The other day I fell in the garden and grated my knees. The skin was all broken and breeding. It was jolly sore and hurt like crazy when my mum cleaned them up with disinfectant.
Ooooh ouch!
So I started thinking about skin…
We all probably take our skin for granted. It’s that stretchy waterproof stuff that covers our entire body. It stops our insides from drying out. It also stops dirt and germs from getting in.
It’s tough enough to withstand most scratches and bangs and yet… it’s only 2mm thick – no matter what colour it is.
Take a ruler and measure 2mm – not very thick, is it? Yet packed into that 2mm of skin are sweat glands, hair roots, blood vessels and nerves.
Do you know there are more than 100 sweat glands for each square centimetre of skin? Every day you lose between 0.5 and 1 litre of sweat and you probably don’t even realise it. If you are playing a sport in the sun you would lose around 1.7 litres an hour. It’s very important that you replace that fluid by drinking, otherwise you become dehydrated.
Guess where the thickest skin is on your body? Yup – that’s right… the skin on the soles of your feet is 3mm thick. On the other hand, your eyelids are only 1mm thick. That’s why when you close your eyes in the sun you can still see a bright colour. Go on – try it. Put your face in the sun and close your eyes. Then face a wall and close your eyes. What’s the difference?
Lips and fingertips are the most sensitive parts of your body. Your tongue is also pretty sensitive – that’s why pieces of food stuck between your teeth seem really huge to your tongue, when actually they are tiny.
This is a bit yucky… did you know that you shed a complete layer of skin every month. New skin is forming all the time below the old skin. Most of the dust in your house is actually dead skin. Ergh gross!
All in all though – our skin is amazing, precious stuff and we should look after it.
Keep warm,
Sibo
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Cool word for the week: Dollop.
Meaning: A blob of something.
Example: Sibo’s dad added a dollop of tomato sauce to his cheeseburger to make it tastier.