How Skin Reflects Your Overall Health – Skin Fundamentals

Our skin reflects just about everything about us, inside and out. It’s an outward indicator of our health, and senses both pain and pleasure. When we are happy, or have been physically active our skin appears to positively glow with health.

Our skin is our body’s largest organ and its first defense against disease and infection, as well as protecting our internal organs from injury.

Common skin conditions–such as acne, psoriasis and eczema–can affect anyone, regardless of age or ethnicity. The good news is that there are a variety of easy ways to keep skin healthy, as well as options available to treat skin conditions when necessary.

Your hair is your crowning glory and should be a beautiful complement to your skin. The average person has as many as 150,000 hairs on her or his head. And because they grow a mere 0.3 to 0.5 millimeters each day, your hair can tell a story about you and your lifestyle–whether your diet is healthy, if you’re a smoker, and your ethnicity. The only fact it can’t divulge is your gender.

Although many of us may be unhappy with our hair–it’s too straight or too curly, too thick or too thin, too long or too short, or anywhere in between–it’s important to accept the fact that most of its characteristics are genetic and unchangeable. What you can change is its style, cut and/or color to satisfy your lifestyle.

The same smart healthy choices you make to care for your skin, also apply to your hair. Having a healthy diet, getting lots of exercise and plenty of rest, and incorporating a healthy lifestyle can help ensure healthier skin and hair. Drink plenty of water and get lots of rest to keep you feeling and looking good.

As we age, we anticipate fine lines and wrinkles in our skin, but few women consider problems with thinning hair. Nearly one-third of women deal with some form of hair loss. It can start as early as puberty, but it’s most common following menopause. Primary contributors to hair loss include hormonal problems, stress, diet and heredity.

Here are a few more facts you may be interested to know about your skin and hair:

• More than 35 million men and 21 million women in the U.S. are affected by pattern baldness
• Differences in distribution of body hair for each gender are very apparent
• As we age, women maintain their skin thickness until menopause when it declines–corresponding with the declining level of the hormone estrogen; conversely, men’s skin progressively thins with advancing age
• Men’s skin is approximately 25% thicker than women’s due to higher levels of the hormone testosterone
• Acne often lasts into adulthood for women; men generally outgrow the condition after puberty
• Both sexes are equally affected by melanoma–the deadliest form of skin cancer–but female survival rate is higher