Skin tells a history and communicates to others who you are in a snapshot, or does it? Yes, the color of our skin may define a distinct part of out being, but does not provide the entire picture. But what is skin and why does it seem to hold so much power over us? That is the central question of this documentary titles “Skin”. Without skin, life would be impossible but it also serves to complicate how we interact with others and the relationships we form with others. Skin has been utterly basic to survival keeping us waterproof and protecting what is on the inside from the outside. It is a network of fibers keeping us together. We have sweat glands to keep us cool and even nerves to give us feeling. Although essential on a biological level,
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Anatomically modern humans have been on the move for thousands of years acquiring many adaptations, skin being one of the most complex of them. She travels to the aAfrican savannah where early hominids began life. She questions how we went from fairly hairy primates to fairly naked ones. Firstly, she examines how these animals who inhabit the savannah stay cool when the temperature reaches well over 100 degrees. She believes that humans would have required a specially adapted outer skin that allowed for staying cool while maintaining their fairly new active lifestyle. Humans lost the thick coat of hair that we once had and adopted an ingenious skin that prevents overheating. We are covered with hair, but is more so “fluff” according to the narrator of the film. Our skin adapted till we could dissipate heat faster than any other mammal. It was a biological revolution that allowed us to migrate out of Africa and populate the entire planet. Sweat is responsible for our ability to shed heat. The act involves the contraction and expansion of blood vessels to regulate our temperature. Coiled sweat glands are responsible for sending sweat and salts to the surface where evaporation cools the body in …show more content…
One nurse believes that touch is essential to infant growth and can lend itself to many benefits throughout our lifetime. She has conducted studies where she recruits elderly people to come and massage infants in the Intensive Care Unit. What she found was simply miraculous as babies that were bing massaged gained 44% more weight than babies who were not massaged. Aside from this, they also went home, on average, six days earlier than their non-massaged counterparts and maintained a weight advantage at one year of life. It is instinctual for parents to touch their children to soothe and comfort them. It is for this reason that children in orphanages that are not receiving skin to skin contact that is natural for our species are extremely hindered in terms of growth. Interestingly enough, likewise did the elderly people giving the massages reap the benefits of skin contact. They experienced a drop in depression and less visits tot he doctors office for reasons other than a normal check-up. Touch is one of the first senses to develop and is even present in the
Anatomically modern humans have been on the move for thousands of years acquiring many adaptations, skin being one of the most complex of them. She travels to the aAfrican savannah where early hominids began life. She questions how we went from fairly hairy primates to fairly naked ones. Firstly, she examines how these animals who inhabit the savannah stay cool when the temperature reaches well over 100 degrees. She believes that humans would have required a specially adapted outer skin that allowed for staying cool while maintaining their fairly new active lifestyle. Humans lost the thick coat of hair that we once had and adopted an ingenious skin that prevents overheating. We are covered with hair, but is more so “fluff” according to the narrator of the film. Our skin adapted till we could dissipate heat faster than any other mammal. It was a biological revolution that allowed us to migrate out of Africa and populate the entire planet. Sweat is responsible for our ability to shed heat. The act involves the contraction and expansion of blood vessels to regulate our temperature. Coiled sweat glands are responsible for sending sweat and salts to the surface where evaporation cools the body in …show more content…
One nurse believes that touch is essential to infant growth and can lend itself to many benefits throughout our lifetime. She has conducted studies where she recruits elderly people to come and massage infants in the Intensive Care Unit. What she found was simply miraculous as babies that were bing massaged gained 44% more weight than babies who were not massaged. Aside from this, they also went home, on average, six days earlier than their non-massaged counterparts and maintained a weight advantage at one year of life. It is instinctual for parents to touch their children to soothe and comfort them. It is for this reason that children in orphanages that are not receiving skin to skin contact that is natural for our species are extremely hindered in terms of growth. Interestingly enough, likewise did the elderly people giving the massages reap the benefits of skin contact. They experienced a drop in depression and less visits tot he doctors office for reasons other than a normal check-up. Touch is one of the first senses to develop and is even present in the