Long-Term Care Column Editor of the AAWC Quarterly Newsletter: Heather Hettrick PT, PhD, CWS, FACCWS, MLT, DAPWCA

For those of us involved in wound care, we interact with the largest organ of the body on a daily basis. We evaluate and treat various diseases, injuries and conditions that impact the skin’s function and appearance, but do we really appreciate how dynamic this organ system is? For those of us in long-term care, we see the changes associated with aging skin and how these changes predispose individuals to skin and wound healing problems. For this column, I thought it would be interesting to share some facts about the skin, so we all appreciate the skin we’re in and care for.

• The skin is the largest organ in the body and contributes 12 to 15% of total body weight.
• There are two types of skin: glabrous skin, which is non-hairy (i.e., soles of feet and palms of hands) and hairy skin.
• The average human being has 21 square feet of skin and about 300 million skin cells.
• The skin is constantly renewing itself from the bottom up and takes 52 to 77 days to shed cells.
• By 70 years of age, the average person will have lost 105 pounds of skin.
• Globally, dead skin accounts for about a billion tons of dust in the atmosphere. Your skin sheds 50,000 cells every minute.
• Each half square inch of skin has approximately 10 hairs, 15 sebaceous glands, 100 sweat glands, and 3.2 feet of tiny blood vessels.
• Seventy percent of the dust in your home is shed human skin.
• White skin appeared just 20,000 to 50,000 years ago, as dark skinned humans migrated to colder climates and lost much of their melanin pigment.
• Skin is thickest on the soles of the feet and thinnest on the eyelids.
• The most common skin conditions are calluses, acne, dandruff, dry skin, skin cancer and cellulite.
• The skin emits up to 3 gallons of sweat per day.
• The head contains the most hair follicles, and the soles of the feet have no skin follicles at all.
• The skin contains 45 miles of nerves
• The body has about 3 million sweat glands
• Skin expands in thickness from approximately 1 mm in babies to 2 mm in adults.
• Lip skin has a pigmented reddish tinge because it is very thin and the blood vessels show through.
• Collagen is what determines how smooth the skin is.

Stay tuned  for specifics about aging skin in the next edition of the AAWC Newsletter, available to members only.   If not already a member, please consider joining today!