Yael Adler
What does the skin hide? 2 square meters that dictate how we live
Dr. Med. Yael Adler
Haut nah. Alles über unser grösstes Organ
© 2016 Droemer Verlag
© Yurinova T.B., translation into Russian, 2016
© Aleynikova A.S., illustrations, 2017
© Design. LLC Publishing House "E", 2017
Foreword by a scientific reviewer
We live in a world of high technology, information surrounds us everywhere: on the Internet, on the streets of the city and at home. And our task is to be able to isolate, among all this abundance, precisely high-quality material that will be useful to us, our families and our environment.
When I accepted the role of scientific editor, I had no idea how useful reading the book by Dr. Yael Adler, MD, would be. Ironically, I was lucky enough to meet her in Germany, while on vacation with my mother. The book will be of interest to everyone: simple and at the same time scientific language, equipped with a dose of humor and irony, will not leave either an adult or a teenager indifferent; neither a doctor nor a person far from medicine; neither woman nor man.
The book describes in accessible language the structure of the skin, the most important dermatological diseases and cosmetic problems. A large role is given to a healthy lifestyle and disease prevention measures.
I am sure that everyone will find something useful for themselves here, because the skin, in addition to being the largest organ of the human body, is also a whole world that we are gradually beginning to recognize.
Read and enjoy!
Ksenia Samodelkina,
cosmetologist, dermatovenerologist,
Dedicated to Noah and Liam
Introduction. Reading marks on the skin
The language we speak and its proverbs show how important skin is to us. There are days when a person feels not in my own skin, sometimes he crawls out of your skin. Needed at work thick skin; and whoever has difficulty accepting criticism is called thin-skinned. Seeing a large spider, one will say: “I’m not itching,” that is, he doesn’t care, and the other will turn pale with fear (this is also about the skin), a chill will run through his skin, and he will run away in horror, saving his skin. And yet, few people know what the skin actually is, how it functions and how many tasks it takes on that are vital to us.
Skin first protects us from dangerous pathogens, toxins and allergens; she's like a brick wall with an acid coating. At the same time, it, like a kind of natural climate control, protects us from overheating, hypothermia, excessive evaporation of moisture and thus from dehydration.
To protect us from all these dangers, the skin is in constant contact with our outside world: it measures temperature, brings out(from the body) all kinds of fluids and secretion products, absorbs light and turns it into heat. In addition, with the help of sensitive cells, hairs and receptors (and there are about 2500 of them per square centimeter at our fingertips) explores the external environment and objects for us: Is it windy outside, cold or dry, or how does an object feel to the touch: smooth or rough, soft or hard, sharp or dull.
According to the latest research, the skin can even smell and hear!
But that's not all. Through our skin we come into contact not only with the environment, but also with other people. Did you know that the messages that come to us from the skin play a decisive role in choosing a partner? Everyone's skin tastes different, and it is the nuances of the smell that attract the right person for us. After all, nature strives to ensure that our hereditary genes are crossed in the best possible way so that we produce healthy and hardy offspring. After all, when two different skin types meet, in the event of procreation, this promises a favorable crossing of genes. And there is even some political meaning hidden here: the skin does not know racism, it seeks genetically diverse inputs.
Dr. Med. Yael Adler
Haut nah. Alles ?ber unser gr?sstes Organ
© 2016 Droemer Verlag
© Yurinova T.B., translation into Russian, 2016
© Aleynikova A.S., illustrations, 2017
© Design. LLC Publishing House "E", 2017
Medical sensation
Charming intestines. How the most powerful body rules us
A bestseller from a series of books about the amazing secrets of the human body. Microbiologist Julia Enders assures? The digestive system is much more complex than you might think. For example, bacteria and intestinal infections can penetrate through the lining of blood vessels into the head and brain, dull the feeling of fear and even provoke psychological diseases...
Knock-knock, heart! How to make friends with the most tireless organ and what will happen if you don’t do this
Continuation of the bestseller “Charming Intestines”! Our heart is a tireless worker. The only thing that is required of us is to take care of it. But how exactly? We know very little about the heart, its work and problems. To correct this omission, cardiologist Johannes Hinrich von Borstel wrote his book? you will understand how our heart works and how to maintain its health for many years.
