The Top 10 Most Repulsive Facts About Human Skin

10 Fungus Paradise on Your Feet

Your entire body is covered in fungi at any given time. It's practically every inch of you, not just one or two (literal) hotspots. It's also not just one or two types of fungi; there are dozens.

9 It's encased in an acidic layer.

The acid mantle is a thin layer of oily film that covers the whole surface of your skin. Sweat and sebum, an oily discharge of glands in your skin meant to lubricate, combine to form the mantle. (Unfortunately, acne is caused by an excess of sebum.) The acid mantle maintains a pH of 4.5-6.0, rendering the skin's surface permanently acidic.

8 It Has the Potential to Become Scales

Like any other organ, skin comprises a complex mix of diverse cell types that work together to fulfill a crucial homeostatic role. Because of its intricacy, it is prone to making mistakes from time to time. Ichthyosis Vulgaris, also known as "fish scale disease," is one example of this.

7 It is used to create books.

That is correct. So far, 18 authenticated examples of books bound with human skin have been discovered. It's such a popular habit that it has its own scientific label—Anthropodermic bibliopegy—as well as a dedicated research team, the Anthropodermic Book Project. The team has proven 18 human skin books and disproved the authenticity of another 13 purported instances as animal skin.

6 Furniture and clothing are also available.

You've probably heard in history class about the heinous uses that Nazi doctors discovered for the flesh of their victims during the Holocaust. While those legends are true in many situations, the practice of exploiting human skin for purposes other than skin has a long and varied history.

5 You're Sensitive to It

The dust in our homes is primarily made up of our skin, which is why so many people seek antihistamines and allergist visits.

Though different studies have yielded various figures for how much of our skin make up the dust in our homes, with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 percent, the average and the accepted figure is approximately 50 percent.

4 How Much Does It Sweat?

It isn't just dead cells that are causing the problem. The skin is always working, creating oil and a lot of sweat. There are tens of millions of sweat glands on the average person's body, and they may produce more than three gallons of sweat on a hot day.

3 Instead of hair, you can grow fingernails.

Human nails, in a nutshell. Isom's illness has no known etiology, but it could be caused by a one-of-a-kind adverse reaction to steroid treatment. Her hair follicles produce 12 times the normal amount of skin cells in the form of dense keratin-rich growths as a result of this condition. This has rendered her hairless and coated her in jagged black scabs that practically cover her entire body.

2 It Supports a Whole Ecosystem

Microbes abound on the surface of your skin, and it's not simply the fungus we mentioned before. Your skin is home to over 1,000 types of bacteria, and tens of millions of individual bacteria live on every square centimeter of your body at any given time.

1 On top of it, there's a second ecosystem.

There's a full second ecosystem on your skin above the microbial one if we go up a few orders of magnitude in size. Don't worry; it's still teeny-tiny. Several mite species live on your skin and hair, the most well-known of which belong to the Demodex genus, which means "fat worm" in Greek.