Skin Deep: a look beneath the surface of your skin

I am Martin Godfrey, I am a medical doctor and have over 25 years’ experience in the health sector. During this time I have gained a great deal of experience in nutraceutical science and pharmaceutical research. I joined Minerva Research Labs three years ago after many years of work in medicine as well as in the food and aesthetics worlds. I have been regularly involved in writing and broadcasting on anti-ageing and aesthetics, most recently authoring a series of leading articles in the Aesthetics Journal.

Throughout the month of October, I will share my insights into some key skin, hair and nail health issues. I will also try to explain some of the principal differences between topical creams and oral Gold Collagen^® products, as well as the importance of collagen and how to help your skin from the inside. Stay tuned and check Gold Collagen^® on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram to learn more about your skin.

Here is my first blog post for October, I hope you will enjoy the reading.

Skin – we have a fascination for it.  At best it’s soft as a feather, smooth as silk, and shines like a polished gem; we can spend an idle afternoon just looking at it, and covering it in creams and powders.  But on a bad day, that same surface can be oily, blotched and hideously uneven. It can drive us to distraction and drain our confidence. Even our ability to go outside can shrivel. In many ways, it’s a window to who we are on any given day.

But skin isn’t there just for looks.  As pretty (or ugly) as we may perceive it to be, the function of the skin, the reason it’s there in the first place, is far more complex than just a beautiful canvas.

It’s our largest organ. The average adult skin weighs about 3.5kg and covers over two square meters (a lot more if you carry a bit of weight). It is studded with sleek, sinuous hairs and punctured by deep sweat glands. It keeps us warm in the winter and cool in the summer; it gives away our fear and our embarrassment in hair-on-end fright or scarlet vasodilation. Worst of all it sets us apart socially solely as a result of its colour.

All in all the skin has a lot to answer for.

But strangely, the skin we all look at day in day out is in fact just a layer of dead cells. The outer layer of the epidermis, the ‘stratum corneum’ is as inert as the surface of your kitchen table. The really interesting stuff is hidden in the thick, living dermis that exists below the epidermis and is plentifully supplied with blood vessels and nerves. It’s a healthy dermis you really need to be trying to develop.

The epidermis’s real role is merely to shut out all the dangerous toxins, bugs and rays that the external environment throws at us. At its base is a virtually impermeable line of cells that prevent anything –  and I mean everything – from getting through.

The dermis on the other hand, being filled with collagen and elastin to keep us looking young; red and white blood cells to nourish us and deliver bacteria killing antibodies; fat to keep us warm and a plethora of nerves and hormones, is the living layer that truly keeps us alive.

The truth is, beauty may be skin deep, but health has its roots much deeper.

Dr. Martin Godfrey

Further reading:

1. http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-body/skin-article/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin
3. http://www.webmd.boots.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/guide/picture-of-the-skin

Dr. Martin Godfrey