A surgeon's journey through the human body
We invite you on a journey through the human body! You will learn a lot about the inner workings of the body and the miracles that happen in it. Drawing on his experience as a surgeon and family physician, Gavin Francis combines interesting clinical cases with episodes from the history of medicine, philosophy and literature to describe the body in sickness and in health, in life and death, more vividly than we can imagine.
Compass of the heart. The story of how an ordinary boy became a great surgeon, unraveling the mysteries of the brain and the secrets of the heart.
Neurosurgeon James Doty talks about the magic of the brain - neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to change and change a person's life. It’s not at all difficult to master: the book covers all the exercises necessary for this. Are the secrets of the human brain and spiritual development waiting for you? thanks to this book, you will realize what you really want and understand what prevents your dreams from becoming reality.
Foreword by a scientific reviewer
We live in a world of high technology, information surrounds us everywhere: on the Internet, on the streets of the city and at home. And our task is to be able to isolate, among all this abundance, precisely high-quality material that will be useful to us, our families and our environment.
When I accepted the role of scientific editor, I had no idea how useful reading the book by Dr. Yael Adler, MD, would be. Ironically, I was lucky enough to meet her in Germany, while on vacation with my mother.
The book will be of interest to everyone: simple and at the same time scientific language, equipped with a dose of humor and irony, will not leave either an adult or a teenager indifferent; neither a doctor nor a person far from medicine; neither woman nor man.
The book describes in accessible language the structure of the skin, the most important dermatological diseases and cosmetic problems. A large role is given to a healthy lifestyle and disease prevention measures.
I am sure that everyone will find something useful for themselves here, because the skin, in addition to being the largest organ of the human body, is also a whole world that we are gradually beginning to recognize.
Read and enjoy!
Ksenia Samodelkina,
cosmetologist, dermatovenerologist,
Dedicated to Noah and Liam
The language we speak and its proverbs show how important skin is to us. There are days when a person feels not in my own skin, sometimes he crawls out of your skin. Needed at work thick skin; and whoever has difficulty accepting criticism is called thin-skinned. Seeing a large spider, one will say: “I’m not itching,” that is, he doesn’t care, and the other will turn pale with fear (this is also about the skin), a chill will run through his skin, and he will run away in horror, saving his skin. And yet, few people know what the skin actually is, how it functions and how many tasks it takes on that are vital to us.
Skin first protects us from dangerous pathogens, toxins and allergens; she's like a brick wall with an acid coating. At the same time, it, like a kind of natural climate control, protects us from overheating, hypothermia, excessive evaporation of moisture and thus from dehydration.
To protect us from all these dangers, the skin is in constant contact with our outside world: it measures temperature, brings out(from the body) all kinds of fluids and secretion products, absorbs light and turns it into heat. In addition, with the help of sensitive cells, hairs and receptors (and there are about 2500 of them per square centimeter at our fingertips) explores the external environment and objects for us: Is it windy outside, cold or dry, or how does an object feel to the touch: smooth or rough, soft or hard, sharp or dull.
According to the latest research, the skin can even smell and hear!
But that's not all. Through our skin we come into contact not only with the environment, but also with other people. Did you know that the messages that come to us from the skin play a decisive role in choosing a partner? Everyone's skin tastes different, and it is the nuances of the smell that attract the right person for us. After all, nature strives to ensure that our hereditary genes are crossed in the best possible way so that we produce healthy and hardy offspring. After all, when two different skin types meet, in the event of procreation, this promises a favorable crossing of genes. And there is even some political meaning hidden here: the skin does not know racism, it seeks genetically diverse inputs.
One can argue about what is the largest human sexual organ: the brain, since it draws pictures and fantasies and creates attraction, or the skin, which we feel during love, which we look at while enjoying, and which changes noticeably during sex . Without bare skin there is no arousal. Without skin there is no attraction. There is no physical touch without skin contact. Voluptuous thoughts give us goosebumps. Even fetishes are associated with corresponding symbols: varnish, leather and fur... all these are erotic substitutes for human skin!
Scientists have concluded that smell plays a leading role in choosing a sexual partner. This is due to the state of the autonomic nervous system, which regulates sweating and the appearance of skin microflora.
