Video:Learn the Basics of Your Skin

Transcript:Learn the Basics of Your Skin

Hi, I’m Dr. Deborah Jaliman, a board certified dermatologist in New York City, for About.com to talk about your skin.

Skin is an Organ

The skin is the largest organ in the body, and it protects us from the environment. Here is a model of the skin, and it shows us our epidermis, which is the outer layer of the skin, and that’s the part of the skin that falls off every two weeks. So, that’s the part of the skin that renews itself.

The Skin Layers

And if you think of your skin, the eyelid skin is the thinnest skin in the body, where the palms, our palms, is the thickest skin in the body. So, the skin varies quite a bit.

And then if we look at the different layers, we have the dermis, which is the part of the skin that houses the blood vessels. You see the arteries and you see the veins.

Skin Allows for Sense of Touch

It also has the hair follicles here, and it also has the nerves that accounts for our sense of touch.

So, we have our pain receptors, we have our itch receptors. So, it allows us to feel, it allows us to feel temperature. And, we also have our subcutaneous tissue, and that’s the fat, and that insulates us, and that keeps us warm.

So, those are the basics of your skin. Your skin is made of the epidermis; the dermis, which houses the blood vessels and the nerves; and the subcutaneous tissue, which is the cushioning of your skin. So, if you want any other information, please go to About.com.