Skin Health Possibly Assists in Overal Health from the Outside In
[BBC] It's common knowledge that looking at your skin can reflect or clues you into your internal health. We hear a lot about skin looking yellow for jaundice, or rashes in reaction allergies, etc.
There seems to be an idea that your skin - your first line of defense against the environment - may not only help keep your insides healthy, but that an unhealthy skin may make you more unhealthy.
Quote from the article:
The latest research suggests that wrinkly, diseased, or damaged skin becomes part of this system of inflammation, releasing a chemical cocktail that leads to yet further damage and inflammation. "Chronologically aged skin exhibits higher expression levels of a whole panel of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines," says Mao-Qiang Man, a research scientist at University of California San Francisco, who says that the same is also true for photoaged skin.
Locally, these chemicals degrade collagen and elastin, causing further skin thinning, wrinkles, and reduced elasticity, explains Tuba Musarrat Ansary, a postdoctoral researcher at Jichi Medical University, Japan. "They [also] disrupt the skin's barrier, increasing water loss and susceptibility to stressors," she says. The feedback loop is further compounded by senescent cells in the skin – either created by natural ageing or UV damage – which also release their own inflammatory chemicals.
But this is just the beginning. As the largest organ in the body, the skin can have a profound impact. The chemicals released by diseased and dysfunctional skin soon enter the bloodstream, where they wash around, damaging other tissues. Amid the ensuing systemic inflammation, chemicals from the skin can reach and harm organs that seem entirely unrelated, including your heart and brain.
The result is accelerated ageing, and a higher risk of developing the majority of – or possibly even all – related disorders. So far, aged or diseased skin has been linked to the onset of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cognitive impairment, as well as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
Musings
Not at all loving the author starting and ending the article with fearmongering the sun/outside world. I know it's meant to be a silly laugh at me because I'm crazy and vain, but it's actually a serious problem in some skincare communities on social media, especially as it's affecting younger people. And I feel like the idea of this would "justify" those who already fearmonger the sun to go outside (again). Not that larger pores or nasolabial fold would even be a sign of having weak or damaged skin, but you know someone out there is going to conflate the issue.
But otherwise I feel almost silly not having thought about what can bypass your skin if it's not at "full strength". It's also interesting to think what role a thicker dermis in Asians could have in increased life expectancy?
Agreed - some very thought-provoking information in that article, despite the *sun is evil, wrinkles are bad* paradigm.
ReplyDeleteI follow what the writer is saying with regards to thr effects but I wonder about the claim that says one may see very little alteration in the skin until age 80ish if there was no sun exposure. Especially as the link doesn't work.
I'm no scientist but I googled and found this:
"One of the first alterations that occurs with age and that appears independent of repeated exposure to UV light is thinning of the epidermal layer associated with loss of epidermal rete ridges"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7481755/
If I made a guess, it may be that the BBC article postulates the undamaged skin is affected by the UV-damaged skin, given that the internal body is affected by the biochemical changes in the damaged skin?
The article does note that there is a difference between UV exposed and non-UV exposed skin: "pathologically altered elastin within the superficial dermis."
Anyways. Thanks for the link, I'd missed this one and it's very interesting :)
And it would be very cool if that made a difference for Asians! Maybe a study will look at this in the future?
Thank you for going on a hunt! The link provides interesting insight to think of skin aging as a disease, which I get from a *medical* perspective in terms of increasing importance and attention in the field, I just know if it were more widely-medically-accepted, journalists will have a field day with it and skip important parts like the quote you pointed out.
ReplyDeleteI think we often think of our body in separate parts so that it's easy to forget that *it's all connected*, so that poor skin health in one area would affect another location is a good postulation.
I don't know how a study could be made on future studies on thicker dermis of Asians and health! You'd have to somehow account for differences in climate, diet, lifestyle, etc. as well, which I would think would play a larger role than dermis thickness?
Glad you enjoyed it!
It's so interesting! And makes me very keen to take more effort with the skin that isn't on show, especially because it's likely that simply moisturising will really help!
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