You may have already noticed that when dealing with the topic of skin, you have to deal with things that are not customary to talk about openly. So, for many people, nudity - be it visible intimate parts of the body and an invisible feeling of shame - is taboo; It is also not customary to discuss the bad odor that sometimes comes from the skin, cellulite, other defects, discharge and other flaws. In short, a lot of things we are reluctant to talk about or perhaps find unpleasant are related to the skin: dandruff, earwax, pimples, oil, sweat, fungus and the like.
And they also often prefer not to talk about the topic of sexually transmitted diseases, especially when it comes to where such a disease was caught. Skin doctors are always venereologists at the same time (the word “venerology” itself comes from Venus, the goddess of love). It not only infects us with passion, but also infects us with syphilis, gonorrhea, condylomas, herpes, hepatitis or AIDS - all these are diseases that either mostly appear on our skin or spread from it throughout our body.
For us skin doctors, all this is not something disgusting, we even find it fascinating. After all, we think and analyze through our senses: we observe, scrape, press and smell. Because the characteristics, consistency and smell of skin disease help us expose the villain causing the skin problem.
The older generation of skin doctors even found very eloquent and sonorous names for unsightly and generally painful skin conditions for us. Thus, pimples, spots, ulcers and crusts in newborns are united by the general concept of “skin bloom”; we call the bloody mesh on the lower leg caused by varicose veins “purpura jaune d’ocre” (yellow ocher purple) – in French it sounds so elegant! For us, red venous thickenings are “cherry angioma”, vascular nevus are “port-wine stains”, and light brown liver spots are “café au lait stains”.
And skin that is cracked from dryness is what we call “crackle” eczema. Indeed, in this case, the skin really looks a little like the cracked, peeling paint on Michelangelo's frescoes on the vaults of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Remember this picture about the story of the creation of the world? Naked, muscular Adam, stretching out his hand to God to receive life energy from him...
Among all the organs of the human body, the skin is the largest.
Our colleagues, surgeons or therapists, sometimes laugh at skin doctors, calling us superficial doctors. Of course, it's completely unfair. After all, our activities have a deep meaning, just like our skin. It interacts not only with the environment and with other people, but also with our inner world. It actively communicates with the human nervous and immune systems. The appearance of our skin largely depends on what is happening inside us: both on how we eat and on what is going on with our psyche.
The skin is a mirror of the soul, a screen on which you can observe what is happening in the depths of our soul at the subconscious level. As avid forensic technicians, we are passionate about searching the skin for clues. Sometimes traces lead us to the very depths of the body. And there we suddenly learn that marks on the skin indicate psychological problems, stress, lack of mental balance, or tell about our organs and eating habits.
Wrinkles speak of sorrows and joys, scars - of wounds, facial expressions constrained by Botox - of fear of old age, goose bumps - of fear or pleasure, and pimples - of excessive consumption of milk, sugar or flour products. Obesity leads to infections in the folds of the skin, and dry or sweaty skin sometimes indicates problems with the thyroid gland. The skin is like a huge archive, full of traces and clues, obvious or hidden. And anyone who learns to read these traces will be surprised at how often visible signs lead us to knowledge of the invisible.
Human skin is an amazing organ, the largest of all that a person has. This is a miracle! This book is designed to help us better understand our skin, and thus ourselves. Let's explore this miracle together, and you will be imbued with all your skin how exciting it is.
Part I
Underground parking, or Layers of our skin
Think of our skin as a three-story building. A building that, however, does not go high, but underground, like an underground garage. From the outside we see the roof of the underground garage - this is stratum corneum. The roof is illuminated by the sun. Let's imagine that it is made of a very durable transparent material, let it be frosted glass, because some of the ultraviolet rays penetrate to the first underground floor, epidermis, and even to minus the second – in dermis. The third underground floor is quite gloomy. And this is what makes this underground garage remarkable: on each floor, in each layer of skin, you can find characteristic evidence and traces that can tell a lot about the state of our body.
So let's not waste any more time and begin the tour of the building of our skin.
