Nails don't breathe so why?

[grafxgal]

Hi all, now I'm not a skin geek, but was pondering this last night (it's weird what I can think of while trying to drift off to sleep), why is it that nails don't breathe but apparently skin does? We know nails dont have lungs so therefore don't breathe, so wouldn't that mean that because skin doesn't have lungs it wouldn't breathe either?
Any facts or thoughts?

Please and thank you.

 

[huberella]

Our nails are made up from Keratin...mostly non-living tissue.

Our skin is a living organ.

 

[collin]

Our skin is a living organ.

with millions of pores which enable our bodies to breath and thus assist in maintaining a balanced body temperature as well as a means of toxin removal from the body... :hug:

 

[suzie49]

I remember reading somewhere that in the film Goldfinger, where the lady was covered in gold paint, they had to leave a small area round her spine clear of paint so her skin could breath or else it could do some damage,maybe even death..dont know how true that was tho...xx

 

[The Geek]

I remember reading somewhere that in the film Goldfinger, where the lady was covered in gold paint, they had to leave a small area round her spine clear of paint so her skin could breath or else it could do some damage,maybe even death..dont know how true that was tho...xx

This was proven to be a myth

Anyhoo, skin doesn't breathe. This whole bit about skin and nails breathing is really about providing an opportunity to perspire. If you remember removing old style Band-Aides (Plasters), they would often be 'moist' under the wrapping because excess moisture would build up in the skin as it couldn't evaporate with the coating over it. The act of 'breathing' was the act of removing any barrier that prevented evaporation so that the excess moisture that had built up under the coating (or dressing) could evaporate.

You can see, it had nothing at all to do with breathing, but I guess it sounded better than 'sweating'

 

[adelekeegan1]

Us ladies don't sweat, we just glow

 

[suzie49]

This was proven to be a myth

Anyhoo, skin doesn't breathe. This whole bit about skin and nails breathing is really about providing an opportunity to perspire. If you remember removing old style Band-Aides (Plasters), they would often be 'moist' under the wrapping because excess moisture would build up in the skin as it couldn't evaporate with the coating over it. The act of 'breathing' was the act of removing any barrier that prevented evaporation so that the excess moisture that had built up under the coating (or dressing) could evaporate.

You can see, it had nothing at all to do with breathing, but I guess it sounded better than 'sweating'

Well there you go, shows you cant believe all you read, thanks for clearing that up Sam :hug:

 

[donna'sdelights]

Us ladies don't sweat, we just glow

too true Adele lol

 

[rouge]

This might help. Anatomy & Physiology: The Skin and Its Functions - CliffsNotes

 

[littlegrohl]

This was proven to be a myth

Anyhoo, skin doesn't breathe. This whole bit about skin and nails breathing is really about providing an opportunity to perspire. If you remember removing old style Band-Aides (Plasters), they would often be 'moist' under the wrapping because excess moisture would build up in the skin as it couldn't evaporate with the coating over it. The act of 'breathing' was the act of removing any barrier that prevented evaporation so that the excess moisture that had built up under the coating (or dressing) could evaporate.

You can see, it had nothing at all to do with breathing, but I guess it sounded better than 'sweating'

OO'oo i read that too.. that she would have suffocated with all that gold paint.. anyway.. so letting your skin breath is a myth too?
its more like letting it "air"?

and sher.. i LOVE the way you think.. always the searcher of answers.. :green:

 

[collin]

The term "allowing the skin to breath" is a little misleading and what is not meant is "to allow the skin to take in or release oxygen into the body"...thats a job our lungs do very efficiently for us.

What is meant by the term is to keep the skin clear of obstacles that may not allow the skin to function properly and do what it is designed to do.

Our skins are absolutely amazing and apart from keeping our internal organs ,muscles etc from flopping out onto the pavement it does many other functions for us also.

Body temperature regulation is one such function and we need to be thankfully we are a species that can do this across the entire surface of our body.

Because our skins are "special" we can regulate body temperature just by ..well erm ..being us...sitting around,walking or running when due to a body temperature rise we sweat(or as you ladies suggest"glow") thus body tempreture is regulated.

Other creatures on the planet have to regulate there body temperature in different ways ..mainly due to having very thick defencive skin designed to protect them from predators therefore they find it difficult to do this like we do...

An elephant for example regulates its body temperature using the blood flow in the ears where the skin is thin...a crocodile will do this by laying and opening its jaws at different widths dependant upon how much heat needs to be lost off the tounge and mouth in order to achieve optimum body temperature.

Thank goodness us humans do this in the way we do..otherwise we will all be walking down the high street on a hot summers day with our tongues hanging out and panting like a dog.

If you were to wrap yourself entirely in cling film your body temperature would rise as the evaporation off the skins surface into the air is restricted..likewise in an open windy Field your body temperature would drop.

The skin clearly has the ability to assist us in maintaining our optimum body temperature by either reducing(when cold) or increasing (when hot) the level of sweat (or "glow") being expelled from the body.

HTH

 

[grafxgal]

Sorry for the delay, Thank you for answering my question peps. What you have all said makes sense. Cheers. :hug: