What Your Skin Does

You look at it in the mirror every day. Analyzing every new wrinkle or blemish, covering it with concealer and moisturizers, but have you ever thought about what your skin actually does? The skin is the body’s first wave of defense against practically everything.

What Keeps Things Out

Your skin serves as a barrier, sensor, and filter to the outside world. One of the skin’s most important functions is to protect internal structures from injury. It also helps keep out bacteria and viruses. Whenever the skin is compromised it is very important to keep it clean so that infection and bacteria do not spread to the rest of the body.

Interacting with the World

Fluids and gases, like oxygen and carbon monoxide, are exchanged from your body and into the environment via the skin. It also uses blood flow and sweat to help regulate body temperature. As much as the skin is your body’s barrier from the outside world, it is also its bridge to the outside. It serves as a sensory organ to detect temperature, touch, and vibration. Sometimes one of the least thought about, but most used functions, is the skin’s service as a visible signal for social and sexual communication.

Immune Response

The skin helps the body detect infection by acting as an immune organ. This is why the area around a cut or scrape turns red and sometimes swollen. The skin is sending a message to the body that there is an infection and elicits a response.

Speak with an Austin Plastic Surgeon

If you are unhappy with how your skin is aging, or the results of heavy sun exposure to your face, you can achieve younger looking skin. Contact Austin plastic surgeon Dr. Apostolakis at 512.329.8989 for a consultation today.