What’s Going On Down There?
Summary:
This chapter includes a very thorough dissection of the skin in medical terms that they lay person can understand. It is presented to give insight on how delicate and intricate the skin is when a picker goes to work on it. The chapter goes on to present how and why breakouts occur on a physiological level along with the hazards and after effects of picking.
Mapping Below the Skin’s Surface – Analyzing the System
Many Layers
M: For me if a pimple’s coming in and I can feel it, I can physically feel it and it’s painful, I want to work that pain out.
Tammy: Right. I would relieve the pressure. If it was a blind zit – those really hurt.
M: What’s a blind zit?
Tammy: A blind zit is one that never comes to a head, and it’s all underneath and you can’t squeeze it cause it’s not on the surface. One of my sisters used to get those and I noticed that she used to pick a lot. Mostly on her chin.
You’ve read every article that comes out about acne and wonder why none of the prescribed remedies work for you. But even if you have read every article under the sun it still might be helpful to refresh your memory and dissect skin problems in understandable medical terms. This may seem to technical to you, but it really is important to know how you operate. You can’t fix a car without understanding how an internal combustion engine works. A huge part of the picking habit has to do with control issues and one of the best ways to gain control is to gain knowledge and understanding. So bear with me and let’s all go back to school.
“Strong patient education, a strong therapeutic alliance and modification of lifestyle factors are powerful adjuncts to medical management.” *1
“The most dramatic results in treating acne are seen in those patients who understand both their disease and how their medicines work.” *2
This chapter may be very scientific sounding and overwhelming to get through. But just do it. Even if your eyes glaze over and you have to skim – make yourself at least try to read it.
The point of this is that I want you to start understanding just complex and special and DELICATE your skin is. It is so easy to think of your skin as a tough resilient thing you can manhandle – so to speak… You need to start thinking about your skin differently.
Many Layers – Love the Skin You’re In
Skin is the largest organ in the body and is roughly 15% of your total body weight. If you could lay it flat the average ‘skin’ would cover two square meters or 18 square feet.
One small square inch contains:
- 19,000 nerve cells,
- 1250 pain receptors,
- 19 yards of blood vessels!
- 625 sweat glands,
- 94 sebaceous glands,
- 60 hairs,
- and approximately 19 million cells.
Wait – did you get all that? I will repeat it because you really need to start understanding just how intricate and delicate your skin is. One small square inch contains:
- 19,000 nerve cells,
- 1250 pain receptors,
- 19 yards of blood vessels!
- 625 sweat glands,
- 94 sebaceous glands,
- 60 hairs,
- and approximately 19 million cells.
Skin protects you from injury, infections, and dehydration, maintains your temperature and eliminates waste from your body. It is the most vulnerable organ in your body because of its constant exposure to the environmental hazards. It also is one of the first places you will notice the affects of poor health care such as improper diet, nutritional deficiencies, improper waste elimination, and exposure to harmful elements both natural and manmade. Without skin – well you’d literally fall apart! Maybe that’s part of the reason why it is so traumatic when even the slightest inefficiency occurs or imperfection surfaces.
In this chapter we will discuss the skin as it relates to picking at pimples, but remember that the complex system described is also affected when you pick at your cuticles or anywhere else for that matter. The more you understand your skin the more you can empathize with the trauma your over-manipulated skin has experienced. Learn to cooperate with nature’s attempts to heal itself.
Many Layers – All About Acne
85% of American teens are afflicted with some form of acne.
5% of all Adults are afflicted with some form of acne. It primarily affects women in their 20s through their 40s. The word ‘eczema’ is from the Greek “Ek Zeein” meaning to boil or seethe and indicates excess turmoil from within.
Acne usually begins in puberty when the reproductive system and adrenal glands begin to effect the body’s hormonal system. The hormones which are especially active are the androgens, or male hormones which cause the sebaceous glands start to produce ‘sebum’ and ‘keratin’.
Sebum which is usually just thought of as ‘oil’ is actually made up of ‘lipids’ which are a combination of oils, fats, and wax. Keratin is skin protein (keratinocytes are the cells this protein makes up). Female hormones such as estrogen and progesterone, by the way, tend to reduce the activity of the sebaceous glands, which may explain why boys have a tendency to have more severe acne in their teenage years than girls. It also explains why athletes on androgenic hormones (anabolic steroids) are very likely to develop acne as a side effect.
Male androgens are produced by the testes and adrenals. But how do girls get male hormones? They are produced by the ovaries, the placentia (uteris lining) and adrenals. This production fluctuates each month and often has a marked effect on how the complexion behaves. Birth control pills can sometimes help to regulate this activity and reduce acne, or it can aggravate it and can even create a mild hirsutism (abnormal hairiness), depending on the type of pill and person involved.
Under normal circumstances, the pores allow sebum to flow to the skins surface, the epidermis, or outermost layer of skin, where it functions lubricate the body’s surface. It eventually wears off through sweat or normal cleansing. The sebum also serves to expel dead skin cells along the pore lining.
This next section contains many ‘polysyllabic’ dermatological terms, but try and follow it. It is necessary for you to really grasp what your skin is and how it functions.
