Skin is the Body's Largest Organ

The skin is more than just a covering. Our skin is the body's largest organ.

One of the skin's many functions is keeping out millions of bacteria and foreign substances that we come in contact with on a daily basis. It also excretes toxins and other substances from the body through sweat and skin eruptions. If the kidneys, bowels or lungs are overworked, the skin can temporarily help to ease the burden. Chronic and long-term skin problems are usually an indicator of an underlying problem relating to the other organs of elimination.

Common reasons for skin reactions or rashes can be allergies to mold, foods, chemicals on the skin, toxins sloughed off by other organs, reactions to chemicals in the food and water, reactions to alcohol, drugs, detergents, sun and wind, heat and cold as well as insect bites, poison oak/ivy/sumac or other plants, diaper rash and friction. Corns and calluses are a direct reaction by the skin to a friction such as a tight or ill-fitting shoe.

The skin consists of three basic layers: the epidermis, the dermis and the subcutaneous layers.

The epidermis, or outer layer, has no blood vessels and consists of four layers of cells. In order of their distance from the surface they are: the stratum corneum, stratum lucidum, stratum granulosum and stratum germinativum. The lowest layer, the stratum germinativum, multiply rapidly and as they grow they rise to the surface. Since there are no blood vessels at the surface and no way for the skin's surface layer to receive nutrients, the outer skin layer dies and is continuously being shed. These cells sometimes contain a pigment called melanin, the dark granules that give the skin a brown or black coloring and is the base origin for the name, malignant melanoma.