Layers of skin - three floors
Chapter 1
First underground floor. Epidermis, or Living to Die
Here is the so-called epidermis. Epi in Greek means "above". Dermis also comes from Greek and means “skin.” Therefore, the epidermis is also called the top layer of skin. This is the layer of skin that we can directly see and feel. Usually it is only 0.05-0.1 millimeters thick, and at the same time it is the only and truly heroic carrier of the protective barrier and acid mantle. But due to prolonged excessive stress due to pressure, the epidermis can thicken, as, for example, on the feet, where calluses more than two millimeters thick form. The top layer of skin performs important protective functions, both outward and inward, preventing exposure to chemicals and other harmful substances and allergens, fighting against biological attacks from pathogens of all types and resisting all kinds of mechanical stress, similar to the protective film on a mobile phone.
If you examine the epidermis through a magnifying glass, you can distinguish thin lines diverging in all directions and forming a semblance of geometric shapes: lattices, trapezoids, and other polyhedra. This special skin pattern is also called skin field, because the picture is a bit like what you can see from the air, flying over the countryside with meadows, fields and arable land.
However, if we look at the epidermis in cross-section, we will see: the skin field is not a flat plain at all, but rather even a hilly area. High plateaus alternate with steep ridges.
Hair grows in the valleys, and sweat glands crown the tops of the ridges. The sebaceous glands are also located in the skin field. Their mouths are clearly visible on the face. It's about pores.
The structure of the skin field is best recognized on the back, on the joints of the fingers and on the bends of the elbows. And only on our palms and feet there is a different skin pattern. We doctors call it scalloped skin. Numerous small grooves run parallel to each other along the surface of the palm, as if in a newly plowed field. These grooves create an individual relief, each person has their own. This uniqueness helps to identify people, for example, using well-known fingerprints.
Every three to four weeks the epidermis is renewed.
But what is the meaning of the special type of epidermis on the hands and feet? The answer is simple: the scalloped skin on the palms and soles is stronger than the dermal field. This is a great advantage when walking, grasping, feeling. In addition, there are no hairs or sebaceous glands. But there are more sweat glands.
Mother Nature took care of us - sweat provides better adhesion of the skin to the surface, which means that with sweaty feet a person could run away faster if he encountered a bear on the way. This provided survival benefits to our ancestors. And if they then still had to climb a tree, then sweaty hands would help - better grip on the trunk.
"Ugh! - you might think. – Sweaty hands and feet! How unpleasant this is...” But evolution intended this for a reason.
No matter how strange it may sound, our body and our skin are still in the harsh Stone Age, where wild animals can threaten us at any moment. The fact that we exchanged the steppes for the urban jungle is arbitrariness not intended by nature!
Reliable wall: skin protective barrier
Perhaps the most important task of the epidermis is to protect us from outside invasions. For this purpose, the epidermis creates a strong protective layer, the so-called protective barrier.
What does this barrier consist of?
Let's take a closer look at the structure of the epidermis. It consists of four different cell layers:
– layer of “germ cells” (basal, or germinal, layer);
– layer of “germ cells” (stratum spinosum);
– layer of “adult cells” (granular);
– and finally, the layer of “dead cells” (horny).
All epidermal cells begin their lives in the baby layer. Over the course of four weeks, they turn into other types of cells, up to the actual barrier layer at the very top. Thus, epidermal cells during their life move from bottom to top, that is, from the inside to the outside.
Epidermis, four cell layers
But everything is in order: the carrier layer of the zero level is a wavy, durable membrane, on which baby cells are arranged cheerfully in a row. At the first stage, they mature into adolescence - into young growing cells, the so-called young keratinocytes. Since ancient times, laboratory researchers, before examining cells under a microscope, first put tissues in formaldehyde for stabilization. 1
The most common type of fixative solution used for laboratory research. – Note ed.
At the same time, the cells shrink and hang, tied together by thin, rigid processes. This gives them a needle-like appearance, making them look like a cross between a starfish and a sea urchin.
The spiny cells have a rather important job: they produce the mechanically strong protein keratin, known as the horny structure. Therefore, in professional jargon, spiny cells are also called spinous epidermocytes. Not only do hair and nails consist of horny cells, they are also important, as we will now see, for a reliable protective barrier of the skin.
