How Skin Protects Body

Skin is the largest organ of your body. It covers you completely from head to toe. Skin acts like a suit of armor that protects everything inside your body. Without this protective covering, your body would be in danger from many things in the environment.

Skin has several important jobs that keep you safe and healthy. First, it forms a barrier that keeps harmful things out. Germs, dirt, and other dangerous materials cannot easily get inside your body because skin blocks them. Second, skin keeps important things in. It holds water and blood inside your body where they belong. Without skin, these fluids would leak out.

Skin also protects the soft tissues underneath from bumps and scrapes. When you fall on the playground, your skin takes the impact and protects your muscles and bones. Additionally, skin helps control your body temperature. When you get hot from running or playing, tiny drops of water called sweat come out through your skin. As the sweat dries, it cools you down, just like water evaporating from a wet towel makes it feel cooler.

When you get a cut, your skin works hard to heal itself. Special cells rush to the injury to close the opening and form a scab. Under the scab, new skin grows to repair the damage. This healing process keeps germs from entering your body through the cut.

Interesting Fact: Your skin completely replaces itself about once every month! Dead skin cells fall off, and new cells grow to take their place.