Sunday Scribblings: Skin

A Primer on Skin

When I saw the topic of this week’s SS, I thought, “Yea! Great! I have a lot I can say about this.” As a physical therapist, I deal a lot with skin. I used to treat children who were burned, and had lost their skin, and I was very good at this job. I am not so sure I could do this type of work at this stage of my life, as I think I have become thinner skinned, although maybe I have always been thin skinned, but now am just not trying to cover it up. In my many years of practice as a physio (next week is my 30th class reunion), I have treated people with leprosy, people whose skin had turned to leather, infections, bruises, skin grafts, skin stretched from swelling due to many reason, and so on. Some problems weren’t too bad, and some were pretty gross. Overall, we have some pretty amazing bodies and everyday I am more and more in awe about how incredible our bodies are, how they function, and how they adapt to different situations. We have the ability to touch and feel, distinguish between two points at 2-3 mm., grow skin back that has been damaged, cut, or burnt off. We can feel tender caresses, bear heavy burdens, feel the light touch of a feather, tell whether or not a child has a fever, distinguish between different grades of sandpaper, and feel the softness of a baby’s behind. Firm hands guide us, while soft gentle hands caress. When things go wrong with our ability to feel pain, temperature, pressure, or knowing where are joints are in space, we have other back-up systems in our body that we can use to keep functioning. And, when some parts of bodies don’t work, we can substitute with our skin, as when a blind person learns to read through the system of touch. We have different types of skin in our bodies, and different types of nerve receptors with which we feel. I use the sensations in my hands everyday to determine what is wrong with someone’s body, feeling how their body pulls to one point or another, to tell me what to treat, where to start and how I can take the tension off of a body part so that I can encourage the body can heal itself. Our bodies are truly fearfully and wonderfully made. So, I thought I would post a lot of useless/useful factual information. Warning: not everything in this list sounds wonderful to me.

* The largest human organ is the skin, with a surface area of about 25 square feet.

* The average person loses 50,000-75,000 dead skin cells in one minute.

* Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour - about 1.5 pounds a year. By 70 years of age, an average person will have lost 105 pounds of skin.

* We lose about 50 million skin cells each day.

* Humans shed and re-grow outer skin cells about every 27 days - almost 1,000 new skins in a lifetime.

* The eyelid has the thinnest skin on the entire body.

* A child in the womb acquires fingerprints at the age of three months.

* Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.

* Every person has a unique tongue print.

* Every square inch of the human body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.

* The Nazis, during the Holocaust, used human skin as a substitute for leather in the manufacture of lampshades and shoes, among other things.

* Fingerprints serve a function - they provide traction for the fingers to grasp things.

* There are 45 miles of nerves in the skin of a human being. This allows us to feel different types of stimuli, such as touch, pressure, and temperature.

* Some parts of our bodies are more sensitive to touch than others. Fingertips are the most sensitive and can discriminate between 2 points touched at the same time, as small as 2-3 mm. The calf is the least sensitive part of our body for 2-point discrimination identifying points 45 cm apart.

So, how much do you know about “skin”? Do you know things like:

*What do Boy George, Cher, Bruce Springsteen and Courtney Love all have in common?

* “I’ve got you under my skin,” is a song sung by Frank Sinatra. Who wrote it? (Answers are at the end of this blog).

* How much is your body worth?

Calculating the composition of the human body, prior to decomposition, the total value of our body is $4.50. In calculating the chemical and mineral composition of the human body, which breaks down as follows:

65% Oxygen
18% Carbon
10% Hydrogen
3% Nitrogen
1.5% Calcium
1% Phosphorous
0.35% Potassium
0.25% Sulfur
0.15% Sodium
0.15% Chlorine
0.05% Magnesium
0.0004% Iron
0.00004% Iodine

Additionally, it was discovered that our bodies contain trace quantities of fluorine, silicon, manganese, zinc, copper, aluminum, and arsenic. Together, all of the above amounts to less than one dollar!

