Fun Facts

• In one day a human sheds 10 billion skin flakes.
• Every square inch of the human body has about 19 million skin cells.
• Approximately 25% of all scald burns to children are from hot tap water and is associated with more deaths than any other liquid.
• 41% of women apply skin moisturizer at least three times a day (see ya later alligator!)
• Skin is thickest on palms and soles and thinnest on lips and eyelids.
• There are as many hairs per sq. in. on the human body as a chimpanzee. You don't see

all of them because most are too fine and light to be noticed.

• Dead skin cells make up about 90% of household dust.
• Freckles disappear after the age of 40-45.
• The major cause of skin aging is ultraviolet light (from the sun).
• Approximately 17 million people in the U.S. have acne.
• An estimated 1 out of every 10 Americans have at least one atypical mole.
• Fingers and toes wrinkle in the bathtub due to the outermost layer of the skin swelling when

it absorbs water. It is tightly attached to the skin underneath, so it compensates for the the
increased area by wrinkling.

• An average adult has 21 sq. ft. of skin, which weighs 7 pds., and has approximately 300

million skin cells.

• A human being loses an average of 50 to 150 strands of hair a day.
• An average human scalp has well over 200 thousand hairs.
• Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average man never

trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime.

• Fingernails grow faster than toenails.
• A fetus aquires fingerprints at the age of three months.
• A fingernail or toenail takes about six months to grow from base to tip.
• The PH balance of the skin is 3.5-5.5 - slighty acidic.
• The body sheds a layer of dead skin cells every 24 hours and renews itself about every 28 days.
• Humans shed about 600 thousand particles of skin every hour - about 1.5 pounds per year.

By 70 years of age, an average person will have lost about 105 pounds of skin.

In the News

Nov 2005 article: William B. Grant, Cedric F. Garland, Michael F. Holick (2005) Comparisons of Estimated Economic Burdens due to Insufficient Solar Ultraviolet Irradiance and Vitamin D and Excess Solar UV Irradiance for the United States Photochemistry and Photobiology 81 (6) , 1276–1286. Here is the abstract:

• Vitamin D sufficiency is required for optimal health, and solar ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiance is an important source of vitamin D. UVB and/or vitamin D have been found in observational studies to be associated with reduced risk for over a dozen forms of cancer, multiple sclerosis, osteoporotic fractures, and several other diseases. On the other hand, excess UV irradiance is associated with adverse health outcomes such as cataracts, melanoma, and nonmelanoma skin cancer. Ecologic analyses are used to estimate the fraction of cancer mortality, multiple sclerosis prevalence, and cataract formation that can be prevented or delayed. Estimates from the literature are used for other diseases attributed to excess UV irradiation, additional cancer estimates, and osteoporotic fractures. These results are used to estimate the economic burdens of insufficient UVB irradiation and vitamin D insufficiency as well as excess UV irradiation in the United States for these diseases and conditions. We estimate that 50,000 – 63,000 individuals in the United States and 19,000 – 25,000 in the UK die prematurely from cancer annually due to insufficient vitamin D. The U.S. economic burden due to vitamin D insufficiency from inadequate exposure to solar UVB irradiance, diet, and supplements was estimated at $40–56 billion in 2004, whereas the economic burden for excess UV irradiance was estimated at $6–7 billion. These results suggest that increased vitamin D through UVB irradiance, fortification of food, and supplementation could reduce the health care burden in the United States, UK, and elsewhere. Further research is required to confirm these estimates.
  • In other words, while there is no reason for long sun-bathing or getting sun-burned, the costs of inadequate Vitamin D (50,000-60,000 cancer deaths) far outweigh the costs associated with too much UV radiation (about 8,800 deaths annually from melanomas and squamous cell carcinoma).

New Skin Cancer Treatment Approved

FDA Approves New Use of Drug to Treat Superficial Basal Cell Carcinoma, a Type of Skin Cancer
July 15, 2004 -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced the approval of a new indication for Aldara (the generic name is imiquimod), a topical cream (that is put on the skin). This product is currently approved for the treatment of actinic keratosis and external genital warts. Actinic keratosis can lead to some types of skin cancer. Today, the FDA is approving the use of Aldara for the treatment of superficial basal cell carcinoma (sBCC), a very common type of skin cancer . This type of skin cancer is diagnosed by a healthcare provider after biopsy and is different from other types of skin cancer including other types of basal cell carcinoma.
Superficial basal cell carcinoma is usually treated by surgical removal. Aldara should be used for treatment of sBCC only when surgery is medically less appropriate, because the chances of effectively treating sBCC are generally greater with surgery. Patients treated with Aldara for sBCC should have regular follow-up visits after treatment to make sure the skin cancer is completely treated.
The safety and effectiveness of Aldara were established in two double-blind controlled studies with approximately 364 patients. In these studies, 75% of patients (139/185) who had their sBCC treated with Aldara had no evidence clinically or on repeat biopsy of their sBCC at 12 weeks after finishing treatment. In a separate long-term study involving 182 patients, 79% of patients had no evidence of their sBCC at two years after finishing treatment.
Skin cancer can occur anywhere on the body, but it is most common on skin that has been exposed to sunlight. The most common type of skin cancer is basal cell carcinoma, affecting at least 800,000 Americans each year. The superficial type of basal cell carcinoma usually occurs on the arms, legs or on parts of the body such as the chest or back.
Most patients using Aldara Cream for the treatment of sBCC experienced skin reactions at the treatment site, which include redness, swelling, a sore or blister, peeling, itching, and burning.