But for now the cells mature further, and in the third phase of their life they become granule cells. In our comparison, they will correspond to able-bodied adults. Now the cells of the epidermis have reached their maximum productivity and produce small balls, filling them to capacity with fat, keratin and other proteins. And having completed this professional task, they take the decisive step towards building the wall. How do they do it? Dying. But there is no reason to be sad.
The epidermis provides the barrier (protective) function of the skin.
When the cells of the granular layer die, they turn into cells of the stratum corneum and thus build a barrier from the external environment. Dead cells are distinguished by the fact that they lose their nucleus. Without a nucleus, a cell cannot function, cannot activate metabolism, cannot mature further, because the nucleus of a cell contains all of a person’s DNA, all of his hereditary material. DNA controls all life in cells, in the body. In the stratum corneum, cell nuclei are not visible at all; everything here is dead...
The stratum corneum is elastic, it conducts heat and electricity poorly, and protects the skin from external influences: cold, moisture, injury, heat, etc.
Brick and mortar model
Under a microscope you can see that dead cells look like small bricks. Although they are miniature, they are very durable because they are made of hard keratin. These small, tough horn cells are bound together by a cement-like substance. It not only connects the bricks together, but also prevents the penetration of foreign bodies through the holes between the bricks. That's why we dermatologists call this design the brick and mortar model.
Cement consists of the contents of balls that were enclosed in granular cells. When granular cells die and turn into the stratum corneum, the balls shake out their wealth: proteins and high-grade fats. You are familiar with them from commercials about cosmetics with valuable ceramides (ceramides). Such creams are designed to imitate the barrier fats of our skin. Before you now rush to the nearest cosmetics store, one warning: so far, not a single scientist, not to mention cosmetics manufacturers, has been able to reproduce this miracle one to one. It can actually only be created by the human body.
But what happens if the skin barrier is damaged and holes appear in it? Then foreign invaders - allergy-causing substances, pathogens, chemical products - make their way through the cracks in the wall and cement and get deep into our skin. In addition, fabrics lose their ability to retain moisture, and it enters the environment too quickly and in large quantities.
This causes our skin to dry out and look uneven and wrinkled. Where there is not enough fat and moisture, the skin becomes rough, wrinkled and often even begins to itch. If we are unlucky, the result will be an insidious dry eczema with crackle cracks, and if we are very unlucky, it will also be crowned with a severe allergy. You have already realized that our highest priority should be to preserve the barrier function of the dead stratum corneum, or at least repair it if it becomes damaged. You will learn later how best to do this.
Dr. Med. Yael Adler
Haut nah. Alles über unser grösstes Organ
© 2016 Droemer Verlag
© Yurinova T.B., translation into Russian, 2016
© Aleynikova A.S., illustrations, 2017
© Design. LLC Publishing House "E", 2017
Medical sensation
Charming intestines. How the most powerful body rules us
A bestseller from a series of books about the amazing secrets of the human body. Microbiologist Julia Enders assures us that the digestive system is much more complex than you might think. For example, bacteria and intestinal infections can penetrate through the lining of blood vessels into the head and brain, dull the feeling of fear and even provoke psychological diseases...
Knock-knock, heart! How to make friends with the most tireless organ and what will happen if you don’t do this
Continuation of the bestseller “Charming Intestines”! Our heart is a tireless worker. The only thing that is required of us is to take care of it. But how exactly? We know very little about the heart, its work and problems. To correct this omission, cardiologist Johannes Hinrich von Borstel wrote his book - you will understand how our heart works and how to keep it healthy for many years.
A surgeon's journey through the human body
We invite you on a journey through the human body! You will learn a lot about the inner workings of the body and the miracles that happen in it. Drawing on his experience as a surgeon and family physician, Gavin Francis combines interesting clinical cases with episodes from the history of medicine, philosophy and literature to describe the body in sickness and in health, in life and death, more vividly than we can imagine.
Compass of the heart. The story of how an ordinary boy became a great surgeon, unraveling the mysteries of the brain and the secrets of the heart.
Neurosurgeon James Doty talks about the magic of the brain - neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to change and change a person's life. It’s not at all difficult to master: the book covers all the exercises necessary for this. The secrets of the human brain and spiritual development await you - thanks to this book, you will realize what you really want and understand what is preventing your dreams from coming true.
