Your Skin Is a Superhero: How to Support Your Body’s Biggest Organ

When you hear the word organ, you probably have certain things that come to mind, like lungs, kidneys, digestive tract or heart. While these are all essential parts of your body, there is another organ that many people tend to overlook. It is actually the biggest organ you have —  and it is your skin. For the most part, we think of skin as merely a cosmetic part of the body, that we want to ensure looks good for superficial purposes. But skin is actually responsible for some really important bodily functions, like regulating your body’s temperature and keeping it safe from harmful organisms. To learn more about how healthy skin is essential for a healthy body, read on to discover how to support your body’s biggest organ. 

What is skin responsible for?

Before we talk about how to support your skin, let’s take a look at what skin actually does. Skin is actually a huge part of your body, even accounting for around 15 percent of your body weight. “It’s part of a team of organs that work together,” says Barry Goldman, MD. It is much more important than most people realize, according to another doctor, Kemunto Mokaya, MD. “You can’t view the skin as simply something that wraps or covers up the body,” says Mokaya. “It’s an important and essential organ system that’s complex and has many roles.”

Skin helps to do many functions within the body, such as: provide immunity, release toxins through sweat, synthesize vitamin D, make melanin, protects and covers internal body parts and organs, and provides differentiation of different textures and temperatures through the sensation of touch.