Our most valuable asset is our skin, which the Japanese invested their time and money in measuring. The method the Imperial State Institute for Nutrition at Tokyo developed for measuring the amount of a person's skin is to take a naked person, and to apply a strong, thin paper to every surface of his body. After the paper dries, they carefully remove it, cut it into small pieces, and painstakingly total the person's measurements. Cut and dried, the average person is the proud owner of fourteen to eighteen square feet of skin, with the variables in this figure being height, weight, and breast size. Basing the skin's value on the selling price of cowhide, which is approximately $.25 per square foot, the value of an average person's skin is about $3.50.

Q: What do Boy George, Cher, Bruce Springsteen and Courtney Love all have in common?
They have all released singles with “Skin” in the title.

Q: “I’ve got you under my skin,” is a song sung by Frank Sinatra.
Cole Porter wrote it.

One last thought… I don’t have many childhood memories, but I do remember this. When I was in the 3rd or 4th grade, I was walking down the hallway at school, holding hands with my best friend. The 6th grade teacher came up to us and hit our hands, and said, “Girls don’t hold hands with other girls!” “But she is my best friend!!!” “Girls don’t hold hands with other girls!”

Now that I live in China, I love holding hands with my girl friends. I love sharing my friendship that way. I am TOTALLY heterosexual, so it isn’t a sex thing, just pure friendship. And, among the Tibetans, when they greet a good friend or loved one, they touch cheeks. Such an affectionate and intimate way to greet friends and family, skin to skin, and cheek to cheek.

Comments

[Laini]

What a wonderful post, in so many ways! You really made me marvel at the amazingness of skin in a whole new way: "We can feel tender caresses, bear heavy burdens, feel the light touch of a feather, tell whether or not a child has a fever, distinguish between different grades of sandpaper, and feel the softness of a baby’s behind" That's wonderful stuff! And the dollar value of a human skin? How weird! And your last comment about touch, and that terrible teacher knocking your hands apart. Our culture IS so touch-phobic. Even moving to Italy at age 9, the touch-phobia was already instilled in me enough to think it really really weird that girls walked arm in arm, and so did boys who were friends. As an American child, had I been taught to think that was somehow dirty? Great post!

[Jerri]

"Our bodies are truly fearfully and wonderfully made."

You gave us so much cause for wonder today. Thank you for the opportunities to learn and to ponder.

[Rose of Sharon]

I really enjoy reading your blog. I was drawn to it initially primarily because you are a physical therapist living in China, but as I read more of your blog, I find that you offer so many interesting insights, information and cultural tidbits. As a physical therapist myself, I am always encouraged by my peers and you are definitely an inspiration to me as a fellow PT, blogger and human being in general. I hope to someday be able to be of as much impact and influence on my patients as you seem to have been. Thanks for another great post.

[Kamsin]

I guess I never really stopped to contemplate my skin all that much before, I certainly don't appreciate it all that much, mainly it just causes me discomfort as I have eczema. So thank you for posting all these great liitle tidbits, I tend to be kind of cerebral and usually interpret the phrase fearfully made as being about the human mind and our unique talents and personalities. Thanks for reminding me the we are physical creations too! The bit about all that dead skin is kind of gross though!

[tinker]

Wow, what an informative and well-written post!

I've always thought it was sweet when I've seen older ladies walking arm in arm (certainly don't see that very often now). It's a shame that our American culture has become so touch-phobic.
Great post!

[judi]

What a great post. Tammy encouraged me to stop by, telling me I'd enjoy your journal & she was right (she usually is!), I enjoy it very much.

What an uptight teacher that was, to tell you that girls musn't hold hands! I grew up in Minnesota, and although my parents were born in America, English was a second language for them. We were very Scandinavian, and I can remember my aunts dancing with each other and with other women friends, and we didn't think anything of it. I often walk arm in arm, or holding hands, with my oldest daughter when I visit her (she lives in Chicago), and she's 30! :)

Thanks again for the great post. I'm looking forward to reading more of your journal.

Judi

[deirdre]

I love these kinds of tidbits and obscure facts. Thanks for educating me just a little more today.