Skin and its diseases

Covering an average of 20 square feet, the skin is the body's largest and heaviest organ. Its most obvious job is to protect our insides from the outside, but there is much more to the skin than that.

Alongside its role as a protective barrier, the skin helps us maintain the right internal temperature and allows us to sense the world through nerve endings.

Skin is a complex organ; an average square inch of skin contains 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels, and more than 1,000 nerve endings. Despite being just a few millimeters thick, skin makes up around one-seventh of our body weight.

Skin Diseases 

As with any other organ of the body, the skin    is susceptible to certain diseases; these include:

Atopic dermatitis: also known as eczema, this is an inflammatory skin disease characterized by dry, red, itchy patches of skin.

Acne: this is perhaps the most common skin disorder. It occurs when hair follicles become clogged with dead skin cells and oil.

Melanoma: a type of skin cancer caused by exposure to excess sunlight.

Rosacea: a common rash found in middle-aged people. They have a tendency to flush and have small red bumps on the center of the face.

Psoriasis: this is another inflammatory skin disease. It causes red, flaky patches to appear on the skin.

Scabies: an itchy skin condition caused by the human scabies mite.

Shingles: also called herpes zoster, it is a painful blistering rash caused by a virus.

Lichen planus: an itchy non-infectious rash. The bumps have flat shiny tops.