Quick Guide To Tips And Facts About Dry Skin
by Helen Hecker
[Mar 01, 2007] Skin is not dry because it lacks oil, but because it lacks water. As we age, our skin produces less of the natural oil that helps it retain its moisture. It's easy to treat dry skin cheaply, simply, naturally, yet effective, at home.
The average square inch of skin holds 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels, 60,000 melanocytes, and more than a thousand nerve endings. Skin contains the hair follicles, sweat glands, sebaceous glands, apocrine glands and blood vessels. The skin is often known as "the largest organ of the human body".
The dermis is structurally divided into two areas: a superficial area adjacent to the epidermis, called the papillary region, and a deep thicker area known as the reticular region. The blood vessels in the dermis provide nourishment and waste removal to its own cells as well as the epidermis.
The epidermis contains no blood vessels, and cells in the deepest layers are nourished by diffusion from blood capillaries extending to the upper layers of the dermis.
Environmental factors such as exposure to sun, wind, cold, chemicals, or cosmetics, or excessive bathing with harsh soaps, can cause dry skin. Dry skin could also be a sign of an underactive thyroid Xeroderma can also be caused by a deficiency of vitamin A, systemic illness, overexposure to sunlight or some medications. The oil glands do not supply enough lubrication to the skin: as a result, the skin becomes dehydrated.