Skin is perhaps one of the most important parts of your body for it protects you from a host of diseases that may pose a threat to your existence.

It is our body's main line of defense. It guards you from all infections and insulates your body from the ever-fluctuating external environment in order to keep a relatively stable body temperature.

It is the body's main point of contact to the outside world, sending constant information to the brain about pain, heat, texture, cold, etc.

With this in mind, there is no doubt that proper skin care and staying away from skin damaging activities will do yourself and your skin particularly, a big favor.

Skin Cancer

Like most part of our body, the skin is also likely to develop cancer. Cancer is a result of an uncontrolled cell growth in one part of the body.

Unlike normal cells which are programmed to divide, grow, and die at a certain time, cancer cells lack the internal machinery to control growth and as a result cause severe damage to normal cells that will be outnumbered along the process in a certain biological locality.

Technically, the body reacts in many ways to cancer cells but this abnormality causes other diseases to suffer nutritional death. Cancer cells were found to cause the body to produce numerous blood vessel connections along the cancerous portion thereby depriving normal cells with nutrients.

Some cells even detach from their point of origin and travel to other parts of the body to start a new colony of cancer cells.

Skin cancers are either melanoma or non-melanoma cancers. Non-melanomas are cancers which arise from skin cells other than melanocytes cells. Melanomas are cancerous melanocytes cells that produce melanin, a pigment that gives the skin its characteristic color.

UV Rays

The sun is one of the key enemies of the skin. Although sunlight helps the skin synthesize vitamin D (cholecalciferol), excessive and prolonged exposure to the sun causes damage and wrinkling.

How does the sun cause such damage?

Sunlight that passes through earth is composed of visible light and ultraviolet light (UV). UVA and UVB Light are one of the most common ultraviolet lights. UV lights falls outside the visible light spectrum, meaning, the human eye cannot see this type of light and can only be seen using a sophisticated tool which detects different light wavelength across the light spectrum.

The difference between the two UV light lies in their ability to damage skin cells. UVB light doesn't get through the deeper layer of the skin and accounts for visible burns and DNA damage across the top layer of the skin.

UVA light, on the other hand, penetrates through the deeper layer of the skin and activates free radicals (very reactive substances), which cause small damages to the skin. Cumulative damage accounts for the skin's premature aging.