About the Skin

To understand why dermatitis occurs we must first learn a little about the human skin - how it functions and how it is constructed.

The skin is the body's largest single organ. The average adult has around 21 square feet of skin, with around 300 million skin cells equating to approximately 10% of their body weight. It carries out many purposes, to regulate the body's temperature, prevent infections and sense heat, cold and vibrations. As long as the surface is unbroken by cuts, abrasions or disease, and the natural secretions are not removed or contaminated, the skin is an excellent barrier.

As the body's outer layer, it acts not only as a protective barrier from the external environment, preventing substances and from microbes reaching our internal organs, while retaining vital body fluids.

For simplicity, we can think of the skin as having two layers, the epidermis and the dermis.