking or prodding acne lesions, stresses, menstrual period and polluted air pollution may make acne worse. Scar will also appear even after acne disappeared. Aside from scarring, its main effects are psychological, such as reduced self-esteem. For example, many of my friends are afraid of taking photos due to the pimples on their faces. Especially they do not like the camera to be too near to their face when they are taking the photo so as to make their pimples not too obvious. To avoid acne scarring, treating acne is important.
You may question me what causes acne. Contrary to what some people think, meat and dirt do not cause acne. However, acne is actually caused by hormones which are typically become active during the teenage years. The hormone is known as androgen. The dirt on our faces may cause acne to be even worse in its condition. The hormone stimulates the oil glands to produce more sebum which is an oily substance to lubricate your hair and skin. Each follicle is connected to the oil glands. Sebum normally travels up along the hair shafts and then out through the opening of the hair follicle onto the surface of your skin. When your body produces an excess amount of sebum and dead skin cells, the two can build up in the hair follicle and form as a plug. This plug may cause the follicle wall to swell outwards and produce a whitehead. Or, the plug may be just open to the surface and turns darken, causing a blackhead. Pimples are raised red spots with a white center that develop when blocked hair follicles become inflamed or infected. It is believed that the inflammation of hair follicles is caused by the bacteria inside the skin, which feed on the sebum. Acne may be also resulted from heritage.

Normal Pilosebaceous Unit

What can we do to prevent acne becoming more serious?

• We need to wash our face with mild cleaners that can clear off the excess oil on our skin. There are also special kinds of facial form that can slough off the dead cells on our faces. All these ways are to allow more oil to be secreted out without blockage. However, we cannot use them too often because negative effects may happen. If you really feel that your face is very dirty, you can wash it with water.


• We can also consume antibiotics for moderate to severe acne. Antibiotics are used to kill bacteria to prevent inflammation. It is not good to take the antibiotics as vitamins. You maybe only take them for months as they are not good for body.


• Do not squeeze or pick at pimples. This makes them worse and there will be scars left on our faces.


• Although there is no scientific research has shown that certain foods can cause acne, I still want to suggest that we should take a varied diet and drink more water.

If all these steps have no good effects on your acne, please consult doctors for better treatment.

Today is: Wednesday, March 5, 2008

What is Skin?

10:37 PM

Welcome to the world of the skin!

As we all know, the skin is the body's outer covering.
Interestingly, the skin is the body's largest organ.

The skin has many important functions, including:

-Protection: the skin is a barrier between the internal and external environments
-Water resistance: the skin prevents essential nutrients from being washed out of the body
-Excretion: the skin allows sweat to evaporate and thus removing unwanted substances in the process
-Temperature Regulation: Dilation and Constriction controls the amount of heat loss to the surroundings via conduction, convection and radiation.


Structure of the skin:





The epidermis is the outermost layer of the skin. It comprises of squamous cells, basal cells and melanocytes.










Melanocytes produces melanin, which gives the skin its colour

The dermis lies beneath the epidermis and contains blood and lymph vessels, hair follicles, and glands. These glands produce sweat, which helps regulate body temperature, and sebum, an oily substance that helps keep the skin from drying out. Sweat and sebum reach the skin's surface through tiny openings called pores. The blood vessels provide nourishment and waste removal.

Fun Facts about the skin:

1) The total weight of skin in an average human is appoxiamately 2.7kg

2) Most dust particles in the house

are actually made of dead skin

3) There are 20 feet of blood vessels in each square inch of human skin

4) 600,000 particles of skin are shed every hour by humans. This averages 1.5 pounds annually. If you live to age 70, you have shed 105 pounds of dead skin

5) There are more living organisms on the skin of a single human being than there are human beings on the surface of the earth.

Today is: Tuesday, March 4, 2008

10:10 PM

welcome everyone!

i have set up this blog as a RESEARCH blog!
i want to find out more about our skin!

even though we are protecting our skin in various methods..
(e.g. moisturiser, facial wash, etc...)
but i did not really know about what happens in our skin!
i wish to obatin more knowledge about this LARGEST ORGAN of our body.

so enjoy the daily knowledgeable posts on our skin!