Foreword by a scientific reviewer
We live in a world of high technology, information surrounds us everywhere: on the Internet, on the streets of the city and at home. And our task is to be able to isolate, among all this abundance, precisely high-quality material that will be useful to us, our families and our environment.
When I accepted the role of scientific editor, I had no idea how useful reading the book by Dr. Yael Adler, MD, would be. Ironically, I was lucky enough to meet her in Germany, while on vacation with my mother. The book will be of interest to everyone: simple and at the same time scientific language, equipped with a dose of humor and irony, will not leave either an adult or a teenager indifferent; neither a doctor nor a person far from medicine; neither woman nor man.
The book describes in accessible language the structure of the skin, the most important dermatological diseases and cosmetic problems. A large role is given to a healthy lifestyle and disease prevention measures.
I am sure that everyone will find something useful for themselves here, because the skin, in addition to being the largest organ of the human body, is also a whole world that we are gradually beginning to recognize.
Read and enjoy!
Ksenia Samodelkina,
cosmetologist, dermatovenerologist,
Dedicated to Noah and Liam
The language we speak and its proverbs show how important skin is to us. There are days when a person feels not in my own skin, sometimes he crawls out of your skin. Needed at work thick skin; and whoever has difficulty accepting criticism is called thin-skinned. Seeing a large spider, one will say: “I’m not itching,” that is, he doesn’t care, and the other will turn pale with fear (this is also about the skin), a chill will run through his skin, and he will run away in horror, saving his skin. And yet, few people know what the skin actually is, how it functions and how many tasks it takes on that are vital to us.
Skin first protects us from dangerous pathogens, toxins and allergens; she's like a brick wall with an acid coating. At the same time, it, like a kind of natural climate control, protects us from overheating, hypothermia, excessive evaporation of moisture and thus from dehydration.
To protect us from all these dangers, the skin is in constant contact with our outside world: it measures temperature, brings out(from the body) all kinds of fluids and secretion products, absorbs light and turns it into heat. In addition, with the help of sensitive cells, hairs and receptors (and there are about 2500 of them per square centimeter at our fingertips) explores the external environment and objects for us: Is it windy outside, cold or dry, or how does an object feel to the touch: smooth or rough, soft or hard, sharp or dull.
According to the latest research, the skin can even smell and hear!
But that's not all. Through our skin we come into contact not only with the environment, but also with other people. Did you know that the messages that come to us from the skin play a decisive role in choosing a partner? Everyone's skin tastes different, and it is the nuances of the smell that attract the right person for us. After all, nature strives to ensure that our hereditary genes are crossed in the best possible way so that we produce healthy and hardy offspring. After all, when two different skin types meet, in the event of procreation, this promises a favorable crossing of genes. And there is even some political meaning hidden here: the skin does not know racism, it seeks genetically diverse inputs.
One can argue about what is the largest human sexual organ: the brain, since it draws pictures and fantasies and creates attraction, or the skin, which we feel during love, which we look at while enjoying, and which changes noticeably during sex . Without bare skin there is no arousal. Without skin there is no attraction. There is no physical touch without skin contact. Voluptuous thoughts give us goosebumps. Even fetishes are associated with corresponding symbols: varnish, leather and fur... all these are erotic substitutes for human skin!
Scientists have concluded that smell plays a leading role in choosing a sexual partner. This is due to the state of the autonomic nervous system, which regulates sweating and the appearance of skin microflora.
You may have already noticed that when dealing with the topic of skin, you have to deal with things that are not customary to talk about openly. So, for many people, nudity - be it visible intimate parts of the body and an invisible feeling of shame - is taboo; It is also not customary to discuss the bad odor that sometimes comes from the skin, cellulite, other defects, discharge and other flaws. In short, a lot of things we are reluctant to talk about or perhaps find unpleasant are related to the skin: dandruff, earwax, pimples, oil, sweat, fungus and the like.
And they also often prefer not to talk about the topic of sexually transmitted diseases, especially when it comes to where such a disease was caught. Skin doctors are always venereologists at the same time (the word “venerology” itself comes from Venus, the goddess of love). It not only infects us with passion, but also infects us with syphilis, gonorrhea, condylomas, herpes, hepatitis or AIDS - all these are diseases that either mostly appear on our skin or spread from it throughout our body.
For us skin doctors, all this is not something disgusting, we even find it fascinating. After all, we think and analyze through our senses: we observe, scrape, press and smell. Because the characteristics, consistency and smell of skin disease help us expose the villain causing the skin problem.
The older generation of skin doctors even found very eloquent and sonorous names for unsightly and generally painful skin conditions for us. Thus, pimples, spots, ulcers and crusts in newborns are united by the general concept of “skin bloom”; we call the bloody mesh on the lower leg caused by varicose veins “purpura jaune d’ocre” (yellow ocher purple) – in French it sounds so elegant! For us, red venous thickenings are “cherry angioma”, vascular nevus are “port-wine stains”, and light brown liver spots are “café au lait stains”.
And skin that is cracked from dryness is what we call “crackle” eczema. Indeed, in this case, the skin really looks a little like the cracked, peeling paint on Michelangelo's frescoes on the vaults of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Remember this picture about the story of the creation of the world? Naked, muscular Adam, stretching out his hand to God to receive life energy from him...
Among all the organs of the human body, the skin is the largest.
Our colleagues, surgeons or therapists, sometimes laugh at skin doctors, calling us superficial doctors. Of course, it's completely unfair. After all, our activities have a deep meaning, just like our skin. It interacts not only with the environment and with other people, but also with our inner world. It actively communicates with the human nervous and immune systems. The appearance of our skin largely depends on what is happening inside us: both on how we eat and on what is going on with our psyche.
The skin is a mirror of the soul, a screen on which you can observe what is happening in the depths of our soul at the subconscious level. As avid forensic technicians, we are passionate about searching the skin for clues. Sometimes traces lead us to the very depths of the body. And there we suddenly learn that marks on the skin indicate psychological problems, stress, lack of mental balance, or tell about our organs and eating habits.
Wrinkles speak of sorrows and joys, scars - of wounds, facial expressions constrained by Botox - of fear of old age, goose bumps - of fear or pleasure, and pimples - of excessive consumption of milk, sugar or flour products. Obesity leads to infections in the folds of the skin, and dry or sweaty skin sometimes indicates problems with the thyroid gland. The skin is like a huge archive, full of traces and clues, obvious or hidden. And anyone who learns to read these traces will be surprised at how often visible signs lead us to knowledge of the invisible.
Human skin is an amazing organ, the largest of all that a person has. This is a miracle! This book is designed to help us better understand our skin, and thus ourselves. Let's explore this miracle together, and you will be imbued with all your skin how exciting it is.
- . Skin is the largest organ in our body
- . The skin can smell and hear!
- . The skin chooses our sexual partner
- . Skin favors infrequent washing
- . You can become infected with hepatitis B through sweat
- . The skin loses 40,000 flakes every minute, which make up 2/3 of the dust in our apartment
- . Sweat acids are used to create flavors in yogurts
Foreword by a scientific reviewer
We live in a world of high technology, information surrounds us everywhere: on the Internet, on the streets of the city and at home. And our task is to be able to isolate, among all this abundance, precisely high-quality material that will be useful to us, our families and our environment.
When I accepted the role of scientific editor, I had no idea how useful reading the book by Dr. Yael Adler, MD, would be. Ironically, I was lucky enough to meet her in Germany, while on vacation with my mother. The book will be of interest to everyone: simple and at the same time scientific language, equipped with a dose of humor and irony, will not leave either an adult or a teenager indifferent; neither a doctor nor a person far from medicine; neither woman nor man.
The author describes situations that I have encountered more than once and at my receptions, remembering all these stories, I smiled and laughed. This once again proves how close the book is to people from different countries. The book describes in accessible language the structure of the skin, the most important dermatological diseases and cosmetic problems. A large role is given to a healthy lifestyle and disease prevention measures. I am sure that everyone will find something useful for themselves here, because the skin, in addition to being the largest organ of the human body, is also a whole world that we are gradually beginning to recognize. Read and enjoy!
Ksenia Samodelkina, cosmetologist, dermatovenerologist